5 Games From the 2000s You Forgot Were Awesome

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The 2000s were an amazing time for gaming! Microsoft, Nintendo, and PlayStation were all releasing new consoles, and game developers kept up with a constant stream of new titles. This decade saw the beginning of hugely popular series like Halo, Grand Theft Auto, and God of War, just to name a few. With so many great games coming out all the time, it’s easy for good games to be forgotten, especially now. The five games listed below are examples of titles that, despite being solid, you don’t often hear people talk about.

Here are five 2000s games that are just as good as you remember.

5) Crackdown

Crackdown was really popular when it first came out, and a big reason was that the demo for Halo 3’s multiplayer was included with it. While the story isn’t very deep, the fun, open-world superhero gameplay – like being able to leap over buildings – kept players hooked.

The first game was truly great and deserves to be remembered for its fun, open-world gameplay in Pacific City. Sadly, the two sequels didn’t live up to the original and negatively impacted how fans view it. While people still appreciate the first game, the disappointing sequels prevent it from being remembered as fondly as it could be.

4) The Movies

While The Movies didn’t sell as well as hoped, it was still a remarkably ambitious game for its time. That level of innovation was typical of Peter Molyneux and his team at Lionhead Studios. The game allowed players to create full films using in-game resources and share them online for others to enjoy.

While not perfect, The Movies was a creatively ambitious game that felt ahead of its time – typical of games from Lionhead Studios. Recently, in 2024, Super Sly Fox released Blockbuster Inc. as a follow-up, but fans were disappointed it didn’t offer as much content as the original The Movies, which came out in 2005. Hopefully, Peter Molyneux will one day return to create the sequel that fans have been waiting for.

3) Freedom Fighters

IO Interactive, the studio behind the popular Hitman series, was more experimental in the 2000s. While one result was the fairly average shooter Kane & Lynch, they also created the acclaimed game Freedom Fighters during that time.

Okay, so I’m playing this third-person shooter where things went totally sideways – the Soviets ended up controlling New York City! As I progress through the story, I’m earning charisma points, and I can use those to build up a team – I can eventually have up to 12 squadmates fighting alongside me, which is pretty awesome.

Freedom Fighters really shines when you start commanding your teammates in battle, giving you a major advantage against the Soviets. The AI controlling your squad was remarkably good for its time, and the game world felt incredibly detailed. It felt like a perfect foundation for a sequel, but unfortunately, the developers went in a different direction with Kane & Lynch.

2) City of Heroes

Man, back in the 2000s, everyone and their mom was trying to make the next big MMO. You had developers and publishers seeing how much money EverQuest and World of Warcraft were raking in with those monthly subscriptions, and they all wanted a piece of the action. Most of their attempts totally flopped, but City of Heroes was different. For a little while, it actually felt like something new and exciting in the genre. It really stood out!

For eight years, City of Heroes was a popular online game, praised for its detailed character customization and unique approach to the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMO) genre. Most MMOs at the time focused on traditional fantasy settings with swords and armor, so seeing superheroes flying around the game world felt exciting and new.

After NCSoft announced it was shutting down the game servers in 2012, fans immediately started creating their own private servers to keep it alive. For years, these fan-run servers operated quietly, but in 2024, an agreement was reached with NCSoft to officially recognize and support one of these fan servers.

1) Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction

The games Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction and its sequel offered players a massive open world with incredible freedom. A key feature of Playground of Destruction was the ability to destroy any building in the game. It was like combining the chaotic missions of Grand Theft Auto with the environmental destruction seen in Red Faction.

The game lets you wreak havoc across a huge world, and it’s surprisingly enjoyable. You’ll play as one of five different groups, completing a series of missions called the Deck of 52 – a list of targets you need to eliminate to win.

The most challenging parts of the game are the “face card missions,” where you hunt down difficult targets – the Ace being the most elusive. While not as complex as the Nemesis system from Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, it does a good job of keeping you engaged. Sadly, plans for a third game were scrapped when Pandemic Studios closed in 2009, but early gameplay footage seemed very promising.

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2025-12-05 22:18