While it may be heavily outdated by today's standards, the PS2 was once the most powerful console in existence and, along with its extensive and impressive library of games, went a long way in ensuring it was one of the best selling consoles of all time.
The PS2's specs were impressive for the time, but that didn't mean that it didn't hold some games back, simply due to how advanced technology was at the time of its release. Whether it was the lack of graphical quality or online functionality, several of even the best PS2 games were held back from what they could have been during the height of its popularity.
10 Zone of the Enders
On of Hideo Kojima's long lost projects, the Zone of the Elders series follows mech pilots known as Frame Runners who, alongside two very powerful Orbital Frames in Jehuty and Anubis, fight for control over the solar system. While the overall gameplay was fantastic and controlled better than most other mech games at the time, it was heavily let down by the low quality of its cutscenes that, if viewed today, would probably haunt your nightmares. This issue was alleviated in the sequel, where its problematic visuals were replaced with an anime art style that greatly improved the quality of the cutscenes, but when it comes to the original game, there's no denying that it was a product of its time.
9 Ratchet and Clank
One of the best platforming series to come out of the PS2 era alongside other juggernauts like Jak and Daxter and the Sly Cooper series, Ratchet and Clank took the familiar action platforming formula and turned it up to 11. Although the original game was filled with great humor that flew over the heads of many children at the time and a not-so-subtle anti-capitalist message at its core, it suffered in some noticeable areas. The effects, while great at the time, didn't help to convey the power of many weapons in the series that were meant to be imposing, as rocket launchers exploded with little impact and fire effects were less than desirable. These issues were fixed in the recent remake, though at the cost of the message of the original game.
8 Dark Cloud
Like Zone of the Enders, the cartoon aesthetic of the graphics of Dark Cloud didn't translate well to PS2 level graphics. This is most apparent when looking at the cover art for the game, which is one of the worst aged game covers in the history of gaming.
The gameplay is also heavily dated by today's standards, feeling slow and clunky at the worst of times and passable at best. Although the game is still fantastic, it's easy to see how its vision was let down by the technology available at the time.
7 Gran Tourismo 3
These days, most racing games have some kind of online functionality that allows players to jump into races with anyone in the world and test their skills against strangers who make problematic remarks about your mother. On the PS2, however, online functionality was essentially absent, with this lack of online connectivity being the main draw for the Xbox as Sony's main competitor. Not only that, but the hard limitation of two controllers in the console at any one time, without the addition of the Multi-Tap, made playing with more than one friend on the couch less than ideal.
6 Tekken and Street Fighter Series
Just like with Gran Tourismo 3, many fighting games suffered from a lack of online functionality that kept players from being able to challenge others from around the world. Considering how large the competitive fanbase is for fighting games like Tekken and Street Fighter, this means that many people were limited in who they could test their skills against before a competition, a problem that was largely fixed in follow up titles on the PS3 and PS4. Tekken Tag Tournament, which could allow for up to four players at a time, also suffered from needing the Multi-Tap for this functionality, something that was finally rectified with the release of the PS3.
5 Drakan: The Ancient's Gate
Although the PS2 was a fairly large jump in both graphical quality and processing power, it was still held back by the dreaded Memory Card system, which restricted how many save files you could have at any one time without resorting to buying more of them. While several PS2 games took up a notoriously large portion of a Memory Card's space, Drakan: The Ancient's Gate was one of the worst offenders and had one of the largest save files in the entire PS2 library. This doesn't seem like such a big issue nowadays, but back when Memory Cards were mandatory, it meant that you often had to delete the save files for your other games just to make room for this one.
4 Black
At the time, Black was something of a gamechanger as its revolutionary approach to destructible environments somehow worked on a console as rudimentary as a PS2. That being said, it definitely suffered from its over-ambition at the time despite somehow having pretty decent cut scenes compared to the likes of many other PS2 games at the time.
Most notably, the load times suffered as a result and were absolutely atrocious for a PS2 game. By today's standards, long load times in games are fairly common for games designed to push a console to its limit, but at the time, such long load times were unheard of and definitely hurt its critical rating as a result.
3 Twisted Metal: Black
The dreaded Multi-Tap strikes again, this time for Twisted Metal: Black. As a destruction derby game, it seems almost mandatory that you should be able to play four-player couch co-op with ease, but in having only two controller ports, the PS2 made this much more difficult than it should have been. Considering the fact that the Nintendo 64 and Gamecube, which competed with both the PS1 and PS2, both had four controller ports, the lack of additional controller ports on the PS2 seems like a huge missed opportunity for Sony to cash in on the social aspect of gaming and hurt many of its games.
2 Bully
Easily one of Rockstar's most controversial games, though also one of its best, Bully's world is dense and gripping as many gamers relished the opportunity to take out their schoolyard frustrations on the polygonal douchebag, Gary. The main problem, however, is that the appeal of a GTA style game set in high school is squandered as the world map is considerably smaller than previous GTA titles, despite the fact that Jimmy can explore the area around his school freely. This seems to be due to how compact the game world actually is, but it is also due to the hardware limitations of the PS2.
1 Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
With a map that was three times the size of the previous entry, Vice City, San Andreas had one of the best open worlds to explore on the PS2 and is easily of the best games on the console. That being said, it has the opposite problem to Bully, making its world larger at the cost of making many areas devoid of life, which becomes a real problem if you accidentally destroy a car in the wilderness of Mount Chiliad. Had San Andreas been made for the PS3 instead, its world might have felt less baren and more forgiving when driving like a maniac.