Depends on your tastes. If you like platformers the PS2 had some great ones. Jak and Daxter, Ratchet and Clank, and the Sly Cooper series to name a few. For something more action-oriented the old God of War games still hold up, although they are very different in tone from the modern ones. If you have any interest in JRPGs there's FFX, X2, and FFXII along with Personas 3 and 4. Although most of those have better ports/remasters/remakes on modern systems.
I don’t know if you are looking for anything specific but here is a list of some of the games that I would recommend trying:
The Harry Potter games, the PS2 version of these games seem to be heavily inspired by the N64 era Zelda games as they have a lot of similarities. Chamber of Secrets is, at least in my opinion, the best of the three but the other two games are still worth checking out. Also, something interesting to note is that, unlike how games for these systems normally are, the PS2 versions of these games are technically better than both the GameCube and Xbox versions due to porting issues and some other poor design choices.
The Sly cooper games, these games, especially 2 and 3, are speculated to be direct inspiration for the Assassin’s Creed games. Some say that Sly 2 is the best, while others say that 3 was the best, but I don’t know which one I prefer.
Monster house, I know that this is a bit of a weird one to mention, but it was a really good game. The game is similar to Resident Evil 4 in both gameplay and atmosphere. It’s one of the rare examples of a movie licensed game that was actually good.
Pac-Man World 2 and 3, both which are action platformers. I personally prefer 3 but 2 had a better soundtrack (I don’t know why they put that much effort in the OST of a Pac-Man game).
Grand Theft Auto San Andreas. 3 and VC are good but SA just puts them to shame in scope alone and I think it had a better story.
Other than that, like many are saying, Ratchet & Clank, Jak & Daxter, Sly Cooper, Shadow of the Colossus. Prince of Persia The Sands of Time. The whole trilogy if you can but I think the first was the best with The Two Thrones coming in at a close second thanks to improved mechanics and the banter between characters feeling more confident. Oh, and Spider-man 2. It’s still the gold standard for webswinging for a reason.
Even if you’re not a huge James Bond fan, it’s still a fantastic game. I sank countless amounts of hours into it as a kid. The multiplayer is top notch as well.
Really can’t go wrong with any of the Bond games on the PS2.
Games that I’m confident the average person would love:
Burnout (3 and/or Revenge)
Tony Hawk’s Underground (definitely 1 and not 2)
Shadow of the Colossus (I’m otherwise avoiding games with HD versions for modern platforms but I specifically think this game is weirdly better with PS2-level graphics and performance)
Ultimate Spider-Man (Spider-Man 2 had better swinging but I think this is the stronger overall package)
Games with a more niche appeal but, dammit, I want you to play them anyways:
Steambot Chronicles
Shadow of Destiny
Games that felt like a big deal at the time but I haven’t actually played since I was a kid so take with a grain of salt:
Evergrace
Way of the Samurai (1 and/or 2)
Stuntman
Def Jam Vendetta & Fight for NY
Mercenaries 1
NBA Street (2 was my favorite but all three were great)
NFL Street (only played 1, presumably 2 and 3 are also great)
A game I know is bad but I want you to play it so that the voice clips will be burned into your brain also:
I know what you mean about SotC, i enjoyed the remake a lot but the physics and jank are still the same as the PS2 version, so the new photorealistic graphics don’t really mix with it. feels off sometimes
MGS1 is my favorite of the series and is one of my favorite stories in gaming. It’s an incredibly mature story for all the wackiness thats still in it. The music is perfection. The performances are incredible. The characters are great. I love everything about this game. I think, somehow, the low poly graphics and textures adds a lot to the realism and grittiness of the game, despite being fairly arcady in gameplay. At this point in the story, almost everything that happens in it is believable, other than the supernatural parts (which are, in this game, actual supernatural powers, which adds a whole new layer of mystery!) I HATE how over explained everything became in MGS4 and MGS5, (and to some extent, mgs3 even.) I think MGS4 kind of ruined the series for me, even though mgs4 has my favorite gameplay. MGS5 just felt like a Ubisoft collectathon game to me, and vocal parasites can lick my ass with how dumb it is. It has good moments, but it feels rather aimless compared to MGS1-3.
1 has the most serious tone, but still has some goofiness and arcadiness that really meshes well with the story and visuals somehow. 2 and 3 stayed strong with the story, both being more goofy, but also having deeper meanings and plots. I like 1-3 a lot, and even 4 is a fun romp, but 5 just could not hold me. Ground Zeros was great! But Phantom Pain is just a slog for me.
Our opinions match up almost perfectly! I adore MGS1 so much. The amount of incredible moments in that game is just staggering. My personal favorite is the death of Sniper Wolf and the fight on top of the Metal Gear + the ending!
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