Dino Crisis 2 Review (Sony PlayStation, 2000)

The original Dino Crisis seemed a bit redundant at release. It was a survival horror game from Capcom. Thing is they already had the super popular Resident Evil to fit that niche in their catalogue. Why make a competing survival horror game? Regardless they did, and rather than focusing on zombies they instead went with dinosaurs. I can dig it. After all Jurassic Park scared the heck out of me when I saw it in theaters. What’s more is that Dino Crisis was legitimately fun, and different enough from Resident Evil that directly comparing the two was kind of lazy. Dino Crisis must have sold well enough because Capcom greenlit a sequel. They must have seen the comparisons to Resident Evil, and wanted Dino Crisis 2 even further removed. Unfortunately Capcom may have taken things too far. Let’s go back in time and check it out.

Following the events of the first game. Additional research has been conducted on time gates after the tragedies in the original Dino Crisis. Unfortunately things go wrong and the Midwest research base as well as the neighboring town disappear. Left in their place is a jungle ripped straight from the past. Yes, this means dinosaurs. The protagonist from the first game, Regina, is brought back into the fold along with some fresh faces to rescue the survivors and of course shoot down some dinos. As far as story goes this one is a decent continuation and still feels like Dino Crisis from a storytelling perspective. You have lots of voice overs, full motion video, and cinematic cut-scenes to tell you what’s going on here.

I’ll be honest. I don’t really care about the story in Dino Crisis. The characters mean almost nothing to me, and I couldn’t be bothered with most of the plot twists. I did however like the character interactions. These feel fairly natural especially for a survival horror title from this era. Regardless I’m just not invested in the Dino Crisis continuity. Regina is a decent character I suppose, and she has her fare of sassy dialogue which is charming, but this isn’t Resident Evil. I can however appreciate the high production values and cinematic approach here.

Dino Crisis 2 at first appears to be a traditional survival horror game. Using tank controls you guide your character through various environments all the while being attacked by dinosaurs at every turn. You can use both firearms and melee attacks. In this case pumping enemies with lead makes things much easier because you don’t need to get up close and personal. At the top of the screen you have a vitality meter which measures your life, and this drains with each attack dinosaurs land on you. Health can be restored via first aid kits littered throughout the stages. Despite technically being a survival horror game these aren’t in short supply. I rarely had a problem maintaing a steady supply of these and so there wasn’t a lot of tension in this regard.

There are some major changes in this sequel. The first thing you’ll notice is that Dino Crisis 2 uses pre-rendered backgrounds. That’s a step backwards in my opinion. You no longer have the dynamic camera. Now all perspectives are static. Initially this is jarring, but it doesn’t take long to get used to. This is after all what Resident Evil was doing at the time. The second thing you’ll notice is that you have multiple characters with different scenarios within the same story. I wasn’t particularly attached to Regina so I had no problems with this. The next significant change is that the game is far more focused on arcade style action. It’s not slow, nor is it plodding. Instead dinosaurs respawn, and you’ll have an endless amount of foes to respawn. Unfortunately this doesn’t really fit the survival horror motif. There are no jump scares, and significantly less tension.

When I say Dino Crisis 2 is more of an arcade game I mean it. Don’t be deceived by the camera angles, and the fact that you’re hunting down keys to unlock the way forward. There are very few puzzles in the game. Instead you’ll spend almost all of your time fighting dinosaurs. The game even gives you a ranking as well as points based on the amount of dinos you’ve gunned down. These points are used as currency to purchase new weapons and items from each save point. If you know what you’re doing you can even find that specific places offer more points. So yes, there’s some grinding. You can make it through without focusing on this aspect but taking the time to rack up points is well worth it in the long run.

You also never feel like you don’t have enough ammunition. Saving your bullets and carefully planning which foes you’re going to gun down and when is a big part of the survival horror genre. That’s not an issue here. It’s one of Dino Crisis 2’s big transgressions from the genre. You get a lot of firepower here, and it never feels like bullets are scarce. Ammunition isn’t limited and can be restored at save points using extinction points (I’ll get to those later). In addition even the knife/taser is super useful and I found myself relying on them frequently. I really like the vast amount of firepower at your disposal and slaying prehistoric beasts feels really good. On the other hand the more severe action orientation made me miss the days of survival horror. Dino Crisis 2 is a good game, but it’s not a great sequel.

Now it’s time to discuss extinction points. This is in-game currency used to purchase healing items, tools, new weapons, and ammunition. These are distributed upon clearing each area, and amounts are tied to your performance. It’s based on the number of enemies you kill, how high you can rack up your combo attacks, and the damage you take. It’s another aspect of the game that leans heavily into the arcade style of play. Because enemies spawn endlessly in some areas you can actually grind these extinction points if you’re saving for a new weapon. These are also how you refill your ammunition. It’s never in scarce supply is because bullets are cheap here. This encourages players to go all out and kill as many dinosaurs as possible. I was disappointed by how little I had to worry about saving bullets. The combat and cast of dinosaurs make up for this.

The lineup of weapons is solid. On top of the typical handguns, shotguns and rifles you’ll also find flamethrowers, chainmines, hand cannons, rocket launchers, and more. Only a few are questionable. I’m talking mostly about the firewall which generates a wall of flames in front of the character. It’s usefulness is limited, and it’s virtually useless against most of the bigger creatures you encounter. The item upgrades are also pretty cool. You’ll find various armors, upgrades to your melee attacks, and more. The game does however limit how early you can acquire all of these. They are purchased at save points, and unlock a few at a time as you progress. Most of the time it’s well worth the grind of returning to areas in order to drive up your kill count and combo attacks to save up for new gear as it becomes available.

If there’s one thing I like about Dino Crisis 2 it’s the wide array of enemies. One of the issues I had with the original was that it felt like you spent too much time fighting just velociraptors. Capcom padded out the roster with some truly memorable beasts here. Of course the raptors make a not so triumphant return as do the pterodactyls, and of course the T-Rex. This time around you’ll encounter new dinosaur choices like triceratops, mosasaurus, allosaurus, and more. My favorite was the aquatic plesiosaurus. I’d say that the dinosaurs move, attack and react realistically but I’ve never seen a dinosaur so I can’t venture to guess as to the accuracy. They do however behave just like I would suspect dinosaurs to, and getting ambushed by multiple raptors at a time can be the kiss of death. Dinosaurs can also move over, around or even through obstacles.

I have mixed feelings overall when it comes to Dino Crisis 2. It’s a poor survival horror game. There are almost no scares, and no sense of dread. The more arcade approach takes it almost completely out of the survival horror genre. On the other hand I can appreciate what they were going for here. It does seem like Capcom took the complaints of Dino Crisis being Resident Evil with dinosaurs seriously. They went above and beyond to make this series its own thing. I can respect that. It does help that combat is fun, and the enemies are all pretty interesting. It has the trappings of survival horror combat but without any of the limiting factors. With that said it doesn’t quite reach the same heights as its predecessor, but I still consider it one of the best survival horror games of all time.

At least this still looks like Dino Crisis. At least at a glance. The odd anime art style for the graphics returns, and the dinosaurs look and animate just as well as they did in the previous game. What has been upgraded is the character models. These have noticeably more polygons and move more fluidly than before. The only real downgrade I can see is in the backgrounds. Dino Crisis was unique for its time because the environments were rendered on the fly. These static images used here look nice, but lack the same dynamic appeal. Regardless the game looks fantastic. The soundtrack has also been changed, but in this case for the better. The techno/rock tracks fit the action and pacing well. They’re also a treat to listen to. I loved the soundtrack in Dino Crisis 2.