u/Holkao

I only have ONE image burned into my memory. Not the title, not the HUD, not the intro — just this single frame. It has never fully left my mind for years.

I made a rough drawing of the layout I remember:

Important note about the drawing: it ended up looking like a 2D side-scrolling soccer game camera — but that is not necessarily how the camera actually was. The drawing represents the layout and elements I remember (character on the left, chain-link fence across the background/top, locked door on the right, open space in the middle) — not the exact camera angle. The real camera could have been a fixed 3D angle, slightly elevated, or genuinely lateral — I honestly don't remember precisely. Use the drawing as a map of what was on screen, not as a literal camera reference.

Platform: Almost certainly PS2, but since it was a bootleg burned disc from a Brazilian street market, it could be a PS1 game running via backwards compatibility.

Estimated release: 99-2010. Played around 2006–2012.

The frame — described from my drawing:

The camera was in a strict side/lateral view — like looking at a stage from the side. could be a behind-the-back, but not isometric, not top-down.

The layout visible on screen:

• Left side: a door or structure (where the character was standing and i came from)
• Right side: another door or structure (this one was locked — I couldn't open it)
• Top/background: a large chain-link fence running across almost the full width of the screen, clearly visible as the back boundary of the area, with clear area.
• Center: open empty space — a courtyard between the two doors
• The character (a human figure, that's all I can confirm) was near the left door
• The weather was day clear, but uncertain, surely it was a open area.

The whole thing felt like a transition area or checkpoint — not a combat room, not a puzzle room. Just a passage I couldn't get through because of the locked right door.

The atmosphere reminded me strongly of the outdoor military area in Second Sight's early sections — grey, utilitarian, chain-link fences, no decoration. But I have watched Second Sight's full longplay and it is not that game, in Prisioners of War got me a uncanney valley feeling that could be it, but there is not any frame/area like i got stuck in my mind.

Everything else is uncertain — possible false memory:

• The character might have been a dark-haired adult male in dark clothing, could be a dark suit or black leather coat/jacket — I'm not sure if this is real or my brain filling gaps (see the history below)
• The area might have been outdoors and daytime — not fully uncertain
• I might not have been able to attack in this area — uncertain
• There might have been concrete on the ground — uncertain

How this memory got stuck:

I was a child. I bought a bootleg "Justice League" disc at a Brazilian street market. I never saw a title screen — I was just dropped into the game. I got completely stuck in this area with the locked door and the fence across the background.

The adults in the room couldn't figure it out either. To calm me down, they made up a story: "That's Batman — or Superman — in his secret civilian identity. You have to get through this part before he puts on his costume." I half-believed it because in the another day i got the real Justice League game, changing this one for the JL.

But that tells you something real: the character looked like an ordinary human in a serious, grounded, military-looking environment. Nothing obviously heroic.

That single frame has never left my mind. I've spent years watching PS2 longplays trying to find it. If I see the right frame/area, I will recognize it immediately.

If you think you recognize it — even from the list below — please don't just name it. Send me the exact timestamp. I may have looked at a longplay and missed the specific area.

Already ruled out — timestamp please if you're certain:

Superheroes/Comics: Wolverine Origins, X2: Wolverine's Revenge, Ghost Rider, Hulk (2003), Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, Batman Vengeance, The Punisher, Spider-Man: The Movie, Men in Black II, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, BloodRayne, Devil May Cry 1, The Warriors, Parasite Eve 2.

Stealth / Espionage: Metal Gear Solid 1 & 2, Syphon Filter 1/Omega Strain/Dark Mirror/Logan's Shadow, Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow, Mission: Impossible (PS1), Mission: Impossible Operation Surma, 007 Nightfire/Everything or Nothing/From Russia With Love, Prisoner of War, The Great Escape, In Cold Blood, Cold War (2005), Cold Winter, Spy Fiction, Alias, Stolen, The Operative: No One Lives Forever, IGI 2: Covert Strike, Headhunter 1 & 2, WinBack 1 & 2, The Bourne Conspiracy, 24: The Game, Covert Ops: Nuclear Dawn.

Action / Military: SOCOM 1/2/3, Conflict Desert Storm 1 & 2, Conflict Global Terror, Airborne Troops, Freedom Fighters, Sniper Elite, Ghost Recon: Jungle Storm, Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers, Terrorist Takedown, kill.switch, Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction, Shellshock: Nam '67, Gun, Brute Force, Smuggler's Run, Just Cause, SpyHunter: Nowhere to Run, Made Man, Trigger Man, Terminator 3: The Redemption, Terminator: Dawn of Fate, Gungrave, Project Snowblind, Hunter: The Reckoning, Dead to Rights 1 & 2.

Sci-Fi / Supernatural / Horror: Second Sight, Psi-Ops, Galerians: Ash, X-Files: Resist or Serve, Countdown Vampires, Eve of Extinction, Extermination, The Suffering 1 & 2, Ghosthunter, Run Like Hell, Area 51, Deus Ex: Invisible War, Advent Rising, Constantine, Project Eden, C-12: Final Resistance, Mace Griffin: Bounty Hunter, Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel, Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance.

Action / Adventure / Other: Hitman 2/Contracts/Blood Money, Max Payne, The Matrix: Path of Neo, Reservoir Dogs, The Da Vinci Code, Fahrenheit: Indigo Prophecy, Largo Winch, Jet Li: Rise to Honor, Minority Report, 10,000 Bullets, Diabolik, The Mummy Returns, Curse: The Eye of Isis, Alone in the Dark (2008), Fugitive Hunter, Deep Freeze, The Mark of Kri, CT Special Forces, The Sum of All Fears, Fade to Black.