15 Best PS2 Adventure Games

Tomb Raider: Anniversary is a remake of the first Tomb Raider from 1996, rebuilt by Crystal Dynamics on the engine it made for Tomb Raider: Legend. Core Design, who made the original, had started a remake of its own, but that project was cancelled after the studio was sold to Rebellion in 2006. Series co-creator Toby Gard expanded the story, which still begins with Natla hiring Lara to find the Scion of Atlantis. Troels Brun Folmann redid the music for an orchestra.

Critics called it a worthy remake of the original game. It still became the worst selling game in the series, at 1.3 million copies, which is a shame. If you only know Lara from the later reboots, this is the best way to see the tombs that made her famous.

Defiance came out in 2003 on the PS2, Xbox and Windows, and it is the only game in the series where you play as both Raziel and Kain. Kain gets telekinesis, so he can throw a priest onto a spike in the wall (grim, but satisfying). Raziel keeps the weapons from the earlier games and still shifts between the Material and Spectral planes to get around. Along the way Kain finds murals about an ancient war between the Ancients and the Hylden, the first races of Nosgoth.

Critics were less kind. The camera was heavily criticized, and so was the shift to combat and away from puzzle solving. For fans, though, this is where the two halves of the story finally meet. A remaster arrived on March 3, 2026, more than twenty years later.

Chulip is about a boy who moves to a small town with his penniless father and falls for a girl who lives in a pipe. A local legend says a couple who kisses under the old tree will live happily ever after, so your whole quest is to earn that kiss. Director Yoshiro Kimura, who used to work at Love-de-Lic, wanted the game to be about kissing in public. Natsume released it in North America on February 13, 2007, and only GameStop sold it.

Reviews were mixed at best, and most of them called the gameplay tedious. The same reviews named its quirkiness and charm as its strong points, and it has a small cult following. Nothing else on the PS2 plays like it, for better and for worse.

Primal follows Jennifer Tate, a 21-year-old woman searching for her boyfriend through a series of demon realms after the two of them are attacked outside his band's concert. Her partner is Scree, a gargoyle who can climb stone walls and cannot be hurt, and you can switch between them at any time. Jen unlocks four demon forms as she goes, and each one helps with puzzles and fights. The team took its look from the supernatural TV shows of the time, like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel.

Sony marketed it as a possible new cornerstone series, but it missed its sales targets and the sequel was shelved early. Reviews called it ambitious but flawed. They liked the story and the voice acting much more than the combat. Development started in August 1999 and finished in early 2003.

Warrior Within came out in November 2004 as the sequel to The Sands of Time, and it went darker on purpose. The Prince is hunted by the Dahaka, so he travels to the Island of Time to stop the Empress of Time from creating the Sands in the first place. He can now hold two weapons at once, and he can steal his enemies' weapons and throw them. A new sand power knocks down every enemy around him.

A Sony representative told the team they had hit the technical limits of the PS2, and the team found ways to get larger areas out of it anyway. Critics singled out the improved combat and the level design. Players rank it two places below the first game.

Indigo Prophecy starts with a man named Lucas committing a murder while a strange figure seems to control him, and soon the police have him as their prime suspect. Writer and director David Cage finished the 2,000-page script in one year, and Quantic Dream, almost eighty people at the time, took two years to make the game. Your choices can change parts of the plot, the endings included. To show a character straining, you press the trigger buttons as fast as you can.

Critics praised the story and the voice acting, and most took issue with the ending. GameSpy said "it's so good that it just might save a dying genre", and plenty of people agreed. If you want a thriller you steer yourself, start here.

The Sands of Time came out in November 2003 on the PS2 and most other systems of the day. The Vizier tricks the Prince into releasing the Sands at the Sultan of Azad's palace, and the people of Azad turn into monsters. The Prince carries the Dagger of Time, which gathers up the Sands, and the Sands power his rewind and slow-down tricks. The game ran on Ubisoft's Jade engine, first built for Beyond Good & Evil.

Sales were slow at first, but it became a hit, and by 2014 it had sold over 14 million copies across all platforms. It is often credited with bringing the series back to fame. A remake was cancelled in 2026, so the original is still the way to play it.

Shadow of Memories came out on the PS2 in 2001 and was later ported to the Xbox, in Europe only, and to Windows. In North America it was called Shadow of Destiny. You play a man who is murdered and gets the chance to travel through time to stop it from happening. The story has eight endings, with six open to you at first and the last two unlocked once you have seen the others.

Critics were split. Edge gave the Japanese import four out of ten. A PSP version followed in 2009 in Japan and 2010 in North America, so plenty of people found it later. Players rank it above both Prince of Persia games, and the twist-filled plot is the reason.

Soul Reaver 2 was made in a hurry. It came out after only two years of work, even though the team switched to the new generation of consoles early in the project. You play Raziel again, a soul eater who moves between the world of the living and the spirit world to solve the puzzles in his way. The story deals with destiny and free will, and the series drew on Shakespeare's plays and gnosticism for its ideas.

The Legacy of Kain games were praised for their voice acting and writing, and the series had sold over 3.5 million copies by 2007. Players rank this one above Defiance. In 2024 Aspyr put it out again alongside the first game as Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered.

Blood Omen 2 is the fourth game in the Legacy of Kain series and a sequel to the first one, Blood Omen from 1996. The vampire Kain is back as the hero. Most of his powers are called Dark Gifts, and you can only use them after filling a Rage Meter by beating enemies. That makes every fight a little greedy, because you want the meter full for the next one.

Critics gave it an average reception and said it had lower production values than the Soul Reaver games. It still sold well enough to become a Greatest Hits title. Players rank it above both Soul Reaver 2 and Defiance. Kain is a terrible person, and he is a lot of fun to play.

In Dog's Life you play Jake, a puppy out to stop Miss Peaches, who sees dogs as a way to make money and has dog-napped Daisy. Smells show up as lines of coloured smoke, and you track footprints the same way in a mode called Smellovision. Jake learns tricks to win treats from people, and he meets 15 breeds of dog across big open areas. To win a dog over, you need more bones than it has, or you beat it at a mini-game like digging up bones or marking territory.

It came out in Europe in 2003 and in North America in 2004. Kerry Shale voiced 39 of its characters on his own. Players rank it fifth, ahead of every Legacy of Kain game. Who knew marking territory could carry a game this far?

Ico came out in North America in September 2001. You play a boy born with horns who is left in a huge castle, and there you meet Yorda, a girl who speaks a different language. You take her hand and lead her through the castle, solving the puzzles she cannot, and you cannot go on until you bring her to the doors that only she can open. Shadow creatures sent by the Queen keep trying to take her away.

Fumito Ueda wanted a minimalist game built around a boy meeting a girl. It sold poorly, mostly because it was barely marketed, but it won three Game Developers Choice Awards and is now called one of the greatest video games ever made. It comes up every time people argue about games as art.

Beyond Good & Evil was made by Michel Ancel, the creator of Rayman, who saw it as the first part of a trilogy. You play Jade, a young photojournalist who lives in a lighthouse with her uncle Pey'j, a boar-like creature, and looks after children orphaned by alien attacks. She sneaks into installations to find the truth about the war, and she earns pearls for upgrades by exploring and filling in the animal directory with her camera.

It was shown at E3 2002 to a poor reception, and the team changed Jade's design afterwards. Then it was a commercial failure at launch, even with a Game of the Year nomination at the 2004 Game Developers Choice Awards. It has since built a cult following, and a sequel was announced in 2008. Players rank it third, ahead of Ico.

Ōkami came out on the PS2 in 2006 in Japan and North America, one of the last PS2 games before the PS3 arrived. You play Amaterasu, the Shinto sun goddess, in the form of a white wolf, saving a fictional classical Japan from darkness. The whole game looks like a moving ink painting. With the Celestial Brush you paint on the screen to perform miracles, and director Hideki Kamiya modeled the play on The Legend of Zelda, one of his favourite series. The name is a pun, because ōkami can mean both great god and wolf in Japanese.

It suffered from poor sales and won IGN's 2006 Game of the Year anyway. Clover Studio closed a few months after it came out. Remasters later brought it to nearly every system, and it is now considered one of the greatest video games of all time. A sequel was announced at The Game Awards 2024, with Kamiya directing again. Players rank it second.

Shadow of the Colossus was the next project from the team behind Ico at Sony Computer Entertainment Japan. In Japan it is called Wander and the Colossus. You play Wander, who brings a girl to a cursed land and makes a deal with Dormin, a disembodied being that speaks with a male and a female voice at once. To bring her back to life, he has to track down and kill sixteen colossi. Each one is a puzzle: you climb its body to reach the sigil and stab it. The idea came partly from monster movies like Godzilla.

It won several awards for its audio and design, and it sold far better than Ico, partly thanks to a bigger marketing campaign. Bluepoint Games remastered it for the PS3 alongside Ico in 2011 and remade it for the PS4 in 2018. Players recommend it more than any other PS2 adventure.