25 Most Criminally Underrated PS2 Games Of All Time
17. Dead To Rights
Before Gears of War nailed the third-person cover template to the wall, all sorts of attempts were made at perfecting it, with Dead to Rights' more brazen brawler being one of the most playable.
A super simple action movie premise, you played as one Jack Slate as he partnered with dog, Shadow, to thin the ranks of a ton of enemies. It was eventually rebooted on PS3 and 360, but this original was far more arcady, even letting you finish off enemies with a number of 'fatality'-style moves.
The sheer feeling of unloading a shotgun blast into various goons and grabbing a canister of fuel before sending it careening into a bunch more - then detonating it in mid-air - is third-person shooting perfected. Its melee brawler component only extended your options to devastate opponents, the whole thing feeling like John McClane had taken karate lessons as a kid.