Dino Crisis

This is where you can deliberate anything relating to videogames - past, present and future
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JaySevenZero
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Dino Crisis

Post by JaySevenZero »

Here's where you can contribute your memories and opinions of Dino Crisis for potential inclusion in the forthcoming podcast.

Friendly reminder to all that where feedback for the podcast is concerned, we love it - but self-editing (brevity) is appreciated. We do want to include a breadth of opinions where appropriate, but no-one wants a discussion podcast that’s mainly reading. Better to save yourself time and cut to the chase if you can.
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ReprobateGamer
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Re: 376: Dino Crisis

Post by ReprobateGamer »

I can imagine the scene in a Capcom meeting room:

"This Biohazard game series is doing well and we've green lit the third one. With Konami bringing in Silent Hill, what can we do to capitalise on this?"
"well, that Jurassic Park thing is doing okay ..."

Whatever the origins, the story of how dinosaurs have ended up in modern day times and how the player character kick-ass protagonist is rather clunky.
But the game works, and it worked very well upon release. The controls were familiar to anyone playing survival horror games in the late nineties and the addition of moving while aiming helped to offset the manoeuvrability of the various dinosaur enemies replacing zombies and monsters. Voice acting was suitably cheesy but the sound design was on point. The background graphics were well rendered though plain for the most part (it's a secret base and you rarely go outside - the jungle surrounding the facility may as well not exist for it's impact on the game itself (RIP Cooper). Military tactics and realism is again through that quirky Japanese lens that doesn't quite properly reflect but the point is to play hide and seek (and kill!) with raptors so whatever.

Regina was a great character, and it was a nice touch to have her weapons alter in keeping with the BC10000 skin, if you unlocked it. it remains a games that I'd love to see remade in the RE tradition and one that I really think Capcom went off the rails with - DC2 carried on the progression of survival horror to survival action games (dual wielding MP5's!) and the series sudden inexplicable (and ill-adivised) leap into the future for DC3, leaving this series desperately needing another entry
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duskvstweak
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Re: 376: Dino Crisis

Post by duskvstweak »

Dinosaurs are weirdly underrepresented in the video game world, which is one of the reasons Dino Crisis is such a gem for me. Gameplay-wise, it has the reputation of a Resident Evil knockoff, but, I would love to see more "Popular Game but with Dinosaurs!" knockoffs.

And, in all honesty, I don't remember too much about the gameplay aside from running from Velociraptors or putting two ends of a green pipe together. But, the tone and setting had me, and inspired me to run my own Dino Crisis knockoff tabletop game with friends.

Being alone on a jungle island, knowing every sound outside and in is most likely a dinosaur waiting to devour me was scary! And, at the time, a fast Raptor felt scarier than a lumbering zombie. I wish there were more dinosaur types, the game mostly just sticks to the Raptors, which get's a bit monotonous, but at least the T-Rex is there to shake things up.

This is a game that I wish had a healthier series life span and I would love for a full-blown sequel these days. Regina seemed like a strong enough character to carry a franchise, even if her teammates seemed like dweebs. The PS1 game might be a bit rough around the edges, but, for my own warm memories, I'm glad this game decided to steal from Resident Evil...but with dinosaurs.
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The Baboon Baron
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Re: 376: Dino Crisis

Post by The Baboon Baron »

Sir’s and Ma’ams of Cane and Rinse community- I wanted to like Dino Crisis- I really did! Even picking up an old 60GB PS3 to play it properly. But after several attempts to play it, it just didn’t click with me. It had long been on my list of “will get around to it one day” games. I liked the concept- Resident Evil with Dinosaurs? What’s not to like! I love survival horror and I love B-movie camp, it looked on surface to be a great retro throw back.

But it just didn’t gel with me. I was immediately confused by the user interface, finding it and the map quite confusing within the first few minutes of play. The tank controls took a little while to get into but didn’t prove to be too much of a hindrance. My issue was the Dino’s themselves- often backing me into corners where upon I was ripped apart quickly. Something that made the lack of ammo (normally a survival horror trope) more frustrating than atmospheric. I re-started several times to see if I figure out the intended path, but instead wound up lost and ammo-less while packs of raptors followed me ultimately converting me into Dino Chow.

Perhaps it’s the age and the style of game but try as I might I just couldn’t get it to click. I fear it is me, and that modern games have shortened my patience, because objectively the graphics, sound and gameplay are stellar considering the hardware its running on. A remastering of DC in the style of the relatively recent Resident Evil or even RE 2 would be amazing, as a few small upgrades would allow for (in my view) a stronger and more enjoyable experience.

We all have a couple of blind spots, and it seems DC is one of mine. Perhaps I’ll try again in another 20 years…
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Alex79
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Re: 376: Dino Crisis

Post by Alex79 »

Despite having played and replayed the older Resident Evil games many times over the years, I only ever played Dino Crisis once, relatively soon after it was released.

It's a game I've always meant to come back to at some point, but because it's never seen any kind of official re-release in the UK it's always seemed a bit of a hassle to play. When I noticed it was going to be covered for the show, I decided to make an effort.

I played it on my Vita, and didn't find myself hampered whatsoever by the lack of the L and R2 buttons. I did, however, find myself hampered by the archaic control scheme. I've always been an advocate for tank controls, but this just felt stiffer than the Resi games ever did - although I'm sure my memory will be playing tricks on me there.

Now, full disclosure, I didn't finish the game on this play through. I got about four hours in, and decided I'd played enough to make an informed decision not to bother playing on. I definitely remember enjoying the game back in the day, but under the scrutiny of a modern eye, it's just a bit... boring. The puzzles are even duller than the rote find crow key for crow door type ones found in the games zombie infested cousins. The items are just so generic and uninspiring - code card D, ID card C etc. BOOOOOORING!!

The lack of variety in enemies, the terrible voice acting, the clunky controls, the dull environments. It seems like there's nothing to love about this game - YET, I did actually enjoy what I played! Why? I literally have no idea. I just didn't feel the need to carry on when I have a backlogue of so many more exciting and interesting games to get through.

It's almost impossible to talk about this game without referencing and comparing to Resident Evil, and that may have ultimately harmed the series I guess. It'll never stack up well to what is generally regarded as one of the biggest series in gaming history, but, kudos to Capcom for trying something new I guess.

THREE WORD REVIEW: Better than Turok.
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Simonsloth
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Dino Crisis

Post by Simonsloth »

This is not the game I remember. In my teenage mind this was Jurassic Park meets Resident Evil and with strict parents the fact it was dinosaurs rather than zombies meant I could add it to my Christmas list. I played it multiple times on release in the aim of unlocking everything. I got 2 out of 3 endings but never managed to get the third.

In the process of going back I rummaged through my old memory cards. I discovered two unofficial memory cards which were corrupted sadly but my WWF attitude branded card was still going strong. This held my original save game.

On booting up my original PlayStation disc I discovered I had everything unlocked so I was blessed with infinite grenades. I did try to avoid using these at the beginning in order to preserve the experience but by the end I was using them exclusively just to get it done. It was not the fun game I remember in fact it was more of a chore. The Velociraptors were annoying rather than threatening. Laser barriers seemed like a good trick to box them in if they had been more of a threat. The sad truth is they could have been akin to a licker in terms of menace so a real missed opportunity.

One of the best sequences is a chase across a metal walkway with the T-Rex right behind you. This was in the demo and probably sold many copies on its strength alone. However this sequence is not representative of the rest of the experience but perhaps it should have been. The game controls so badly which in resident evil is acceptable as the enemies are slow and deliberate but doesn’t work when they have any sort of agility. Maybe a series of set pieces strung together would have been more playable.

Despite all this I ended up getting that third ending by accident and a splash screen at the end told me I had mad skills. It actually gave me the biggest smile after all these years but was one of very few things that made me happy about this game.

This is probably questionable parenting but I played some of it in front of my dinosaur mad 4 year old son. He quite rightly pointed out that a Therizinosaurus one of the latter game enemies is in fact not a carnivore. He was quite annoyed that they kept slashing you with their claws and trying to eat you when they should be slicing open fruit instead. This is a relatively recent change in theory since the game’s original release. So not only has the gaming world changed a lot since Dino Crisis but the dinosaurs have too. This is one fossil that I won’t be digging up again in my lifetime but if it ever crops up in conversation I’ll be sure to say I’ve got mad skills. Shinji said so.
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