FIVE DEFINING MOMENTS OF PLAYSTATION 2

Prepare to get emotional

METAL GEAR SOLID 2: SONS OF LIBERTY

PUB: KONAMI DEV: KONAMI

Abby’s stealth reveal in The Last Of Us Part II has nothing on the switcheroo Hideo Kojima pulled for this blockbuster sequel. The tanker level was revealed ahead of release, stunning the world. In the trailer Solid Snake returned in, for the time, near photoreal, rain-swept glory. So fans were left in disbelief when they discovered the hero was actually Raiden: whiny, nerdy, and a little camp. Gravel-voiced Solid Snake was our man. Now we had the anti-Snake. But this was Kojima testing his fans; he wasn’t content to deliver just another sequel. In many ways MGS2 was Kojima setting out the rules for his future games, and his relationship with Konami. While other devs would toe the line, Kojima was rebelling and taking one of PlayStation’s pillar games in a new, weird direction. This was the moment videogames became meta, PlayStation truly grew up, and nothing from hereon could be relied on. The rules had been torn up for good.

GRAND THEFT AUTO III

PUB: ROCKSTAR GAMES DEV: ROCKSTAR NORTH

You need to understand this: before GTA III games were linear and safe spaces. We had a mission, a rescue or a reward, and we knew where it was. Then came Rockstar Games’ open world do-as-you-like-athon and took everyone by surprise. This was the sequel to that frivolous top-down Hare-Krishna-killer the Daily Mail hated. Who cared? Then you played it, and realised you no longer needed to do as you were directed. Once you escaped your prison van and made it to Liberty City, you were on your own. There were missions, of course, but once you had the confidence to break free and do your own thing GTA III evolved into something else. Gangster roleplay, shooter, looter, or racer? You decided. And yes, you could murder prostitutes. The Daily Mail really hated this one.

MEDAL OF HONOR: FRONTLINE

PUB: EA GAMES DEV: EA LOS ANGELES

Often sidelined in historical lists in favour of Call Of Duty, this entry put PS2 on the map. Ken Kutaragi talked about the Emotion Engine, and it was moments such as Frontline’s beach assault that lived up to the hyperbolic PS2 marketing. For a moment you were submerged, bullet trails spiralling through the water around you while the bodies of your friends floated above. As you emerged from the foam, it was chaos. Developed with advice from D-Day veterans, Frontline’s opening mission is a humbling experience.

GUITAR HERO

PUB: RED OCTANE DEV: HARMONIX

This game made jumping around your living room with a plastic guitar dangling from your neck acceptable. If a noughties movie wanted some street cred, it would crowbar in a Guitar Hero scene. Based on Konami’s GuitarFreaks, this westernised version featured classic rock, a Gibson-like guitar peripheral, and gameplay that enabled talented players to develop new techniques to dominate the leaderboards. If you could alt-tap, trill, and triple in 2005 you walked like a guitar-gaming god among mortals.

ICO

PUB: SONY DEV: TEAM ICO, SIE JAPAN STUDIO

Are games art? Remember that debate? It was Ico that had us all stroking our chins and dropping Duchamp’s Urinal into arguments like we were all modern art theorists. Director Fumito Ueda described his approach as ‘subtracting design’, heightening the experience by removing anything superfluous to the core gameplay. Ico remains an emotional journey, and Ueda’s techniques have been adopted into every indie and Triple-A game ever since.