3. The Suffering
Selling 1.5 million copies overall may make The Suffering a strange choice as a 'hidden gem' during the PS2's cycle, but the fact is that a lot of those sales came pretty late after the game's release. Word of mouth is a powerful thing, and this intriguing tale, developed by those crafty cats over at the now-defunct Surreal Software, is living proof of that. The weary story which starts in a prison/lab/research facility/ally way where the protagonist has no recollection of how they got there has been done to death, but The Suffering puts a nice spin on proceedings. The main stain, Torque (yes, what are you giggling at?) has been placed on death row for murdering his ex-wife and children, but claims to have blacked out during the act. Playing as a man convicted of such heinous crimes is a bold move from the developers, and his story of grief, regret and coming to terms with what he's done is backed up by a great shooter. Ironically, suffering is the last thing you'll be doing playing this genuinely creepy, bad ass game.