Whether you revisit PlayStation 2 games for a trip down memory lane or you missed out on some Sony gems, there are a handful of PS2 games that deserve the remake treatment. Some games are readily available as a port on PS5 and PS4, but others need a serious overhaul in gameplay and graphics.
The PlayStation consoles and games I grew up with were exclusive to my siblings’ collection. New games for me were in the PSP era, so I spent most of my time engrossed in the family’s PlayStation collection, made up of scratched discs and the occasional plastic cover. I still revisit a handful of games on the PlayStation 2 and take full advantage of the backwards compatibility it provided. So here are 5 PS2 games I’d love a remake of, based on what I played when I was younger.
BLACK
First-person and third-person shooters like Call of Duty, Gears of War, Killzone, Resistance, and Freedom Fighters introduced me to the chaos and brutality of war. But it wasn’t until I played BLACK that I felt the weight of war on my shoulders. BLACK was challenging for its setup, with limited checkpoints that only exacerbated the tension to win every gunfight. A lone soldier, BLACK was a gritty FPS game where every bullet and grenade mattered. It was intense and unforgiving, with amazing graphics (at the time) and destructible environments that were rarely seen in noughties console shooters.
Hyper-realistic combat simulators like Ready or Not, Six Days in Fallujah, and Escape from Tarkov focus on portraying a realistic battlefield that slows the pace of the fight (the exact opposite of CoD). BLACK did this at a time when most weren’t, where one wrong step riddled you with bullets, and impatience would retaliate with the cold embrace of death. The graphics on BLACK‘s release were impressive, so imagine this game on Unreal Engine 5, following a similar format to the original, with vastly improved A, and realistic level design. These upgrades would make BLACK a brutal, unforgettable shooter.
Enter the Matrix
Enter the Matrix unlocked my fear of being watched and followed, where Agent Smith assimilating in front of my eyes really did a number on me as a kid. But I kept coming back for the ridiculous run cycle, walk-running, and slow-motion flips. Similar to Alien, it’s rather surprising we don’t have many great options for Matrix games. A Matrix remake or a new entry for this franchise with impressive and highly satisfying combat as seen in newer releases like Ghost of Tsushima, Marvel Spider-Man, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and Black Myth: Wukong is something I’d play in a heartbeat. Otherwise, Enter the Matrix has aged poorly compared to the other entries on this list.
RELATED: 5 PS1 Games That Deserve a Remake
I can see a new version of Enter the Matrix playing like Mirror’s Edge, where it has simplistic level design, focused on perfecting combat and movement elements instead. The music in Enter the Matrix unnecessarily put me on edge, making me feel like something terrible was going to happen any moment. There wasn’t anything special about the 2003 original, but I can imagine a ranking system like Devil May Cry 5 or ULTRAKILL, paired with Max Payne and The Matrix‘s iconic third-person slow-mo gunfights, would hugely improve Enter the Matrix‘s surface-level design.
Haunting Ground
Haunting Ground still plays incredibly well, but Capcom should reimagine this fantastic third-person horror game with updated AI and graphics. I would take this remake any day over another Resident Evil. Let’s take the amazing graphics from the remake of Resident Evil 4 and implement them into Belli Castle. Perhaps this game would be deemed too offensive now for its female-focused fears and sexualization of the female body, but this perfectly captured the terror Fiona felt as she fought for her escape.
We need more games with dog companions anyway, so why not bring back the iconic duo of Fiona and Hewie, with a side of panic? What made Haunting Ground so special was Fiona running and hiding from threats, as Hewie could explore and engage in combat. Our precious German Shepard, Hewie, added strategy to the game that would sorely be missed if Haunting Ground played like Outlast or Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Yes, Fiona isn’t a fighter, but Hewie is. This gave us a highly unique take on survival horror.
Hiding from deranged enemies, figuring out puzzles, and telling Hewie to stay, search, and attack made Haunting Ground one of the best horror games in existence, which deserves a remake, especially if many weren’t able to play the original.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
The Return of the King was a legendary PlayStation 2 game, with fun combat and a challenging setup. It’s a perfect adaptation and an excellent sequel to The Two Towers. Like TimeSplitters, the music and menu alone are enough of a dopamine hit for me—simply selecting a level was satisfying. But my adoration for this game isn’t purely nostalgic. Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King still plays great to this day and is one I revisit annually. An excellent mix of environments, enemies, and gameplay, this hack-and-slash Lord of the Rings game offered a rating system I used for “friendly” competition to see who performed better at the end of a level. I will never forget fleeing from specters in Path of the Dead and knocking enemies off a ladder in Minas Tirith.
Imagining this with updated graphics and combat (similar to Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 or as effortless and fluid as Ghost of Tsushima) would aid Hazelight Studios in their efforts to revitalize co-op. While you can revisit this game now and still be satisfied with its graphics and combat, an upgrade in both departments and an option of both couch and online co-op is something Return of the King truly deserves and could reach heights similar to Helldivers 2.
Game overs are received by dying or failing to meet the objective, making Return of the King a tough, yet highly addictive game that doesn’t need free-to-play microtransactions to keep you engaged.
TimeSplitters
Let’s pretend for a moment that the first game didn’t exist and look purely at the second and third games in the series. TimeSplitters was my childhood. Yes, I still revisit both games on my PS2 every year, but I’d love to see a game like this remade with updated graphics and gameplay. TimeSplitters is by no means outdated; in fact, it’s still an impressive FPS that holds up to this day (so long as you can get used to the aim system). However, where TimeSplitters could improve is in its multiplayer. Imagine choosing between 100-plus iconic characters and going into a classic mode like Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, and Assault. It’d be glorious.
But games like TimeSplitters are special for the era they were released in. Similar to Halo 3, TimeSplitters offered the perfect mix of game modes, including a sandbox option to create your own maps from scratch. The campaigns are both replayable and hilariously entertaining, and the challenges and arcade mode are addictive. I cannot tell you how many hours I’ve spent playing Virus, trying to speedrun NeoTokyo, and running away from monkeys with my sister.
TimeSplitters is one of those games that never took itself seriously, and it’s likely one of those classics that cannot be remade without removing everything that made it so special (like its ridiculous comedy that would now be called offensive).
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