"Great survival-horror, even if there are some imperfections here and there..."

Capcom must be really fond of Survival Horror games, because we all know that it has created the most successful Horror saga ever: Resident Evil. Now it has decided to slide away for a moment from Zombies and to dedicate itself to something a bit different... dinosaurs! But you shouldn't relax, because these beasts are as ferocious as those zombies... plus, they can even jump and run, so be prepared to face the invas... hem, no, not like the invasion, but the menace of the dinos!

Graphics are good... nothing to yell at, but they're good. They're 3D and a bit pixellish, but somewhat it doesn't matter much. Dinosaurs are probably the best thing designed in the game, as people aren't so well-drawn. FMVs are great! The effects are ncie... the blood is.. strange, but "nice" as well... and that's it.

The audio part is quite good... there are good musics and bad musics, but sound effects are mostly good, especially dinosaurs' roars... after all, the audio is what should keep you in tension, in these kinds of games, and that's what it really can do here. At least, thanks to the audio and the story combined, I jumped on the chair many times, so... I think you'll be pleased.

Good, now let's get to the story: basically 3 years ago there was an accident in Dr. Edward Kirk's laboratory and he seemed to die. Now, an explorer sent to an island (island with dinosaurs? That remembers me fo Jurassic Park, but after all...) saw Dr. Kirk in the building. Immediately, a squad of elites is sent to the island to check the situation and bring back Dr. Kirk. Squad is composed by Gail, the captain, the brute-force-man and so-on, Rick, the intelligent 'n smart one, Regina, the one you control, and Cooper, who didn't land with the others and was... eaten. Heh. Basically, you three begin to investigate the place... and you'll see what will happen... the simplish mission of bringing back the doc will transform into saving the Earth.. you'll see, I repeat.

Gameplay is quite like every other Survival Horror. You move in a 3D scenario, you aim with a button and shoot with the action button, which you can use for other things like examinating, looking, checking and whatever. You can run and do a couple of other things, and you have, obviously, a life and a menu. In the menu you can access to the sub-menu to check ammos, healing items and so... an advice: ammos must be used very carefully here... Oh, your enemies are dinosaurs, simple enough, isn't it? But you also have to solve many, difficult enigmas, like finding, rilevating and using codes, et cetera... there also are many puzzles which require a bit of brain.

Difficulty is high, very high. You'll die many times, for all the possible reasons: you run out of ammos and you end up in a room full of dinos, you are eaten by some giant enemy (understand, it isn't so hard...), you do the wrong thing. Not to mention all the times you'll end up blocked 'cause you can't find that small disk that lets you pass over that big door that leads to the end. Well, just to mention a thing: to open a protected door, you need two disks and then you'll have to guess the password using the clues you get from the disks. As far as you get, the passwords become, obviously, more difficult so guess...

So that's it, if you're looking for a good survival horror, this could be your choice. Be only warned, you may not finish it in a month, without the walkthroughs...

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/20/04