Jurassic Park meets Dino Crisis = Dino Crisis 2!

Dino Crisis is insanely genius! The most fun you'll have killing dinosaurs is right here! Dino Crisis 2 is warped with a war waging that you might not be ready for if you're not an avid gamer.

Regina, the red-headed heroine from Dino Crisis, is back in action. This time around, she's out to stop the invention - called the third-energy - that apparently was able to manifest dinosaurs into our world in the first place. Third third-energy is a tool that can transport the past into the future, or as in this game's case, vice versa. What happens when the U.S. Government doesn't listen to reason, and they continue their experiments with third-energy? An entire research facility is sent back through time. With the help of new character Dylan to head back in time to rescue survivors, Regina's new adventure will lead to a refreshing set of action packed sequences that you thought could only happen in the movies!

If you've played the last game, you might have figured out that the game was only hard because of those mind-boggling puzzles. This time around, though, Capcom has set a new level of hard. It's the skill of being able to shoot down as many raptors, pterodactyls, or even allasauruses that you possibly can before you get killed running a thousand meter dash through the treacherous jungles.

With that said, there's still puzzles abound, however. The puzzles in the game that don't involve fighting dinosaurs are easier. Usually, they involve something simple like finding a card key. But getting to your destinations can be difficult because of the many dinosaurs that stand in your way.

Basically, in the world of Capcom's new survival game, you're a specialist in dinosaurs. A dinosaur killer, I mean. The entire game will pit your character, Regina or Dylan (the two playable characters), against hordes of extinct lizards. I wonder sometimes how things like killing dinosaurs looks so easy in a game, but in real life, wouldn't you need an entire army just to attack this many scaly nuisances?

The gameplay is pretty good. All you've got to do is run, shoot, and climb. Most of the time, running is pretty much your only option since the creatures will appear everywhere. Rather than giving the new Crisis a horror theme, Capcom instead just turned it more over to the action genre. This new "action" theme is original for someone like Capcom, but it can be sometimes too much. However, tons of dinosaurs popping out of everywhere sort of adds a realism to the game.

When you'll hear about this game having a war setting with you and the dinosaurs, you better believe it. In the game you have to kill dinosaurs to earn Dino Points. It's just like in Parasite Eve 2 where you had to kill as many creatures as you could to purchase more weapons. The same thing goes for this game. You can gain more points if you're able to make it through an area without being scratched once. Or, you can complete combos by killing up to two or three dinosaurs at once with one bullet.

Overall, I was very impressed with the new environments and dinosaurs on screen at the same time. The detail in the dinosaurs, and each of their movements are all very realistic. The raptors will climb onto the same box as you do, the head butters will ram, and the T-Rex will even try smashing your guy like a bug while stomping and crushing everything in its path.

The first game didn't really expand into the second game's detail. Why, in the first game you were inside of a labratory/military type of place. All of the walls were gray and boring. This time, you're outside in a jungle setting where the beautiful pre-rendered backgrounds exploit leafy greens, sparkling water, and so forth.

And, the FMVs (Full Motion Videos) as usual are some of the best I've seen on the PlayStation yet! The opening scene shows the river boat warp into the world of the lost where our heroes are preparing for battle. Giant, and I mean REALLY HUGE bugs swarm the skies. My friends, when they saw that movie, they thought that was the actual in-game graphics. Idiots!

There's tons of new weapons, like the flamethrower and machete. Even though machetes are a sub-weapon, they're still a pretty cool weapon to use. The classification for a sub-weapon is that it's a weapon that you cannot only use to fend off the dinosaurs, but also to be used for solving puzzles. For instance, opening up doorways.

Both Regina and Dylan will use their special sub-weapons like in a puzzle manner. Regina can unlock certain areas while Dylan unlocks others. Throughout her game you'll both need to switch scenarios, and take turns exploring and fending off the dinosaurs.

You'll also see more dinosaurs in the game than just the standard "dinosaur movie" T-Rex, and the predictable raptor. For instance, you'll find triceratops, or even the mythical spitter. Be on the look out for dinosaurs as you go along your merry way, because you're going to not only need them for buying weapons, but also for buying life and ammo.

It's pulse-pounding action when you're listening to Dino Crisis 2's sound. Dinosaurs will jump out of the trees with realistic shaking effects. When your foot steps run across gravel and then on to a bridge, you'll notice the switch. The T-Rex sounds like a T-Rex (well, when compared to movies and such), and the voice-acting is once again superbly done. Dino Crisis 2 is sort of like the making of a movie, except the acting is done in a video game. Each character has his or her triumph, moment of despair, and even some comedic opportunity.

Capcom decided to even add a little replay value. After finishing the game, a survivor battle opens up where you can trade in all of the bonus points collected for unlockable characters. These characters can be either human, dinosaurs, or a tank. You can play against the computer by fighting each of the ten dinosaur types featured in the game, to see if you're able to survive. The mini-game can be fun for a little while, but I don't think that it's going to last anyone for too long.

Dino Crisis 2 can be officially titled the "hard game of the year." It's insane and ludicrous, but it's also fun, and also has some of the sweetest Capcom CG to come yet! So what's taking you so long to buy it? Get the game now before it becomes extinct!