Highlights

• The PlayStation 2 played a pivotal role in popularizing open-world games, giving players an unprecedented level of freedom and influencing the gaming industry for years to come.
• Many of the best PS2 open-world games may not compare to today's games in terms of size and visuals, but they still offer great fun and deserve recognition for their influence on the genre.
• The PS2 was home to a variety of open-world games, from action-adventure games like The Getaway and Scarface: The World Is Yours to racing games like Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition and even sports games like SSX 3.

The open-world subgenre of gaming has skyrocketed in popularity to the point where open-world games now populate the top portion of many sales charts. Even long-running franchises known for their linearity have started to get in on the act, with Halo Infinite and Sonic Frontiers being two fairly recent examples

Although open-world games have been around since the '70s, the PlayStation 2 helped popularize the style of game and gave audiences an unparalleled level of freedom that would influence the gaming industry for years to come. It's hard to deny that the best PS2 open-world games don't compare to the size, scale, or visual quality of the ones seen today, but many of them are still great fun and deserve recognition for their influence on the genre.

Updated January 18, 2024 by Mark Sammut: Even if they might seem archaic by today's standards, the PS2's open-world games defined the genre's direction, and their influence continues to this very day. Provided expectations are kept realistic, many of these titles can be fun to revisit.

12 The Getaway

Metascore: 72

Cut from a similar cloth to GTA, The Getaway plays out like a British gangster movie created by Guy Ritchie. The story is split into two parts, initially following a bank robber and then shifting focus to a detective. The narrative is the game's strongest point, and it features fairly good voice acting for its era.

While gunplay is part of the experience, The Getaway's primary gameplay mechanic is driving, which is facilitated by an impressive recreation of London. Team Soho really put together an impressive sandbox considering the limitations of the PS2. Now, there is not all that much to do within this world beyond story missions, but players do eventually unlock the freedom to just drive around and explore the city streets.

11 Spider-Man 2

Metascore: 80

Movie tie-in video games played a significant role in the sixth generation of home consoles, with countless major film releases receiving a video game adaptation. Unfortunately, due to the tight release schedules that these games often had to adhere to, movie tie-in games were often a disappointment, which led to the sharp decline of the genre that has made them a rarity today.

Spider-Man 2 is an example of a movie tie-in game with a tight schedule, as it was released on June 29, 2004, one day before the film of the same name was released in conventional and IMAX theaters. Despite this, the game was a major success, largely thanks to how enjoyable it was to traverse the game's open world with the wonderfully well-designed web-swinging and wall-climbing mechanics.

10 Scarface: The World Is Yours

Metascore: 75

Scarface: The World Is Yours is essentially a sequel to the classic film Scarface. The game picks up where the film left off, but with Tony Montana surviving the shootout in the mansion at the end of the movie. Like many action-heavy open-world games released on the PlayStation 2, Scarface: The World Is Yours was clearly inspired by Grand Theft Auto and offers a similar brand of gameplay.

The game puts players in the shoes of the iconic Tony Montana and tasks them with taking down rival gangs and trying to regain control of the drug trade in Miami. The story is ultimately what sets Scarface apart from GTA, as the player gets to role-play as a well-defined character with a strong personality. The mechanics also reflect the protagonist's position and attitude, including things like a rage meter charged by executing law-breaking actions or purchasing property to fuel Tony's drug empire.

9 Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition

Metascore: 85

Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition Remix is an arcade-style racing game that cares little about realism and simply offers a high-speed, adrenaline-pumping experience as players race through the game's superbly well-designed cities that looked fantastic for the time. Following the game's critical and commercial success, a revised version of the game was released titled Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition Remix, which featured several new additions such as new songs, new vehicles, and an updated version of Tokyo from Midnight Club 2.

For its era, Midnight Club 3's open-world is impressive, especially since the game contains three cities that are all fairly expansive and have their own identities. While players are free to explore these locations via an Arcade mode, they will want to dive deep into Career, which offers plenty of content, depth, and entertainment.

8 Mercenaries: Playground Of Destruction

Metascore: 84

Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction was developed by Pandemic Studios – the team behind the original Star Wars: Battlefront 2 and Destroy all Humans! – and was released exclusively on the PlayStation 2 in 2005.

The third-person shooter has many similarities to Grand Theft Auto 3, as players can hijack vehicles to drive around an open world and are free to take on missions and side tasks at their own pace. Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction is an absolute blast, delivering widespread destruction on a scale that had not been experienced before. The game rewards creativity by granting players freedom in how they approach missions, which generally means causing as much carnage as possible. Unfortunately,

Mercenaries 2: World in Flames struggled to capture the same magic as its predecessor, to the point of being one of the more disappointing PS2 sequels. Still, it can be fun.

7 SSX 3

Metascore: 93

SSX 3 is an extreme sports triumph that holds up surprisingly well considering it is now more than 20 years old. While supporting online at the time, the snowboarding game generally leaves players to themselves on an expansive and intimidating mountain, one littered with activities and races that are just waiting to be completed.

Obviously, the world is fairly small compared to similar modern releases like Riders Republic, but SSX 3 makes the most of each square meter, packing every inch of snow with joy. Like most of the later-day SSX games, EA's title controls well, offering an accessible system with plenty of room for experimentation and depth.

6 Grand Theft Auto 3

Metascore: 97

Grand Theft Auto 3 is regarded as one of the most influential open-world games of all time. Rockstar's game ditched the top-down perspective of its predecessors in favor of a third-person perspective and gave players an open world to explore that felt enormous and incredibly realistic at the time.

It's hard to deny that Grand Theft Auto 3 has aged poorly, especially when comparing it to Grand Theft Auto 5; however, it can still be good fun today for those willing to look past its visual and technical shortcomings. Even though the setting is quite empty, the game was nevertheless an important step forward for open-world design.

5 Final Fantasy 12

Metascore: 92

Final Fantasy 12 was the first entry in the long-running Final Fantasy series to implement an open world. The open world wasn't the only innovation to the iconic RPG series, however, as the game also implemented a seamless battle system for the first time, as well as a controllable camera.

Although a critical darling, FF12 was initially divisive with fans, which is understandable due to the many changes it introduced. However, its reputation has only grown over the last two decades, and it is now hailed as one of the franchise's crowning achievements. Admittedly, new players should stick with The Zodiac Age version rather than the PS2 original, but the latter is still fantastic by most metrics.

4 Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

Metascore: 95

Vice City was released just one year after the ground-breaking Grand Theft Auto 3, and it did a great job of injecting more life and personality into the series with its charismatic cast of characters and colorful Miami-inspired setting.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City was considered by some to be one of the greatest games of all time when it was first released. It's rarely brought up in such conversations today, though just the sight of the game brings a flood of fond memories back to many players.

3 Bully

Metascore: 87

Yet another title by Rockstar, Bully is commonly referred to as "Grand Theft Auto in school."

Bully took players to a boarding school full of children and teenagers categorized into groups such as Nerds, Jocks, and Greasers. Although the title makes it sound like the goal of the game is to bully kids, the game's story is surprisingly heartwarming as the protagonist tries to break down stereotypical barriers and unite the divided friendship groups.

Bully's missions and classroom mini-games are fairly lackluster, though the game is still beloved for how well the school setting is executed, with simply exploring the school grounds and nearby town providing hours of fun.

2 Shadow Of The Colossus

Metascore: 91

Shadow of the Colossus was first released in 2005 and initially received a mixed reception due to how jarring its gameplay loop was at the time. Despite featuring a huge open world that players could freely explore, the game featured no standard enemies and only a handful of points of interest, with the goal of the game simply being to defeat a series of colossi. The game initially received some backlash because of this, as people felt that the game was missing core content.

However, Shadow of the Colossus was soon regarded as one of the gaming industry's first true works of art, and the barren game world became beloved for how it drives home the heartbreaking story. Shadow of the Colossus isn't for everyone, though those who enjoy it tend to regard it as one of the finest games ever released, even to this day.

1 Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

Metascore: 95

The debate as to which was the best Rockstar open-world game on the PlayStation 2 is one that will likely rage on forever, though generally speaking, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is the game that is most often regarded as the cream of the crop.

San Andreas was released in October 2004, two years after the aforementioned Vice City. The game stood out with its gritty story based on LA street gangs, along with its RPG elements and the huge range of side activities that kept players entertained for hours. An argument could be made that San Andreas is the best PS2 game period, and its open-world has aged better than most of the theme's other efforts on the console.