25 Best PS2 Multiplayer Games

Rock Band came from Harmonix, the studio that made the first two Guitar Hero games. After that series moved to Neversoft, Harmonix built a new game around a whole band. Up to four players play popular rock songs on controllers modeled after instruments, and the singer is scored on matching the pitch. The PS2 version came out on December 18, 2007, after the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions, and the disc has 58 core songs.

The band rules make it a game for friends. Overdrive lets the band pass parts of a song it might otherwise fail. A band member can only be saved twice, though, and after the third failure they cannot be brought back for that song, which is a lot of pressure for the friend who said they could sing. Players tend to recommend it in the same breath as Guitar Hero.

Modern Combat was the first Battlefield game for consoles and the first to offer a full single-player campaign. It was first planned for fall 2004 as a multiplayer only game, and Burnout 3: Takedown even showed in-game ads for it under its old name. Adding the campaign pushed it back to fall 2005. The 2 was added shortly before release to tie it to the PC game Battlefield 2, which it is neither a port nor a spin-off of.

Online play is built around flags. There are four playable factions: the US Marine Corps, the European Union, the People's Liberation Army and the made-up Middle Eastern Coalition. If a team loses all its flags and has one soldier left, its tickets drain fast until that soldier dies or takes a flag back. Vehicles are easy to find in that mode.

Spy vs. Spy started as a 1984 Commodore 64 game based on the cartoon strip in Mad magazine, and it was a two-player, split-screen game from the start. The PS2 got a 3D remake of the same name in 2005. The black Spy and the white Spy race to beat each other before time runs out. You dig through drawers and closets for the items you need, and you booby-trap the furniture for the other spy, like a bomb in a dresser drawer.

When both spies walk into the same room, they fight. In the 1984 original, the remedy for a trap is hidden in the furniture too, and you can only carry one at a time, which makes a trapped door a real problem. Players who played it remember it fondly.

LEGO Star Wars II follows the first three Star Wars films, made out of LEGO. It came out on 11 September 2006 and sold over 8.2 million copies worldwide as of May 2009. The camera is better than in the first game, which covered the prequels, and there are more vehicle levels. The console version won awards from BAFTA and Spike TV.

Critics said it was too easy. That is also why it works for two players of different ages, since nobody gets stuck for long. Levels must first be played in Story Mode, and each one hides ten minikits that build a Star Wars vehicle. Find all ten and you get a gold brick, and there are ninety-nine gold bricks to find. Players rank it just below LEGO Batman.

SOCOM 3 was Zipper Interactive's third tactical shooter for the PS2, released in North America on October 11, 2005. Its South Asia missions were first set in Bangladesh, and the setting was changed after a complaint from the Bangladeshi government. The game got generally positive reviews.

Zipper kept adding to it after launch. The first Map Pack came out as a free two-week trial on June 27, 2006, and two more packs brought back maps from SOCOM and SOCOM 2. The online servers for this game and the other PS2 and PSP SOCOM games were shut down on August 31, 2012. SOCOM 3 still turns up on players' lists of their favorite PS2 games.

LEGO Batman comes from Traveller's Tales, the studio behind LEGO Star Wars, and it plays a lot like those games. It is the first of their LEGO games with an original story instead of a movie plot. The chapters run in an odd order: you play the hero chapters first, but they take place after the villain chapters, where the bad guys put their plan in motion.

It is mostly inspired by Batman films and TV, with Gotham City built in realistic surroundings and only the objects you can play with made of LEGO bricks. Studs buy powerups and extras. It got positive reviews and three sequels, plus the villain spin-off LEGO DC Super-Villains. Players usually recommend it alongside the other PS2 LEGO games.

X-Men Legends II came out in September 2005 for the PS2, GameCube, Xbox and Windows. The developers wanted a bigger scale than the first game, so the Brotherhood of Mutants has to team up with the X-Men against a greater threat. Along the way the team frees an island by beating Abyss, the first of Apocalypse's Horsemen. There are 18 playable characters.

The voice cast has Steve Blum as Wolverine and Dee Bradley Baker as Nightcrawler, and Blur Studio made the cinematics. Some reviewers called the gameplay repetitive, but it sold well enough for the Greatest Hits line. There is even an X-Men trivia game that pays out experience points. Players rank it a few places below the first X-Men Legends.

Monster Hunter is the game that started Capcom's series. It came out in Japan in March 2004 and in North America in September 2004, as part of a plan at Capcom's Production Studio 1 to make three network focused games for the PS2. You hunt big monsters, and killing or capturing them takes strategy and careful use of your supplies.

It was made to be played online. Offline you meet only some of the monsters, and the rewards are smaller. Event quests are online-only, and some of the rarer weapons come only from Event quest rewards. The Dual Swords were added for the international release. Its Japanese expansion, Monster Hunter G, reached the West as Monster Hunter Freedom on the PSP. Players who love it also point to Monster Hunter Dos.

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance was made by Raven Software, the studio behind X-Men Legends. The PS2 version came out on October 24, 2006, and critics praised its simple but entertaining gameplay and its impressive selection of Marvel characters. You collect simulator discs that unlock extra comic book missions, and you can play trivia along the way.

The PS2 version is missing two heroes: Colossus and Moon Knight are not in it, but a glitch lets you play as them. In August 2007 it came back as a Greatest Hits release with a bonus DVD featuring a making-of featurette. A sequel followed in 2009, and Team Ninja made a third game for the Switch in 2019. Players rank it between the two X-Men Legends games.

Interplay said in April 2001 that a sequel would start right away if Dark Alliance did well, and Dark Alliance II was announced in March 2003 for PS2 and Xbox. The heroes from the first game jump through the portal at the top of the Onyx Tower and end up prisoners of the vampire Mordoc SeLanmere, so a new party has to take over.

There are more people to talk to than in the first game, and one of the new heroes can raise the dead to fight beside her. Extreme difficulty works as a New Game Plus, so you need a saved character to play it. Critics liked it but felt it was not much of an advancement on the first game. It was re-released in 2022 for PS4, PS5 and Switch, among others. Players rank it below the original.

Resident Evil Outbreak was a PS2 exclusive and the first Resident Evil game with multiplayer capability, using the PlayStation 2's online network. Up to four players could participate simultaneously. Your group picks from eight survivors, like David King, a handyman who builds weapons with his tools, and Jim Chapman, a subway worker who is easily scared.

The virus is always on a timer. When a player takes too much damage, they collapse and crawl, and the virus speeds up until they heal or someone helps them back up. Critics praised the multiplayer but criticized the lack of voice chat, which is a tough omission for a game where you need help that badly. Capcom put out a standalone follow-up, Resident Evil Outbreak: File #2, the next year, and players usually recommend the two together.

X-Men Legends was the X-Men's first role-playing game. You put together a four-person team from a roster that includes Storm, Gambit and Wolverine, and you stop Magneto's plan to rule over humans. Use your mutant powers on the same enemy at the same time and the game rewards you with a combo. Co-project lead Patrick Lipo put the early idea simply: "It was basically Final Fantasy with X-Men."

As development went on, the team added more action and combat, but the idea of controlling a team stayed. Patrick Stewart came back as Professor Xavier from the X-Men films, and Tony Jay voiced Magneto. Reviewers praised Raven's take on cel-shaded graphics. Players almost always recommend both X-Men Legends games together.

Here Comes the Pain was made by Yuke's and published by THQ, and it came out in North America on October 27, 2003. It was the fifth and final game in the SmackDown! series before it became SmackDown! vs. Raw. It was the first wrestling game with the Elimination Chamber, and the first WWE game with John Cena, Batista and Rey Mysterio on the roster.

It also marks the final time The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin appear in a WWE game as non-legends, and it was the first game to show Kane without his mask. You can create your own Superstar and earn money to build up their abilities. Players recommend it over any other SmackDown game on the PS2.

Champions: Return to Arms is the sequel to the 2004 Champions of Norrath, with the same dungeon crawling and hack 'n' slash. The new twist is that you can fight for good or evil. The story picks up after Innoruuk, the Prince of Hate, has been defeated, and his essence has been shattered into the Shards of Hatred across the Planes of Power.

The first game was designed so characters could move between games, and the sequel is one of the places they go. Bring your old hero along and pick up where you left off. Players usually name it in the same breath as Champions of Norrath, and they rank it below the first one.

A direct port of Gauntlet Dark Legacy to the PlayStation 2 came out in 2001. It adds a large number of secret characters, some unlocked in the game and some only through cheat codes. You can choose a slow, strong attack or a quick, weaker one, which the earlier Gauntlet Legends did not have, and you can strafe to keep firing in one direction.

The old Gauntlet rule still applies: monsters keep pouring out until you destroy the generator. The story is about the demon Skorne, released by an impatient mage and sent through the portals of a tower to conquer the Eight Realms. The console versions got mixed reviews. Players still recommend it as an easy co-op game.

Future Perfect is the third TimeSplitters game, made by Free Radical Design and published by EA Games for the PS2, GameCube and Xbox. The story sends Cortez and a robot called R-110 back to 1924 to stop Crow before he can further his lab experiments. To beat the scientist, Cortez is sent back a few minutes to team up with himself.

Outside the story, you can play missions and league challenges to earn awards, new characters and medals. It was the last TimeSplitters game, and players rank it below TimeSplitters 2 and the first game.

Jak X: Combat Racing was the first Jak and Daxter game with a multiplayer mode. In the story, Jak and his friends are poisoned and forced to race the international circuit by the terms of Krew's will, and Jak has to win the Eco Cup Championships to get the antidote. There are over a dozen customizable vehicles and 20 tracks in eight different terrain arenas, with power-ups to grab along the way.

Save data from the first three Jak and Daxter games, Daxter and Ratchet: Deadlocked unlocks extra drivers, Ratchet included. The game came back on PS4 in 2017. Players usually recommend it alongside the Jak trilogy.

Dark Alliance takes place in the Forgotten Realms setting of Dungeons & Dragons, and it was the first video game to use the 3rd Edition rules in real time. It was also the first Baldur's Gate game released on consoles. The PS2 version won the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences award for Console Role-Playing Game of the Year in 2002. A Windows version from CD Projekt was cancelled.

The story starts with a rescue in the sewers after an Elfsong Tavern employee goes missing, and later reaches a dwarf mining village in the Sunset Mountains that drow elves oppress. Beat the game and you unlock The Gauntlet, a special mini-dungeon, and beating that opens Extreme difficulty. Players tend to recommend both Dark Alliance games together, and they rank this one higher than its sequel.

SOCOM II is a tactical third-person shooter from Zipper Interactive, out in North America on November 4, 2003. The campaign has 12 single-player missions, split equally between Albania, Algeria, Brazil and Russia. New commands let you order your teammates to drop to the ground and hold position, and a letter grade at the end of each mission scores your stealth, accuracy, teamwork and objectives.

Online and LAN play is the heart of it. The default round lasts six minutes, and the first team to win 6 of 11 rounds takes the game. Voice chat worked in server lobbies but not in the armory. The servers for it and the other PS2 and PSP SOCOM games were shut down on August 31, 2012. Players rank it well above SOCOM 3.

Star Wars: Battlefront was made by Pandemic Studios and published by LucasArts. It came out in September 2004, timed with the Star Wars Trilogy DVD set. The battles are fought between four factions from both trilogies: the Republic and the Separatists from the prequels, and the Rebel Alliance and the Empire from the originals. Vehicles range from the hulking AT-AT to the fast speeder bike.

Episode III was not out yet, so the Clone Wars campaign ends with the Battle of Kashyyyk. Critics praised the multiplayer and the chance to fight in big Star Wars battles, but they found the single player thin and the AI poor. It still sold over 4 million copies. Players rank it below its sequel.

TimeSplitters is the first game in the series and an exclusive launch title for the PlayStation 2. Its Arcade mode lets up to four players and ten computer-controlled bots fight each other or in up to four teams, across six multiplayer modes. The games are often seen as spiritual successors to GoldenEye 007 and Perfect Dark on the Nintendo 64, since much of the same team made them.

The series ended at three games, released between 2000 and 2005. A reformed Free Radical was working on a fourth one, but it was cancelled when the studio was closed down in 2023. Players often recommend the whole TimeSplitters series rather than one game.

TimeSplitters 2 is a first-person shooter where you kill enemies and complete objectives across different moments in history. The developers expanded the story this time, with influences from horror, action and science fiction films. The plot starts in 2401, with humanity at war against the TimeSplitters, an alien race that scatters a set of crystals through time.

The multiplayer is the reason it is here. You can customise the weapons, the points needed to win, the length of the match and even the music. After a match it hands out awards, and there are nearly 60 of them. Critics praised the multiplayer and the graphics but criticised the lack of online play. Many players give it as their pick, and they rank it above the first TimeSplitters and Future Perfect.

Champions of Norrath is a hack and slash dungeon crawler set in the EverQuest world. You pick your class and race, then work through quests and dungeons while you level up and find better weapons and armour. It runs on a reworked and expanded version of the Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance engine, and the story takes place before the first EverQuest online RPG.

Characters can be moved between games, which mattered for online play (now defunct) and for the sequel. Savepoints double as checkpoints if your character dies. It received favorable reviews. One player remembered "the hours and hours I spent online with a bunch of people" in it, and its fans name it with no hesitation.

Twisted Metal: Black was the first game from Incog Inc., a studio formed by alumni of SingleTrac, the developers of the first two Twisted Metal games. It is the fifth title in the series and works as a reboot. Brimstone's followers latch onto enemy cars with dynamite, and Sweet Tooth turns into a rocket-launching form. An online, multiplayer-only version, Twisted Metal: Black Online, came out later as a free send-away.

It received "universal acclaim" according to Metacritic. Daniel Erickson of NextGen wrote: "The best car combat game in history is also the most creative." It was also the first Twisted Metal released in PAL territories since Twisted Metal 2. Players keep recommending it to anyone who likes car combat.

Star Wars: Battlefront II is the sequel to the first Battlefront, again from Pandemic Studios and LucasArts, and it came out in North America on November 1, 2005. It added space combat and lets you play as Jedi and other heroes, with over 16 all new battlefronts. The campaign tells part of the Star Wars story through a veteran clone trooper who serves both the Republic and the Empire.

The modes are where friends spend their nights. Galactic Conquest is back, and 2-flag CTF lets you land in the enemy hangar and sabotage it from inside. A team deathmatch on Mos Eisley puts all heroes from all factions in one arena. Reviewers praised the story, and in 2024 both games came back in Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection. Plenty of players name it with no explanation needed, and players recommend it more than any other PS2 multiplayer game.