Thanks to emulation, it is now possible to play a new selection of classic PS2 games in native PS5 apps as part of the PS Plus Premium offering. These emulated PS2 classics were first introduced in 2022 with the new PS Plus tiers, but have had significant issues.
This made it difficult to recommend at the time. These included PAL/NTSC compatibility issues, faulty scaling options, and running in a PS4 app container. Sony now had the chance to offer a much better experience in native PS5 apps, but the revised offering deserves closer analysis from DigitalFoundry disappointingly below average, despite selecting some great games like Sly Cooper, Tomb Raider Anniversary, and Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
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The PS2 emulation on the PS5 is disappointing
The main problem seems to be a clear lack of care in emulation for Digital Foundry, as some of the same issues identified with the PS4 version of the emulator remain unresolved two years later – and some new problems have emerged.
That's not to say that these releases don't have their merits, though – you can play PS2 games with PS5-native menus to get improvements like rewind functions or save states, customized controls, and a free choice between NTSC or PAL versions. The problem is that the implementation of these ideas is often disappointing, or even actively detracts from the enjoyment of the game, according to Digital Foundry.
One example is the presets in Tomb Raider Anniversary. You can choose between four options: the default picture, Modern (which affects the blacks), Classic Arcade (which adds an unconvincing CRT filter), and Modern Arcade (which adds a slightly different but equally unconvincing CRT filter).
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The video upscaling is significantly worse. Reports of resolution remaining unchanged compared to the PS2 original are unfounded. It's because the output is scaled to look about as blurry as the original. Again, this is particularly noticeable with UI elements like text, which are the PS2 assets that are stretched (without taking into account the anamorphic pixels that would have been used on the original hardware) and scaled with a simple bilinear filter for a blurry result. Given that third-party upscalers such as RetroTink 4K (and even software emulation) can make the game look better on the original hardware, it's surprising how sloppy the upscaling is here on PS5 hardware.
There are also small differences in how these games run. On the plus side, Digital Foundry says this fixes some slowdowns on the original hardware, with Sly Cooper running at a fixed 30fps on the PS5. On the other hand, the same game exhibited some other issues on Sony's latest hardware, including a level playing without music.
Digital Foundry ultimately finds it hard to accept Sony's efforts, especially since the retro hardware community has collectively solved many of the problems raised here – particularly developing a set of really good upscaling methods and filters that you'll actually want to use.
Given that this knowledge exists in the retro community – and no doubt in Sony's offices – it seems Sony simply doesn't want to invest the time to showcase its classic titles at their best. To quote John Linneman, “It's like someone launching an emulator with the default settings and just handing you the controller. Sure, you can play the game, but wouldn't you rather have someone who knows and loves the game set it up properly for you?”
Have you tried the new PS2 games on PlayStation Plus yet?