Dino Crisis for PlayStation 1

When I was trying to decide what game I would kick off my survival horror week with, I wanted to pick one that met the requirement in this key area: It had to be decent, but not fabulous, as I do not want to review the best games first. I think Dino Crisis fits that bill quite nicely.

Dino Crisis starts out good. You are Regina, a redheaded beauty on a mission to investigate a mysterious facility on a small island. Regina is not alone though, accompanying her are three of her comrades. Well, two actually, as one gets eaten at the very beginning of the game. The remaining two allies spend most of the game arguing with each other on what action they should be taking, and, well, it kind of gets old after the tenth argument.

Well folks, it appears this isn't the quiet little island Regina and crew thought it was. As the title suggests, the island is packed full of hungry, carnivorous dinosaurs (you just have to ask yourself: "where are the vegetarians?"). Including the T-Rex, Pterodactyls, and Raptors. Raptors seem to be the dominant dinosaur species on the island, and will be 80% of the dinosaurs you fight. But where are all these dinosaurs coming from? To keep this review spoiler-free, let's just say that you suspect that a scientist by the name of Dr. Kirk, who supposedly died in an accident years before the game takes place, has faked his death and is running this crazy circus. Is that what's really going on? Is that the truth?

To say that Dino Crisis bares a lot of resemblance to the Resident Evil series is a severe understatement. Capcom likes to create near-carbon copies of their most popular games (as shown by their countless Street Fighter and Mega Man games), and although the case with Dino Crisis and Resident Evil isn't as 'bad' as those games, it's still very noticeable. For example, the controls in DC are EXACTLY the same as in RE. The item system is also nearly the same. And the graphics also seem to be the same, including the awkward character animations. Of course, nothing is wrong with this game-play as long as Dino Crisis offers a new angle on it, right?

To an extent, it does. Dino Crisis pretty much just dumps the dreadful, creepy, kind of slow atmosphere found in Resident Evil. Instead, Dino Crisis goes for a more action-oriented approach full of dino firefights, and cheap, shocking scares that almost always involve dinosaurs popping out at you. The biggest problem with Dino Crisis is although it takes a slightly different approach, it pretty much feels like the same game Resident Evil was. If Dino Crisis had been Capcom's first survival horror game, I would have given it a higher score.

Dino Crisis has most of the game-play aspects that other survival horror games do. You are forced to carry around a limited supply of items, whether it be weapons, health restorers, or other misc. items that will help you through the game. You are forced to store items you can't carry into a plug-based retrieval system. These systems can only be opened by using 'plugs' which you find in different places throughout the game. How many plugs are required to open them depends on the system.

Of course, it wouldn't be survival horror without puzzles. This is one area that seems to really have been improved over Resident Evil. In RE, you would have to solve puzzles that were either completely obvious (putting metals in their slots), or completely stupid (lighting a fireplace with a lighter). In Dino Crisis, the puzzles seem to all make sense, and at the same time are not overly simplistic. Some will take some time, like the pipes that drop from the ceiling puzzle. Others will be solved in seconds, like the generator color puzzle.

The graphics would look just fine if it weren't for the awful blockiness. Everything seems to look like the graphics department worked hard, it's just that I don't think the PlayStation is the right console for a game trying to do so much with its' visuals. Like with most games in this genre, I find the character animations to be sloppily, unrealistically done. I mean, besides Al Gore, do you know anybody who walks this stiff?

Sonically, this game is excellent. Incredibly shocking, subtle music fills the air. And even when it's not, the lack of music is equally effective. I also recommend playing the game in stereo sound to get the full of effect of dinos growling and guns firing. As far as sound goes, this game is top-notch.

If you love Resident Evil and want something that's more of the same, there is no reason for you not play this game. It's full of scares, action, and is fairly fun. On the other hand, if you're looking for a new gaming experience, check elsewhere. I can only hope that Capcom will put more into their upcoming Dino Crisis 2 to make it more than just a mere shadow of the Resident Evil series.

Tune in more this week to see other, some better some worse, survival horror reviews.