Dino Crisis

"Escape the horror--turn your console off."

Something is wrong, thought Cooper as wet leaves crunched under his feet. The drop had put him too far from the rendezvous site. How will I find my way through this jungle to my teammates, without a GPS or even a freaking compass? If we're a black-ops team that specializes in nighttime infiltration, why don't I have night-vision goggles? he wondered as he switched on the heavy Ace Hardware flashlight that he was issued instead.

There wasn't to be much more wondering for Cooper. He was soon to be eaten whole by a Tyrannosaurus Rex, and there would be no one to hear him scream. Not because he was alone in the jungle... it was because no one except him had a radio.

So begins Dino Crisis, the tale of the most incompetent, ill-equipped, bumbling ''black-ops'' team in videogame history, and their attempt to repatriate the mysterious ''Dr. Kirk'' from his self-imposed exile on a jungle island. Dr. Kirk's compound is heavily guarded, so consummate infiltration experts Regina, Gail (it's a he), and Rick use such sophisticated techniques as standing languidly underneath bright lights, calling out each others' names loudly, and making smart-ass remarks, to maintain the utmost secrecy of their mission.

''I'LL INFILTRATE THE FACILITY AND OCCUPY THE CONTROL ROOM ON THE FIRST FLOOR,'' says Rick at a nice, comfortable speaking volume, before you take over as the acerbic Regina and begin to realize that this island has been taken over by--dinosaurs! Knowing that I was going to be up against mobile and powerful velociraptors instead of mentally-challenged zombies, I immediately experimented with the controls to see what new moves and options Capcom had innovated in the eight months since Konami's Silent Hill had set the new standard.

While Regina still moved like all of Capcom's Survival Horror heroes and heroines do, I was richly rewarded with the ability to walk with my gun drawn and quickly turn 180 degrees. Truly abilities befitting a special-ops agent. I couldn't help but note that with his ability to run with a weapon, look somewhat freely around his realtime surroundings, dodge backwards, and move laterally, Joe Schmoe from Silent Hill could run rings around this ''highly trained'' military operative.

So it's established that you're outmatched here in options. The velociraptors that are the game's most common (practically only) enemy can bite, dash, pounce, and whip with their tails. They take an average of ten shots from your 9mm pistol to die, and can charge straight through that fire and hit you anyway. Without the ability to roll or even run laterally, it's more or less impossible to both dodge their attacks and actually do damage to them. Either run away, or point and shoot knowing that you'll take some damage--those are some sophisticated Green Beret-style tactics.

So without any sort of agility, Regina has to resort to her technology (read: guns) to deal with these prehistoric powerhouses. Regina starts out with a nine-millimeter pea-shooter (Gail and Rick both have assault rifles... how about that), and soon finds a shotgun that doubles as a tranquilizer gun (huh?) as well. It's here that you can start experimenting with Dino Crisis' surprisingly deep item combination system.

To compensate for your tragically small inventory, recovery items and tranquilizer darts can be put together in any combination to increase their levels (two ''small'' tranq darts make a ''medium'' dart, or a medium med-pack and a medium dart can create a ''large'' med-pack). You can even find ''intensifiers'', raw chemicals that, depending on their type, can either be combined with recovery items or darts to increase their effects. These are all great ideas--the problem is that they're ruined by the game's random item placement. While keys and unique items are always in the same places, there are a lot of ''holes'' that can be filled randomly with ammo, recovery, tranquilizers, or mixers... or not filled at all (this happens about half the time). So, the wonderful item refining system is wasted when you find, for instance, nothing but tranq darts and recovery item intensifiers.

Even if the game could rise over these purely technical blunders, it could still be fun. It's not. It lacks the oppressive atmosphere and bizarre storyline that made Silent Hill as interesting as it was harrowing. It doesn't even have the heavy-weapons gratification of Resident Evil--it would be nice to occasionally turn a raptor's head into a fine red mist. But, without anything as exotic as a flamethrower or even a Magnum pistol, there's nothing but the droning boredom of killing the exact same things (there are only two dinosaur types as regular enemies) with the one useful weapon.

As if seeing the same two enemies over and over and over weren't enough, they respawn. Travel through an area that you cleared out before and, on purely random basis, you may find the enemies back again. Hence, you are penalized for exploration--take a wrong turn, going down the hallway that has the locked door at the end instead of the one with the key, and you'll have fought off roughly twice as many raptors as you should have by the time all is said and done. Astute readers will be thinking, ''well, then ammo and recovery item caches must periodically refresh too.'' If you are, I wish you had designed this game.

Input from an actual player probably would have kept the danger scenes out too. In a desperate attempt to make the game's non-interactive scare scenes more involving, Dino Crisis introduces the ''danger scene'' mechanic. Sometimes, when jumped by a dinosaur in a canned attempt to startle you, ''DANGER'' will appear at the bottom of the screen. This is your cue to MASH TEH BUTTONS OR DIE!!1! It might be scary and stressful to have to respond so quickly and violently to a sudden, startling attack... but the screen clearly letterboxes before a danger scene happens, giving you all the advance warning you could want. So much for sudden and startling--in the end, all the supposedly tense and scary danger scenes do is wear out your controller.

In the interest of wrapping up this review leaving you with some hope for humanity, I'll talk about the one gamplay idea in Dino Crisis that was both creative and well-implemented. From time to time Regina has to choose which of her allies--Gail or Rick--she agrees with as to the best course of action. Gail, being the gung-ho type, usually wants to fight his way out of everything; going with Rick the computer guy will typically put you up against puzzles. This ''split storyline'' mechanic is a good idea--it would have been a great way to choose your own focus between combat and puzzles, if either was entertaining or bearable. You'll be treated to one of three different endings depending on whether you go with Gail, Rick, or tell them both to pound sand.

While the item-combining and split-storyline mechanics are conceptually solid and would have been great in another game, I'm otherwise at a loss to explain the vacuum of rational thought that Dino Crisis seems to have been produced in. The amazing incompetence of Regina and her crew is not something to be pressed on in spite of--rather, it's indicative of the underlying mentality that created this game. Recommended only to those who don't value logical plots, flexible control, or balanced gameplay.

Overall: 4/10

Graphics: 6/10
Audio: 6/10
Control: 2/10
Gameplay: 4/10

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 12/02/01, Updated 12/02/01