Jurassic Resident Evil on the PS1 (Dino Crisis (PS))

Member Name: Bones

Product:	Dino Crisis (PS)
Date:	21/09/02 (240 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Zombies swapped with dinosaurs, Decent storyline and strong characters

Disadvantages: Gameplay lacks depth, Too short with little replay value

The survival horror genre of videogaming is still arguably in it's infancy as compared to the platformer or the shoot 'em' up, for it has only been properly embraced by one console thus far, namely the PS one (although the next-gen consoles will carry this on no doubt). Whilst the exception being the Alone in the Dark series whose routes precede the Playstation slightly, this revolutionary style of gaming blew everyone away with Capcom's 1996 release of Resident Evil.
Sequels (and indeed prequels) have followed yet thankfully Capcom acknowledged that survival horror's horizon could be pushed beyond zombies and so began developing a secret title along with Resident Evil 2. Dino Crisis (as you probably have already guessed) switched zombified monsters for a more dangerous and intimidating foe, the carnivorous dinosaurs of the Jurassic period. When word of its development arose, the hype magnified with the velocity of an extremely aggressive Australian bush-fire. The premise behind the game sounds amazing - Jurassic Resident Evil.

For those of you who have had even the most superficial practical knowledge of any of the Resident Evil series (except Resident Evil: Survivor), Dino Crisis has been developed in the same format. You control a character through the pre-rendered backgrounds, interacting with anything of any interest with a push of the X button, including doors. Put simply, it is a 3D adventure game. The camera follows you around but unlike a 3D platformer cannot be rotated. The door animations from the RE series are retained (not by choice I'd imagine though!) and the controlled character can perform all the same actions as Jill Valentine, Leon Kennedy e.t.c. (from RE series).

The main protagonist (as well as being the one and only person you can control throughout the game) of Dino Crisis is a female special agent named Regina, acting as part of a four man team (soon to become three man lol - pithy inside joke for
anyone who has played this). This elite task force is specially trained to handle sensitive military situations (on behalf of some sinister, secret government agency I expect) who in this situation are ordered to travel to a military facility on a remote island and apprehend a research scientist called Dr. Edward Kirk once thought to be deceased but discovered recently by an undercover agent to be undertaking a development project working with some kind of pure energy technology (such as cold fusion and all that jazz). However on arriving at the island they realise that this mission is going to be a lot less routine than anticipated. The facility is inexplicably (to them at first anyway) littered with corpses, some sliced up, some decapitated and even some that have been eviscerated. Confusion soon turns into a mild panic (the team take it amazingly calmly considering) when velociraptors start turning up on the scene. The manual confirms that it is Regina?s team, yet in reality there is no sign of military rank and the team runs under a more democratic method, which is a bad idea if you ask me, as your two compatriots Rick (computers expert), and Gail (hard-case who acts really macho but has a helpful habit of popping up and saving your hide quite regularly) argue constantly, mostly over you. Regina do this, no don't listen to him you must do this e.t.c. This leaves you with a decision to make at several points throughout the game (much like Resident Evil 3: Nemesis). How did they get put on the same team I ask myself? The game does eventually provide an explanation for the dinosaurs? presence courtesy of Dr. Kirk himself. To be honest I didn't really understand if all the scientific jargon he was using actually had any truth in the real world (and I have an A-level in Physics) but his third energy experiments have altered the space-time continuum (physical space with four dimensions including time so that an event can be described with four co-ordinates)
and so unfortunately anything which was inhabiting the island 70 million years ago got transported to the present. Unfortunately said inhabitants are mainly dinosaurs including a T-rex (thanks a lot Doctor) which turns up on your travels so many times you'd swear it had a homing beacon on you.

Since this game contains so many similarities to Resident Evil it would be a better idea to elucidate on the more significant differences in the gameplay department. Firstly, the game only lets you control one character and so there is only one quest (unlike RE1 or 2), so the replay factor has diminished substantially. Locked doors within the facility now (not always) are locked with an encrypted code. To open, Regina must locate an input disc and a code-cracking disc for each locked door (there are about 6 locked doors). Cracking the code is often very simple, but the latter ones require a little thought. Also, when used, keys are automatically discarded unlike Resident Evil where you are prompted first. The herbs from RE have been replaced with a more conventional form of treatment, medical packs. These like the herbs can be mixed to intensify their effect when applied. Also, when Regina is wounded, a health meter can no longer be found, so instead you have to judge her condition by how she moves. Unfortunately not all the treatment you will come across will heal Regina indefinitely - the smaller medical packs may only stop the bleeding or worse act as a temporary painkiller. This can be frustrating but at least it is something different to what I have seen in other games.

Graphically the game is very good in my opinion, although is undoubtedly a little dated now. The FMV's are very impressive yet are a little too brief for my liking (but lack of FMV's means the whole game fits on one disc) whilst the in-game environments are appealing but certainly not spectacular. The dinosaurs also are showing their age and the artificial intelligence could
have been improved. I was a little disappointed at the velociraptors particularly (especially after watching Jurassic Park) mainly because if you were behind a laser grid than they would repeatedly run into it. Unlike zombies the dinosaurs do follow you from room to room quite frequently. This is shocking the first few times but soon feels repetitive, a cheap scare tactic used by the developers.

The music in the game is quite pleasing, absent in some areas to build suspense but very up-tempo when Regina is in immediate danger. The dino-roar is used to its death, as well as the raptor's squawk/snarl (or whatever sound they make), which seems a little unrealistic because for hunters they are bloody loud. One criticism I have in this area is that the voice acting in the game is very quiet - particularly in the FMV's, to such an extent that if a plane goes by overhead you can't hear a thing they are saying. This would be no problem if a subtitles option had been included but it hasn?t so this warrants criticism I think. The speech in the game is acted well, and does bring up a few laughs, most of them supplied by Rick - seeing his first dinosaur - "it's just like that movie"; also previously another situation where Regina tries to convince him that she was just attacked "by a big-ass lizard".

As for the general gaming experience, Dino Crisis regrettably falls short of Resident Evil's high standards. Half of its problems cannot really be helped though as they lie with the dinosaurs. It would be putting it mildly to say that fighting dinosaurs would be difficult when you're equipped with a simple pistol and so the game has taken several liberties. If a velociraptor jumped on you there is not a chance in hell that you could muscle your way out of such a predicament, yet Regina does with some ease. It should also be noted that Regina is one tough woman, who can take more punishment than previously I could have t
hought possible without resulting in serious surgery. However personally I'd rather ditch the realism than make the game impossibly hard. Combating the prehistoric foes therefore can't be as riveting as real life (not that this is possible or so I'm led to believe). If this were a virtual reality game, actually putting you in the boots of Regina where you could execute two-handed John Woo style gunplay to take down a ravaging dinosaur would be great.
Of great appreciation though is as the game progresses the player is granted access to a more powerful arsenal but not surprisingly your adversaries also increase in size and strength. Parts can be found to upgrade any of your weapons. Your shotgun is able to fire anaesthetic darts which will invariably comatose an enemy. Combining powerful darts with a Resucitation pack create poison darts which are a godsend.
Some parts in the game illustrate the problematic nature of this game to an even greater extent. When confronted with Mr. Rex himself, you will frequently find yourself getting consumed unless you have the right equipment and know exactly how to tackle the situation, purely because the developers needed to convey some of the complications arising with taking on a tyrannosaurus one on one.

Conclusively I can say this game was very enjoyable but a little disappointing. The main quest (as is often the bane of Capcom's survival horror games) is far too short at around 6-7 hours for a first-time gamer, and despite the bonuses that repeat playing will unlock (complete game in under 5 hours grants a small bonus mission unrelated to main mission - like the mercenaries mode in RE Nemesis) such as more costumes and a weapon with infinite ammunition, this game sorely lacks real replay incentive. The three endings to the game (which one occurs depends on the decisions you make throughout the game) are the only reason I felt inclined to play this game more than once. Of greater concern is the
difficulty - this game is just too easy. The puzzles are rarely taxing and the DDK code system for the doors was just annoying, as it meant Regina now had to find two keys to open a door. Still if you're a fan of the genre you will almost certainly like this game, but don't expect too much. For a survival horror game I'd give this just 3 stars but as a videogame generally it merits an extra star, as I like playing these games tremendously. A sequel has been out for sometime though I've yet to play it. Capcom switched the survival aspect to a more gun-toting style of play, and I've heard the results are quite beneficial.
Hope you find this review informative - thanks for reading!

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