Single player games on PC, PS2, PS3, Xbox, Xbox 360, Wii and Gamecube were some of the best. Here are a few of our favorite single-player/story games from the 2000s. Subscribe for more: ru-vid.com?su...
as we said in the video - there are WAY more than 20 games worth talking about, so we have a PART 2 planned. Definitely let us know what we should include in the next one!
FarCry 2, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, Bully, Hitman: Blood Money and Spider-Man 2 are games that absolutely defined my gaming taste in a decade that was absolutely perfect for videogames. To this day I have more fun replaying games or playing new ones from the 2000s that I have from playing newer games.
its not just nostalgia, its capitalism. AAA games right now are being plagued by profit seeking practices like microtransactions leading to plenty of usually subpar dlcs and cosmetics along with overworking and underpaying workers leading to unfinished products (which they can then pamper with said dlcs later) and many others that are not exclusive to just the games industry. profit is prioritized over artistry.
@@ari333prodvery True brother, finally someone puts the blame on the right thing. Imagine what great games we could have if we did what is right instead of what is profitable, with nowadays tech. And not only in gaming. Big investor's money really pollutes everything
I wanted to add Assassin's Creed 1 and 2 to the list, it's where the franchise was at its peak. It's the game that got me really hooked on a franchise.
20. Prince of Persia: Sands of Time 19. Simpsons hit and run 1:40 18. Freedom Fighters 2:34 17. Elder Scrolls IV:Oblivion 3:36 16. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater 4:30 15. FFX 5:22 14. Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker 6:13 13. God of War 2 6:49 12. Deus Ex 7:34 11. Resident Evil 4 8:05 10. Shadow of the Collosus 8:52 9. Bioshock 9:55 8. Metroid Prime 10:46 7. The Sims 11:27 6. Silent Hill 2 12:12 5. Fallout New Vegas 12:54 4. Diablo 2 13:36 3. Halo 14:28 2. Grand Theft Auto 15:05 1. Half Life 2 16:05
Is it just me or do the old skool graphics, like warm your heart and just give so much Nostalgia! Like you are a kid again, in your room and all is OK with the world. It actually brings a tear to my eye man
you know, its an interesting topic actually. many people put graphics in the ''good'' or ''bad'' category and i think this is wrong. if you stop thinking in ''the most realistic is good'' and start to think in ARTSTYLES, there really isnt a good or bad anymore. i prefer the more warm and charming artstyles of most older games compared to newer ones. i dont like ''realistic'' i honestly think a game like UT2004 graphically looks better than whatever most recent shooter was released in 2024 because i prefer that artstyle. i also think ocarina of time or even link to the past for that matter even tho they are different look better than lets say breath of the wild because i prefer that artstyle.
There are so many greats that they could have been included and half the ones on this list I wouldn't have. Beyond Good And Evil is a definite on the list for me.
Uncharted 1 and 2 we're both released prior to the 2010's and I absolutely have so many test memories from those games. Along with the original infamous. Great stories.
@@Bbistheman_ For sure. Miles better! Uncharted 2 is the best in the franchise in my opinion. Uncharted 3 comes after that as far as being the second best in the franchise.
@@jamesvancam Sorry… I misread it. Also, they listed uncharted 2 in the countdown, so that is why I was confused why he was writing that comment, because I originally read it as him implying “Why would you include uncharted two when it wasn’t released before 2010?”
Missing games to me: Ratchet and Clank, Onimusha, Devil May Cry, Gears Of War, Uncharted, Mass Effect, Batman Arkham Asylum (mentioned in bonus), Assassin's Creed 2, but overall I agree with the list, MGS, GTA, SH, RE, PoP, GoW, those are defining 2000s franchises.
Yeah but if Devil May cry is not in this list that’s a shame! Devil may cry was a game that not only changed the industry where hack and slash games are concerned but it was also a game that came out & Blew everyone’s mind at time of release?!
The Batman Arkham series will forever hold a special place in my heart. I remember the very first time I ever played and it and I would always play it when I came home from school. I would play it every night to get me through the school week. Those days were a golden era and sadly we will never experience it again. 😢
My older brother had arkham city when I was young and I only saw him on the weekends, well when he was sleeping in the morning, I'd hop on it but he eventually memorized the beep on the ps3 and would get up when I got on lmao since then I own the whole collection and have beaten them to many times
Not enough innovations from triple A nowadays and those damn graphics make hardware prices skyhigh. Who gives a f about rtx when the gameloops are outdated.
+ AAA companies are scared to try something new or risky just bc they might flop. where as back in the day they took alot of risks like rockstar making manhunt etc
And don't forget Newgrounds. Now, instead of developers wanting to use the tech to make a refined product, the developers don't want to use the tech except passably to make a cookie cutter product.
I don't think they are afraid, they just make games as generic as possible to sell as many units of games as possible. This is a consequence of the video game market expanding from a niche market among kids to some adults to almost half the entire population in just a decade. You should also not discard the impact of improvements in the internet making online games appear everywhere. This has made games go from a thing you play alone to a game played with friends.
20. Prince of Persia sands of time 0:31 19. 1:42 Simpsons hit and run 18. 2:37 Freedom Fighters 17. 3:37 Elder Scrolls: Oblivion 16. 4:31 Metal Gear Solid 3 SnakeEater 15. 5:25 Final Fantasy 10 14. 6:13 Legend of Zelda: Wind waker 13. 6:50 God of War 2 12. 7:35 original Deus Ex 11. 8:07 Resident Evil 4 10. 8:56 Shadow of the Colossus 9. 9:56 BioShock 8. 10:48 Metroid Prime 7. 11:30 Sims 6. 12:12 Silent Hill 2 5. 12:56 Fallout 3 4. 13:38 Diablo 2 3. 14:29 HALO 2. 15:07 GTA 3, Vice City, San Andreas, IV 1. 16:05 Half-Life 2 *Bonus Mentions: 16:48- Max Payne, Kingdom of hearts 2 ,star wars: knights of the old republic, eternal darkness ,nfs underground ,Batman Arkham asylum.
Just too many great games. Sure this list spans 1/5th of the industries life but still. After 2010 games crept further into diluting themselves. Banking on name and Microtransactions.
Mass Effect 2 is probably one of if not my favorite game of all time. It did release on ps3 in 2011, but it initially released in January 2010 on windows and Xbox 360. I'm surprised it's not even mentioned
Last time I checked the game on my original Xbox I was shocked to see how well it looked at 720p. I used to play it on an old CRT TV and never got to experience the jump into HD until I got the Xbox360. Fantastic game.
one of my absolute favourites! everything was so good! I really liked how Michael Ironside really got into the roll the 3rd time round, he really sounded in his element. listen all you **** ******. that's the name of the game!!!
Fable and Mass Effect would defintitely be in my top 20. It's crazy to see the huge jumps in game quality over those 10 years. albeit, that decade was sort of an overlap of two generations of consoles, so that would make sense.
Also: Crysis, Portal, Burnout Paradise, Red Alert 2, Generals, The Sims 2, Turok, Oni, Red Faction Guerrilla, The Longest Journey, Harry Potter 2, FEAR, STALKER, World in Conflict, L4D, Dead Space, Mercenaries 2, Borderlands, Tropico 3, CIV5, Prototype, Just Cause 2, Singularity, Mafia 2, Dead Rising 2, Team Fortress 2, Assassin's Creed 1&2.
Yeah, Mass Effects ( 1,2, and 3 ) were some of my absolute favorites also. ( at the time I thought that the third one was not so good, but now I love that one too.) I still like them, even though I have played hundreds of games. I have played them ME games so many times, over and over again. What an experience, I loved those times, feeling a bit of nostalgic now :) I have to try that Fable out, so many here have mentioned that!
@@ambrusin4889 ME was one of my most favorite game story though now that i'm older and looking back at it I find it rubbish. The Reapers are great, Cerberus is great but all the rest is typical lame drama and fantasy.
@@ambrusin4889 The same can be said about The Fable games. IMO, the first was a masterpiece. Great Artstlye that is unique. Fable 2 and 3 were not loved by all. However, I still enjoyed them very much.
oh wow i didn't expect Freedom Fighters to be mentioned as i know almost no one in my circle played it. its an amazing game! you get to tell your whole squad where EXACTLY they position in every combat scenario, very nostalgic too.
Dragon Age: Origins, Assassins Creed 2 and Kingdom Hearts 2 would all be on the top for me. Also a shoutout to Godfather 2 and Okami those two were severely underrated.
@@silentkaine9352 100% agree. You could change outcomes in so many ways, I always thought that game was ahead of its time. Then DA2 wasn't that good imo
Great work man, the games mentioned were awesome I played most of them, but still I can't help but to mention Demon's Souls from 2009 it started a whole new genre.
The Metroid Prime Trilogy as a whole would by FAR be the greatest single player experience of the 00’s. No other game has managed to immerse me into its world more than the Prime series, The environments are just so incredible and the soundtracks are some of if not THE best I’ve heard in any game. As of the past decade my favorite single player experiences have been from that of the Souls series, And I think part of what makes me love Souls games so much is the exploration, That sense of wonder piecing together the lore and discovering new areas, Plus the epic boss fights, And all that is honestly what makes Metroid Prime so damn good, It’s an unforgettable experience that was a decade ahead of its time, The fact that it’s graphics still hold up incredibly well when compared to games of today is crazy and overall honesty its a masterpiece of gaming, Mainly Prime 1 & 2 but still the trilogy as a whole is as good as it gets tbh.
I'm replaying Infamous (2009) and it still holds up to this day. One of the first games to implement the karma system and have different outcomes in both gameplay and story based on the player's choices
I loved how they followed that up with Infamous 2 a few years later, not only giving you a pretty neat game on its own, but giving you the tools to build your own missions and stories.
@@ZakX11 I think they meant one of the first games _they_ played with a karma system and dynamic outcomes. It was early, but it was a long way from the first.
@@ARTS8250-Nyc Seconded. Or I would be if I knew where mine was. And the new Spider-man would likely rank as one of the only reasons I would ever get a current gen Playstation.
@@Teedeedubbelu Not every games was completed and without bugs... The problem is, if you got a bad game, it will never be better. And if you got a good game, you never gonna have more content for it, need to buy the sequel.... Not always good.... And sometime they dont have sequel
Damn this was such a nostalgia trip for me, I played quite a few of these a lot when I was younger and still do today, Batman Arkham Asylum is my all time favourite game Edit: I don't do this very often but thanks for all the likes, it's nice to see so many other people love this game too
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, it’s not just nostalgia to say that the early 2000s had better games than now. Xbox and PS2 era as well as early 360 and ps3 era was just peak gaming. There was so much diversity in terms of the games we had. Every week we had new games coming out, no massive delays or microtransactions. No half baked games, just legitimate peak gaming. I really miss those days.
Yeah everything now seems so streamlined and cookie cutter like it was all made on an assembly line. There's not enough wacky AA titles, those mid tier games just died off.
i appreciate you guys' commitment to picking different games instead of the exact same list as everyone else (ocarina of time, mario 64, cod, skyrim, etc. etc. )
Timesplitters will always be one of my favorite fps series. 1,2, and Future Perfect. Can’t wait for the reboot. Soo many days spent playing in the bots multiplayer back when I didn’t have internet to play online
Okay, didn't want to say anything but the word "easily" triggered me. How come FC3 is being brushed off as not "easily" the best? It defined the formula of which the future FC games have become. FC was good and enjoyable, but when I look at FC3, I can't call it the best. Same with FC2, that was the worst game of the franchise personally, bland looking, the scenery made it hard to spot the enemies for me, the Malaria was annoying, these were just some of the issues, although still somewhat tolerable, but enemies respawning every time you drive off 30 meters or so and a glitch that literally made my game unplayable where some guy I had to save and talk to inside a house didn't spawn made the experience horrible. However, even with the last two issues that killed the game for me excluded, it would've still been a meh one, quite bland.
The best single player games that I’ve played from the early 2000s was ultimate Spider-Man and fallout three. I played ultimate Spider-Man like crazy when I was a kid and when I was a freshman in high school I played fallout three nonstop. Ahhh memories 😎👍🏼
Fable is always gonna be ‘THE RPG’ of the 2000’s for me. I know there are better ones out there, but there is nothing that wire matches the feel of fable for me personally
for me, Fable is the one game that started these huge and awesome open world RPGs with endings completely dependent on your choices. Absolutely blew my mind when I first played it.
Metroid Prime and Zelda Wind Waker were 2 games that absolutely made my childhood. I still play them both to this very day! I also love the Bond games on the GameCube (Agent Under Fire, Nightfire, Everything or Nothing, From Russia With Love) but the 2 that my Dad, Brother, and I ALWAYS go back to are Star Fox Adventures and Super Mario Sunshine, which were the 2 games we got with our GameCube back in the day :)
I love this kind of videos because as much as I like the new games but I really feel that our memories with the old games when we were younger are precious and irreplaceable. It's hard to narrow it to few games but there are some games that are so memorable. Resident Evil 4 was definitely among the big ones because I really felt that the game is ahead of its time in so many levels. Alan Wake is also among my top 5 of that decade and I liked its atmosphere. One of the underrated games that I enjoyed a lot and I was really excited to come back home fast from school just to play it, was 'Fable: The Lost Chapters', it's a 2005 game and I really loved it so much and still gives me nostalgia. I really hope they'll bring the Fable franchise back to life again. I think we also agree that 2008 was an awesome year and it gave us high quality games like Crisis and Dead Space.
Crazy era of gaming. Other memorable mentions for me include Rome Total War, Medieval TW, LOTR Battle for Middle Earth, Dragon Age, Assassins Creed 2, SW Battlefront 2, Wii Sports, Minecraft, Crash team racing, Spyro year of the dragon and Lego SW.
Tenchu 2. Came out in 2000 and took everything fun about the first game and added on to it. Player specific perspectives on missions, the level creator, the intro and story were all excellent.
I got my true start in PC gaming in 1995-96 with Heroes of Might & Magic: A Strategic Quest, Wing Commander: Privateer, The Journeyman Project, and Civilization II. As far as the 2000s go, my top two games from that era that didn't make this list are without a doubt The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and Max Payne. So many great memories.
Even though I love the Silent Hills and Resident Evil games, Dead Space still remains my favorite horror game. The sci fi atmosphere and the combat in that game is so well realized. I hope the remake is half as good as the original.
It is both nostalgic and sad to remember 2000s games. I clearly remember how back then I was brimming with excitement of new technologies making games even better. Yeah, if only I knew what gaming would turn into 10 years down the line.
for sure. but as you said it's nostalgia mixing in and at least for me those games just represented my youth when everything seemed more exciting and I had waaaay more time to get into all these games
Same here, except that in the 90's onwards, with the turning of the century/millenium, I expected humanity to be in a very different place in the future (2000+) that we are.
Sure games have now a lot of negative aspects but what the hell is going on with you guys? Gaming is also great now it has also evolved into great adventures. I was born in the 80‘s and remember playing pong and tetris and then seeing super mario Bros for the first time and link and saying wow, this is amazing. Now if I try to play some games that I remember to be amazing I’m shocked how ugly they look and how bad the controls are, sure there are fantastic exceptions, but I’m so glad to be able to play the things we have now even if some things should disappear from the industry ( microtransactions etc).
Man, you guys mentioned Freedom Fighters!!! What a game! Fantastic picks in there too, but damn! Freedom Fighters! Great video, great trip down memory lane. Cheers guys!
Many overlook the 2009 "Wolfenstein" reboot from the fantastic Raven Software, it still holds up well today along with the other Raven game from 2010 "Singularity", both highly under-rated!
While i did like them a lot (especially Sly Copper series), it's still kids games and don't belong in a top 20 games. Think it like this. How many adults would consider them all time greatest if they played it today and had never played it before?
I wish I could go back in time to the summer after Oblivion came out. That was the first RPG game I played and it consumed me lol. I was a sophomore or junior in high school and was the perfect time of no real obligations and the ability to get sucked completely in. I wish I could get into games like I was able to get into Oblivion… alas, adulthood and all the fun that comes with it :)
I concur! Working full time with 2 children I hardly ever get time to game these days. I don’t get immersed like I used to. Miss the days where I’d have a good 10 hour session and be completely engrossed in a game lol
Man this video gave me the nostalgia hit, some games that were not mentioned but I loved: time splitters 2, unreal tournament 2004, quake 4, hitman, return to castle wolfenstein, warcraft 3, splinter cells, medal of honor allied assault, star wars jedi academy, LOTR return of the King, fable, sly Cooper, Rome total war, psychonauts, Republic commando, the warriors, assassins creed 1 & 2, portal, mass effect, the witcher, stalker, left 4 dead, dead space, dragon age, Alan wake... Oh and Oni from 2001. What a time it was!
I played Freedom Fighters over 50 times, completed the game in against all odds difficulty and I must say the story, the game mechanics, the characters, and of course the MUSIC of this game was absolutely fantastic. I can play this game again and again just to listen to the background music the game had. Jesper Kyd, Sir u r a legend. The game was a masterpiece but sadly it did not get the recognition it deserves. Best game in the 2000s along with Halo and GTA SA. Best era of gaming. good old days.
@@wulfone5961 you should! It's a very relaxing, yet engaging game that is stylistically unique from any game that has come out since! It's appreciated for its art and the game play mechanics are top notch
Dragon Age Origins Mass Effect Assassins Creed 2 Sid Meiers Pirates C&C Generals Devil May Cry ICO Demon Souls Baldurs Gate Planescape Torment It was really the greatest decade for video games, with so many legendary and lasting titles coming out
Borderlands will always have a special place in my heart. I played almost only competitive multiplayer titles. Released in 2009 the origional Borderlands was such a hit, I went out of my comfort zone to try it. Because of that experience, I ended up getting Fallout 3 and then in 2011 Skyrim on release. And of course it's the staple for looter shooters. So many have tried to do it, but none have done it like the borderlands series.
Half-Life 2 is such an awesome game. The more you play it the more you get into it. Banger Music, Character animations, Character personalities that make it impossible to forget all who you come across, all the world and lore that exists and is not directly shown to the player, how physics are integrated to gameplay and you can play around with everything... it's so good.
what still amazes about hl2 is graphics and physics, for 2004 game they are so ahead of its time, even today i can say it had decent graphics , and back in those day brain could not believe we have that detailed game in era of diablo 2, gta and other games that were good but half life was just that much better in those things, some things we could do in that game with that physics is still unmatched
A series I don’t think gets enough love is Lara Croft Tomb Raider. My absolute favorite was playing Legend which came out in 2006. The adventure of catacombs, shooting down bad guys, and solving intricate puzzle rooms was my jam.
RE4 on the Wii was the most fun I had on a console in a long time. I beat that game twice and went through so many AA batteries. (I have rechargeable ones now for this reason)
I remember booting up my brand new Xbox 360, for the first time, To begin playing TES: Oblivion for the first time. It felt like the absolute next generation of video games. Such a fun time to live.
"THERE IS A PSYCHOPATH ON THE LOOSE!!" Leaving the Imperial sewers and seeing Cyrodil for the first time is a core memory for me. Up until i got murdered by a bear. I think i played over 2300h on the 360, don't know how many on the PC 😂
literally was so excited about how realistic the water in Oblivion looked that i called my dad into my room since he was the only one home at the time and i felt i HAD to show someone else how amazing the water looked and the sun seemingly reflecting off it in the game haha
Oblivion was an actual game I got sucked into. I’ve played so many fantastic immersive games but never with as much as I lost myself for hours in Oblivion. Cue the intro music.
@@codyj6505 I was hyped for the enemies. I remembered seeing how awesome the skeletons looked in the trailers. In comparison to Morrowind, they seemed like a huge leap in graphics.
Some of my favourites include: -Tony Hawk Pro Skater3/Underground -Bully -Gta (every one, except Chinatown) -True crime: New York & True crime L.A -The Warriors -Assassins Creed brotherhood There are so many more games that I can even list them all
It was a nostalgia buy on Steam for me the other day, and all these years later the game is still fun. The graphics are rough, but the bones are still solid.
Would add Assassin's Creed 2, Dragon Age: Origins, and Infamous to this list cause good lord I could play all those several times over and I'd still love them and want to play them again.
Love the list but man… yall missin Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory in 2005! Huge leap in the stealth genre, really fun and engaging gameplay, story was even good, and the iconic soundtrack as well as Michael Ironsides as the voice actor. One of the best games right there.
I feel like jet set radio/future was definitely one of my 2000s single player games that really gave me hours upon hours of entertainment. The quirky cell-shaded characters and environments with the soundtrack that was repetitive yet addictive. It’s almost a crime that they never made more of them. Really one of Segas all time best IMO
I really loved Super Mario Galaxy 1 & 2. I remember playing them with my brother on the Wii and even though he had to take over for a lot of sections I also enjoyed watching it a lot! It would be cool if we could get a third part.
2008 was the pinnacle of gaming imo. We were at the real mainstream breakthrough point for the PS3/360 era and had games that we knew a little bit about to look forward to but also a whole slough of new and interesting IPs to delve into. Fallout 3. Fable 2. GTA 4. MGS 4. The Force Unleashed. Mass Effect. Assassin's Creed. That's just naming a few.
1998 - Starcraft, Half Life, Fallout 2 - 3 of my favourite games of all time in a single year. Hard to beat this. And Heroes of Might&Magic 3 a year later... Good times. Best times.
So many incredible franchises began in that decade. Many of whom still get sequels to this day. This just goes to show what an incredible time that was.
Properly playing Arkham Asylum for the first time right now and it is an absolute masterpiece. The atmosphere, art style, combat, everything is just perfect.
Real talk. I'm also sort of playing it properly for the first time (never beat it before but I will this time). Then I'll also continue with Arkham City. Batman
In 2000 I was 17 and The Sims was my first game addiction. Also became my gateway to MMOs when the online version released. Still great to play to this day.
