Dino Crisis

"Fossilized"

Capcom has done it again- but don’t get too excited. Too much of a good thing is not really the best thing as far as this whole “survival horror'' craze grows. While all the pro gaming magazines gushed heaps of praise over this game, I think that the genre is wearing thin fast. It definitely needs newer innovations or it'll become stagnant like fighting games have over the last few years. If anything, the main problem comes when major developers continue making “new” games way too much like Hollywood makes “new” movies these days: big-budgeted, highly derivative, empty headed efforts that the masses will gladly eat up like cheap candy because they just don’t know any better. Or care, for that matter.

Well, let me be the first to put a big boot in your soft, chewy nougat and say this: Dino Crisis is the videogame equivalent of the Jurassic Park movies with a Resident Evil coat on. Of course, if this is the thing that floats your boat, more power to you. I just could not get into this one (despite its extremely high quality) for a number of reasons. First of all, the controls in the game are as bad as they are in the RE series, and the mean advantage that the dinosaurs have over the poor player is magnified even more since you just CAN’T move fast enough, turn properly, or jump away from danger! The added ability to spin 180 degrees is a great addition, but in limiting the movement of the main character so much, Capcom adds unwanted frustration to the fear you feel as you make your way through the game.

As much as I despised parts of the last three Tomb Raider games, at least Lara has some fancy moves. Most of Regina’s best moves happen when she’s getting smacked about and chewed on by the much more smoothly animated dinosaurs! You’d figure that Capcom, known for some of the most superior animation in its 2D fighting games would extend a bit of that effort into this one. But, decisions like this are often made on a corporate level rather than a practical one. I can see the suits at Capcom in Japan sitting around a table thinking: “Hmmm- Resident Evil sold by the bucket, despite the really awful controls, so let’s just give all our happy fans of “survival horror” more of the same stuff to deal with''...followed by: ''Well O.K., but we’ll make the zombies into dinosaurs, and the environments in 3D this time...”

About that 3D...if you didn’t know it, you wouldn’t be able to tell that much at all. Despite every room in the game being polygon-based, with very few exceptions, the camera is still locked into place just like in the RE games. You can’t see what’s ahead of you for most of the game because the developers want to build up some sort of “suspense”. Instead, it makes the game more annoying than it should be time and time again.

Case in point: you walk Regina through a door into a long hallway. As soon as she's there, you hear a hissing sound and the click of sharp toenails on linoleum. You walk her forward until the angle changes to another part of the hall, and as you do this you see a big raptor just turning a corner and coming face to face with Regina! As you try to fire a weapon or spin around, the toothsome beast lunges forward and knocks her down, and BACK into the previous camera angle! As you attempt to get her up, the (now unseen) raptor attacks again, knocking your gun away! You manage to get ol’ Regina to limp back to the door as those razor-sharp teeth close in on her poor, yet shapely rear end...

In a game like this the ability to control the camera would have made a big difference, like in Konami's Silent Hill. Instead, there are far too many instances where I felt trapped by poor design and the overuse of old, tired tricks. Dino Crisis would play exactly the same as it does now with pre-rendered backgrounds. Then again, it would just be another Resident Evil clone right down to most of the story elements. Speaking of story, if you even start to think that the one here is original, you may be a bit disappointed. Most of the real surprises come toward the end depending on choices you make earlier during the game. There are a couple of endings, but no really huge surprises are in store for you if you played Resident Evil to death.

The characters are a little better defined this time, but still come off as a bit shallow. At least the voice acting is better here. There are of course, lots of puzzles to solve, and at least in this respect Capcom has done a fine job. Most of the ones here are of the mechanical variety, a nice change from the “push the block to get the rock” puzzles that were old back in the Alone in the Dark days. There are also the usual keys and items to find and use, but only 3 weapons in the game! Like in RE, you can combine items to make new ones, but don’t expect to find a super dino laser in a crate somewhere. There is a “newer” type of cryptogram-based puzzle that's a nice touch, but it adds more tension than it should if you have one or two raptors gnawing your tush as you're trying to get one of those doors open. Unless you think fast under pressure or write clues down to use later on, an incorrect entry can have you staring at that evil “Game Over” screen a lot sooner than you think.

Yes, there are lots of really great things about this game like the graphics, music, the animation on the great-looking, single-skinned dinos, the excellent CG, the T-Rex scares, some of the level designs, and one or two of the branching sub-plots. But when I think of dinosaurs, I think about outdoor areas with room to run for your life in (e.g. Tomb Raider), not some raptors popping out of a desk or through a door. Again, if this is your sort of thing, go for it. I guarantee that you’ll have a grand old time with Dino Crisis. Call me an egghead if you please, but I like the bite in my horror to come from above the neck, not below, if you catch my drift...

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 01/01/03, Updated 01/01/03