O tempora is a series of retrospective posts where I play games from ages before to see if they stood the test of time.
The Dino Crisis franchise has a weird spot in Capcom catalog. On one hand, the first two games were really popular and apparently sold well. On the other, the company has been obviously unsure about making a new title, especially after the failed experiment with the third game. And besides, if they do make a new game, what type of game would it be? All three games in the series were so different.
The original Dino Crisis was directed by Shinji Mikami and you can easily tell. His love to lots of hardcore gameplay concepts made the game the most “survival” any Capcom game of that period ever came close to. Dinosaurs are hard to kill, pursue you across several rooms, occasionally respawn in already cleared rooms and your character can start bleeding out due to a wound… I’ve a feeling we’re not in Raccoon City anymore, Toto. Mikami constantly breaks the rules he himself set in Resident Evil 1. And breaks them spectacularly fun.
If in Resident Evil you were motivated to occasionally avoid conflict and avoid enemies, Dino Crisis practically screams at you “They’re dinos, dummy, run away!” You get three guns, the pistol becomes essentially useless from the start, the rifle/shotgun is only useful for tranquilizers or poison while the grenades are saved for the hardest moments only. Dinos are incredibly fast and hit really hard, so whenever you manage to limp your way to the electric fence, leaving a blood trail behind, and close the fence right as a velociraptor is trying to bite your butt, it’s a lucky day. And that’s what makes it so fun – you’re only required to fight in several meetings with a t-rex, but otherwise it’s best to run away, avoid completely or tranq and run.
And that wasn’t the only unique thing. Unlike RE, Dino Crisis had far more puzzles (and more involved as well), had fully realtime rendered backgrounds and a dynamic camera, though directed by the game, not the player. There was a rather involved system of mixing the healing items, poisons and tranquilizers to create new or upgraded versions of items. It was the first to have a continue option instead of relying on only forcing you to reload a save file. Inventory was completely unlike RE. Saving the game happened via leaving special safe rooms and you could do it as many times as you wanted. Also, this was the first in the genre to implement the “panic events”, which were a bit like proto-QTEs. Except, unlike modern QTEs or even the Live Selection in RE3, you just had to mash all buttons to succeed. And failing wasn’t always about killing you off either, as in some cases it just puts you in a worse position than if you succeed.
So it’s not surprising that the game got super popular. What is surprising, is how wildly different Dino Crisis 2 is. First game was a slow, methodical, complex horror title where meeting one dinosaur could be a trouble. The sequel was a fun arcade shooter. Dinos die far quicker, you have lots of guns and tons of ammo and killing dinos gives you points, while chaining kills quickly and without getting hit starts a combo meter. Dinos simply spawn in certain parts of every room, usually up to 25 spawns per room, so you can just run between two camera angles that have spawns to invite more dinos and kill them to grind points. And points give you better guns, ammo and other cool stuff.
Game returned the RE-like pre-rendered backgrounds, ditched puzzless almost completely and isn’t even trying to be scary. Given all this, it’s almost surprising that the tank controls are still here, though you can move and shoot at the same time. Though auto-aim is annoying this time around.
Weirdest thing about playing Dino Crisis 2 nowadays is that it’s hard to avoid comparisons with Resident Evil 5. Not just due to some similar moments, since there are some, but due to how similarly simpler and more streamlined the game is compared to the predecessor. As if the developers took the essence of action from the predecessor and designed the sequel just around that. And just like with RE5, not everyone was fond of the change. Which is a bit of a shame, since just like with RE5, this game is genuinely fun to play. It has lots of fun moments and it even tries to have an unexpected story twist. Even though it’s delivered with the same “quality”, as a lot of Capcom dialogue had during that time.
Now, I’ve never played Dino Crisis 3. And I’m almost sure that you haven’t either. It was exclusive to Xbox and wasn’t particularly well received. It was almost completely unrelated to the previous games too as it was far future, the events were happening on a spaceship and the dinos weren’t technically dinos – rather some dino-like creatures recreated from DNA. It was very heavy on action again, but this time with jetpacks. There’s an unfinished (at the moment) longplay on YouTube that you can check to understand how the game works. Judging from what I’ve seen, I feel like I know where ideas for Lost Planet came from.
Three different games, two of which had success. Interestingly enough, the style of the original (which Capcom dubbed as “panic horror” instead of “survival horror”) hasn’t actually been attempted since. Even though some of the best ideas can be found in Dead Space. What would a new game be if it were made? Should a new game be made? I’d say yes. Capcom is a bit too focused on their zombies and zombies are a bit boring by now. I wouldn’t expect a new game, should it be made, to be as complex as the original, yet I’d personally prefer it to not be as action-heavy as 2 and 3 either. So, Capcom, would you kindly give us new panic horror? Give us new encounters with non-bird-like dinos. New game with Regina and Third Energy. And for starters, at least re-release the original 3 games in one package. They’re still very fun to play.