Introduction
Hey, it's Zaid Ikram here, and today Gamix is letting me talk about whatever I want. So, we're gonna dive into 10 massively underrated games from the 2000s. I'm gonna be totally honest, if you're the same age, you've probably heard about a lot of these games, but some of them you may have forgotten about. Either way, we just wanted to have a fun trip down memory lane. So we got 10 games, like I said, and let's get started.
Gun
You remember "Gun?" This was like the Western game before "Red Dead Redemption." In a lot of ways, in my opinion, "Gun" walked so "Red Dead Redemption" could fly. But there's a lot of fun, weird, interesting stuff behind "Gun." For a lot of people, while it did release on PC, PS2, and Xbox, this was an early Xbox 360 game as well. Wherever you played it, though, it was developed by Neversoft, the folks behind Tony "Hawk's Pro Skater." This was just a fun action-adventure Western game with a story, some kind of open playable areas, and it was just an absolute blast. It was a total shoot 'em up. You're running, gunning, blasting dudes. There was a first-person quick draw kind of mini-game when you get into showdowns with dudes.
A lot of on-horse combat and also worrying about the towns. The worse you are, and the more you just kind of killed civilians, a town had a patience meter that you'd have to worry about. But you'd fight against all kinds of people: lawmen, Native Americans, different rebel cowboy groups, and all of it was an absolute blast. It had main missions, side missions, and the guy you played as, Colton White, was just a badass. He was voiced by Thomas Jane, famous for, of course, being the Punisher. But the cast was stacked. Lance Henriksen, Kris Kristofferson, Brad Dourif, and Ron Perlman were all in it. This thing was absolutely wild, but ultimately, it was just a fun accessible shooter. One of my favorite memories with this game was experimenting with the bow and arrow. It was really good, but also, you could get dynamite arrows, and that led to all sorts of chaos. "Gun," from way back in 2005, was an absolute blast.
State of Emergency
Next, over at number nine, jumping way back to 2002, we have a Rockstar game that you may not remember. It's "State of Emergency." This is way back in the days when Rockstar was doing crazy stuff. They were throwing out things that didn't make sense. The original "Midnight Club" and "State of Emergency" were one of them. This is a game where a corporation essentially owns the country, and the people rebel. You're part of this group called Freedom, and there's a nationwide riot, and you kind of just run around and mess things up, for lack of a better phrase. This is a game that absolutely a lot of people would not stand for in 2024, but essentially, you were dropped into various maps where there was a giant riot. You were one kind of distinct character running around a big crowded arena filled with NPCs and civilians running around, police, and other types of enemies.
You just kind of destroyed everything. This game had all types of destruction and kind of emphasized chaos. There were five different playable characters, but Spanky, in my opinion, was the coolest. He was the guy on the cover. This game was absolutely goofy. It was such an old-school-feeling arcade-style brawler. It felt old even then, but in a charming way. "Grand Theft Auto" released in the fall of 2001, and what did they do hot off the heels of the success of that? They released this weird game. This was back in the day when Rockstar wasn't developing everything. This was developed by a different studio but published by Rockstar Games. But even still, it was just a weird game and a weird period of time.
Freedom Fighters
Next, over at number eight, sticking with the rebellion theme, it's "Freedom Fighters." Now, if you've been following me on Gameranx or anywhere else on the internet for the last 10 years, I've talked this game to death. It's one of my all-time favorites, so my bias is showing. "Freedom Fighters" is from IO Interactive, the people behind the "Hitman" series. They kind of made this one in between some of the earlier "Hitman" games, and it is completely different.
In a lot of ways, it's kind of like "Red Dawn" the game. Here, you're a New York City plumber, when suddenly, the Soviets invade New York City and take over. You have to hide out in the sewers, and little by little, you take to the streets, fight some soldiers, slowly build up an army, and ultimately, by the end of the game, become a badass rebel freedom fighter waving the American flag.
A pretty straightforward third-person action shooter with a really cool distinct visual style. A lot of this was around the teammate mechanics and essentially, you rounding up and controlling a bunch of guys and sending them to attack points. It was very simple, and it was kind of just hurling bodies at difficult areas, but it was still so satisfying to execute. It was a fairly challenging game with some good weapons and gunplay. You know, it was a little squishy here and there, but ultimately, it was just a really good full-fledged video game experience from top to bottom because of the really cool visual style. IO Interactive really knew what they were doing here. Like a broken down, bombed out, taken-over New York City. But also the music by Jesper Kyd. Just an incredible score that really immersed you. It really made you feel like you were on this cinematic big, huge adventure. It made it feel heroic and satisfying.
It also had a fun little multiplayer spinoff mode. Man, "Freedom Fighters" was just awesome. It's from way back in 2003. I haven't stopped talking about it, and the developers also still acknowledge that it exists, so that leaves me to hold out hope that maybe one day we'll get a sequel 'cause this would be a really cool thing with modern gameplay.
Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction
Next, over at number seven, we have a pretty common one, but it's still worth talking about because a lot of people forget. It's "Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction." This first "Mercenaries" game was absolutely awesome. It was like an open-world warfare destruction simulator for PlayStation 2 and Xbox. And was essentially you choosing one of a few kind of iconic, distinct mercenary characters being dropped into this occupied war zone area, and you're free to explore, steal cars, get a tank, drive around, blow stuff up, engage with different factions and essentially, get your kill streaks up and unlock weapon ordinances.
The ability to call down an airstrike and stuff. And back then, this felt so novel. To stand there in an open-world environment and call down an airstrike and watch a building collapse in front of you, this was pretty novel at the time, and it was sweet as hell. This is from Pandemic Studios. The people behind so many great games, like "Destroy All Humans," "Full Spectrum Warrior," the original "Star Wars: Battlefront" games. So they knew what they were doing. This was actually published by LucasArts, and what really elevated this was the score, the themes created by legendary composer Michael Giacchino. Who is, of course, now known for doing all types of big Hollywood scores from the modern "Star Trek" movies to the MCU Spidey themes. But he got a start in video games, and "Mercenaries" is a really good example of his work.
The Godfather
Next, over at number six, we have "The Godfather" game from 2006. This is an open-world action-adventure that ambitiously puts you right at the heart of the original "Godfather" film. You're doing jobs for Don Corleone. You're getting mixed up with the other families. You're going around, you're busting businesses and hustling people for cash, and they really nailed it.
You would create your own character and essentially be inserted into this world, talking and dealing with iconic characters from the classic movie. They did a really good job recreating this stuff. You feel like you're in an old-timey New York City, but also the amount of love and attention paid to the character models of some of the main characters, to the Corleone family compound. They really gave it their all with this one. It was fun to play. The shooting was good. EA really put everything into this one back when they were still doing some good stuff. And famously, they didn't use a lot of it, but this is, unfortunately, one of Marlon Brando's last roles. He reprised his role as Don Corleone for some lines here.
The Matrix: Path of Neo
Next, over at number five, we have "The Matrix: Path of Neo." Now, this one more recently we've seen it be discussed because of some of the zanier elements for it, but for quite a few years, this thing was totally forgotten. But it's absolutely awesome. There was "Enter the Matrix" in the very early 2000s, which, of course, did not get great reviews, but I was still a mega fan of that, like IÂ but "Path of Neo" really finally took advantage of the concept of a "Matrix" video game. You wanted to play as Neo, you wanted to do the Neo stuff, so they took that and ran with it.
This 2005 game is an ambitious over-the-top action brawler. You could do it all: crazy motion-captured moves, slow-mo dives, shootouts, kung fu, all that stuff, recreating moments from the movies but also beyond. They got really weird and creative with this one, with where they would place Neo because the sky is the limit in "The Matrix." You could plop these characters and load them into any program.
Auto Modellista
Next, over at number four, we're changing directions a little bit with 2002's "Auto Modellista." This one people forget about, but this was back when racing games were fairly common. But this one is unique because it's straight from Japan. It's developed by Capcom. It's Capcom's version of kind of like a "Gran Turismo." It was for PS2, GameCube, and Xbox, and it had an awesome cel-shaded graphic style.
You don't really see these types of visuals anymore, but it absolutely worked for this game. And I'll be totally honest, a lot of us did just play it for the visuals alone. It had some cool drift effects and stuff like that, but ultimately, it was a pretty standard racing game, but it was a damn good one, and it had some cool car customization.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Next, down at number three, I'm cheating with this one. I know we're talking about underrated games, but this one does get a lot of love, so just let me have this one. It's "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King." The EA action brawler is perfect. I would say both "The Two Towers" game and this one really just nail it. In a time of movie tie-in games that were just endless and mostly crappy, these two games, "The Two Towers" and "Return of the King," really did a good job actually replicating the feel of the movies, throwing you right in it, and letting you have fun.
Basically, you played through all the big battles of the films, and it totally worked. You could choose who you wanted to play as. You could play with a friend. You had range attacks and up-close attacks. It was just a well-balanced little brawler but with a lot of good cinematic over-the-top moments. Like, thankfully, EA and the production behind that were able to keep up with the superpower that was the movies. You had the visuals here, you had the accuracy with the characters, you had some of the voices, and you had the music, which really sealed the deal.
Fuzion Frenzy
Hey, down at number two, we have something totally different with "Fuzion Frenzy." This original Xbox exclusive from 2001, which is a ton of fun. For a lot of people, if you got an Xbox, you got "Halo" and this. And this was just a fun party multiplayer game. Like, we just don't have a lot of those anymore. "Fuzion Frenzy" really felt like one of the last big gasps.
It was four-player party stuff with a bunch of different mini-games. There were like 45 different ones. They were all chaotic. They were all zany. It certainly wasn't perfect, and I know some people back in the day didn't love it, but this is one of the ones where you look back and you're like, man, we had it pretty good, didn't we?
Army of Two
Now, finally, down at number one, we have "Army of Two." This third-person co-op shooter from 2008 was something else, man. There were sequels, there was "The 40th Day" and "The Devil's Cartel," but nothing quite hit like this original game. From EA Montreal, this Xbox 360, PS3 game just was a ton of fun. That's all it was. It was just glorious co-op shooting action.
You played as one of two beefy boys, and you're running and gunning through levels. You're heavily armored. You kind of each have a little bit of your own different thing, but ultimately, it's about drawing enemy fire from one player to the other and kind of managing all that. Managing the battlefield. It wasn't the most tactical thing by any means, but it just felt a little bit different, a little cut above your average third-person action shooter of the time. You played as Salem and Rios. Like I said, two beefy, chunky boys just running and gunning. There were a handful of good weapons to use. The enemy encounters, and the level design layout stuff was always just really satisfying. And there was some customization with, like, your load-outs and stuff.
But a lot of the fun was also in terms of just the whole buddy comedy, you know, buddy thing. You could high-five each other, and the game just played with this stuff. It had fun with it. There were some vehicle sections. Of course, there was also a multiplayer mode. But really, it was just a fun co-op campaign to play through that I have a lot of fond memories of, and I know a lot of other people out there do, too.
Conclusion
This is a game you'll see in comments every once in a while. Someone will be like, "Remember 'Army of Two?' They should bring those back." And I wholeheartedly agree, and that's the point of making this video. We just wanted to talk about some fun stuff we loved from the 2000s. Some kind of underrated stuff, some forgotten stuff, and just, you know, some fond memories. So I know there are plenty of other games in the 2000s we didn't even touch. There are plenty of PC games and some hardcore strategy games we haven't touched. So, I would love to make this a series. Let me know what you think, and let me know if there are some games you would like to include, some personal picks, 'cause there are so many out there. I mean, everybody thinks their favorite game is underrated, so this is easy. But as usual, I'm Zaid Ikram, thanks for reading, and we'll see you guys next time.
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