Dino Crisis 2

Moby ID: 3625
PlayStation Specs
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Description official descriptions

The research on the mysterious Third Energy is being continued in secret, but then an entire island with the facility conducting this research and a neighbouring town has vanished, moving back in time to the dinosaur era. A military unit is sent to the past to save the survivors and retrieve the research data. But nearly all soldiers are massacred by dinosaurs. You take control of Regina and Dylan, who managed to escape this fate. Now you must find the survivors, retrieve the data, and get back to your own time.

Dino Crisis 2 is a survival horror game in which you control the characters Dylan and Regina (switching from one to another at various points in the storyline). You will collect items and use them to solve puzzles while fighting the hordes of dinosaurs that inhabit the island. Much like Alone in the Dark, the game uses 3D models for characters, enemies and items and static 2D backgrounds for their surroundings.

Initially, each character starts with a gun and a melee weapon, but more weapons, such as flamethrowers or rocket launchers, can be bought later in the game. The dinosaurs' attacks cause you to lose "vitality", which can be restored using healing items. Sometimes an attack will cause you to bleed and thus slowly lose health; specific health items stop the bleeding.

For each killed dinosaur you receive "Extinction Points". By killing a couple of dinos in quick succession, you activate a 'combo' and thus get more points. The points can be used in "Save Shops" throughout the game to buy weapons, ammo (and cartridge upgrades which allow you to store more ammo within the weapon), healing items and "tools" (such as armor, more powerful melee weapons, or "cards" which allow you to get bigger combos). You can also save the game at these points.

While wandering around the island, you'll find many documents and letters to read, including "Dino Files", which contain a flavor description of a dino species.

Spellings

  • Dino Crisis 2: Закат Человечества - Russian spelling
  • 恐龍危機II - Traditional Chinese spelling

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Credits (PlayStation version)

151 People (144 developers, 7 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 73% (based on 37 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.7 out of 5 (based on 55 ratings with 5 reviews)

A thrilling sequel.

The Good
I like the fact that there is more dino's than before. Although they are obviously hard to beat, it provides a larger range of weapon choices and tactics.

The Bad
The fact thatyou're still messing with Third Energy ticks me off. You would think Kirk had learned his lesson by now, wouldn't you?

The Bottom Line
It is very... Good. What did you think I was gonna say? I loved it the second I played it for the first time. What do you expect, I loved the first one didn't I?

PlayStation · by Jamie Hall (4) · 2004

Bye bye Resident Evil

The Good
Seems like Capcom is constantly slapping me letting me know how unfruitful my imagination is, first with their Resident Evil series and now with Dino Crisis one. What could possibly be so interesting in the world full of dinosaurs, could there be a plot worth a wooden nikle? Can there even be some serious suspense worth a game, drama, emotions, or is this just another silly thing in a Jurrasic Park style? Well, it's none of that crap mentioned above. Excluding my current lack of knowledge on the originator, Dino Crisis 2 is unique game on the page of horror-survivals.

Three years after it came on PSX, it arrives on PC and in not that so-well-splendid quality for the PC standard nowadays. Might be that Capcom wanted to gain interest among PC gamers for their incoming Dino Crisis 3, but by releasing it on PC so many years after, and with so many graphically enhanced games as they are, it took a decision to take, and if it ain't just brilliant, if I do say so myself.

The plot gives you into the core of the game and before you know it, you're an addict (no wonder it took me a short set of 6-7 hours in a row to catch the ending cinematic). During the game, you will many times exchange between the main two characters, Regina, a very beautiful red-haired girl who other players know from original Diano Crisis, and another character that first time appears here, Dylan is the name, I think (can't say I remembered names so well since I was playing it for a day to finish).

Cinematics are simply marvelous, and I stand to thought Capcom has a certain touch to make great cinematics, but especially when it comes to horror-survival genre which they simply conquered bigtime. I cannot say that this game was as nearly as frightening as e.g. Konami's Silent Hill 2, but more close to Parasite Eve, Square's attempt towards this genre. Just as Square did something more RPGish with Parasite Eve, Dino Crisis 2 made a horror-survival game feel like a quick playing arcade jumper. The game just doesn't allow you to rest for a second. Sometimes not even near the saving points. But that by no means makes it harder than other such games where you are usually limited on ammo. Here you can freely buy it as long as you're having funds to backup your action.

At first the game seems like it bases its atmosphere merely on variety of sounds, but the more you play, the music becomes better and better, and more versatile. No singing theme for this game, though :( Dialogues and voice-acting are just plain great, although wouldn't hurt to have subtitles to compensate the states when music outlouds the speech.

Another thing which surprised me immensely is that I got a feeling like playing Cyberia 2 with this game. It has several almost cinematic-action scenes, or at least they seem as such, and no need to say it, I love when the game takes you by the hand. A very unique and powerful horror-survival game which holds the line with some of the best out there (imho to name thee respectively, Parasite Eve, CODE: Veronica, Galerians, Resident Evil 2, Silent Hill 2).

The Bad
Capcom always rewards the player with some extra stuff or mini-games after you finish the game or gives you stimulation for replaying it to open more stuff. Well, that is just plain waste, and that talent should rather be spent in making this game even more better (though I hardly see the way of improving perfection).

The Bottom Line
It plays on Pentium computers and pretty much any Windowses, and hence has the power to allow players with slower machines to experience what the game has to offer, and if someone isn't set out to hunt only those top-notch just-released with cutting-edge technology and graphic games, this one shouldn't be a miss. The reason more for a budget price the game started with. It's a proof of how your favorite genre can be altered without regretting a thing.

Windows · by MAT (240759) · 2012

An exciting, varied and addictive departure from the original.

The Good
The original Dino Crisis was something special. It was Shinji Mikami's first survival horror game rendered in 3D and his first survival horror game in general outside of the Resident Evil series. Dino Crisis featured a lot of game play mechanics that would be introduced in later Shinji Mikami works and although these things had been used before (quick turn, firing while walking - see: Deep Fear) Dino Crisis popularized their use.

In Dino Crisis Mikami created a new niche which he personally dubbed "panic horror". It was interesting, and although it doesn't contain zombies Dino Crisis was, in a lot of ways, scarier than Resident Evil.

Dino Crisis 2 was about as big a departure from the original formula as Resident Evil 4 was from the series leading up to Nemesis and Code Veronica. Much has changed, but a lot has stayed the same. You still fight dinosaurs, you still play as Regina and you still have a constant sense of dread and panic about you as you romp around the jungle. The way panic is elicited in the player is different here though than in the original game.

In the original Dino Crisis panic and apprehension was generated by dinosaurs following you into rooms, suddenly jumping through windows or being basically invincible (see: T-Rex) but Dino Crisis 2 is different. In Dino Crisis 2 you are overwhelmed by dinosaurs. They spawn almost endlessly from the jungle around you and while it's a little unrealistic, it certainly gets your heart rate up.

Unlike the original, which is a wholeheartedly survival horror affair with the requisite save rooms, items boxes and inventory management Dino Crisis 2 is more of an action orientated affair. It isn't necessarily about horror anymore, but the panic is still there. Your guns hold insane amounts of ammunition and you will use it, especially on the harder difficulties. You can hold a sub weapon in tandem with your main weapon which is activated by pressing the circle button. This is used as a defensive measure or to solve puzzles. I liked this mechanic, it kept things interesting by making me think about what I had equipped. It's not perfect, which I will discuss later, but it keeps the game interesting.

That is one of the hallmarks of Dino Crisis 2; it remains interesting and fresh throughout the entire experience. The game play is constantly being mixed up. One minute you're blasting dinosaurs in the middle of a steamy jungle and the next you're shooting triceratops from the back of a jeep. Each of these little departures from the main formula is well balanced and a lot of fun. My personal favorite was using a flare gun equipped as my sub weapon to rain hell down onto allosaurus trying to block my path to Edward City.

The core game play is solid enough. Regina and Dylan control very much like Regina did in the original Dino Crisis. The controls are essentially identical, however she moves a lot quicker and of course, has access to sub weapons. Your character will auto aim at the nearest enemy and while it doesn't always work, it is handy when a dinosaur is off screen.

This brings me to the biggest deviation from the original formula; the use of pre-rendered backgrounds. I personally think it's a good thing, I have no qualm with it. The backgrounds are beautifully drawn and although they are just drawings, they are anything but static. Mysterious particles float in the air, shadows dance and water shifts. It's nothing like what Square achieved with Parasite Eve 2, but Capcom did an admirable job of providing players with a beautiful, believable environment to ramble around in. The static camera angles combined with the emphasis on action does take some getting used to, make no mistake. You do acclimatise to it though, and when you do you won't notice the difference or you just plain won't care.

Other than the beautiful pre-rendered backgrounds Dino Crisis 2, from what I can tell, uses a very similar rendering engine for everything polygon based as Dino Crisis. Regina looks fundamentally identical, if not a little smoother and Dylan looks quite good as well. The scale of some of the dinosaurs is very impressive and there were virtually no drops in the frame rate while the massive end boss was being rendered. It's all very smooth, quick and pleasing to look at.

The soundtrack, on a whole, is fairly solid. There are some real standout tunes and some excellent ambient work (3rd Energy Facility comes to mind...) and if you're a Dino Crisis veteran every guttural scream, squawk and screech emitted by the dinosaurs in the game will be familiar.

Dino Crisis 2 doesn't lack replay value. There is an interesting little Dino Coliseum you can unlock complete with the original roster of characters from Dino Crisis. You can also unlock several of the dinosaurs to fight with and go head to head with another player.

The Bad
Coming from Dino Crisis I would be remiss not to mention how different everything is. It plays similarly, albeit with a different rendering method for the backgrounds, and this takes some getting used to. This is especially true when one considers the way the game throws dinosaurs at you like rotten fruit at a beheading. I loved the challenge, but someone expecting a repeat of Regina's first adventure in the jungle will be sorely disappointed. If you don't enjoy action games, you will NOT like Dino Crisis 2.

One of the biggest issues I could see is dinosaurs flying off the edge of the screen onto your character. They are pre-defined spawn points, but unless you know they are there you will get torn to pieces. I'm not criticizing the new challenge or game play style, but this kind of cheap shot mechanic does not fly with me.

I would have liked weapons to be balanced a bit better. At a certain point in the game when you can buy the anti-tank rifle and heavy machine gun respectively you have essentially turned yourself into a walking weapon of mass destruction. I would have liked weapons to have specific advantages and disadvantages that played into the characteristics of the dinosaurs. Instead it's a one size fits all kind of situation. I think that would have worked well here, but unfortunately that isn't the case.

The Bottom Line
Dino Crisis 2 is a departure from Dino Crisis, but not in a negative way. Shinji Mikami keeps what made Dino Crisis so fantastic; the panic, and presents it in a different way. You're constantly surrounded by dinosaurs and the only way you can survive is by shooting your way out. You will get overwhelmed, torn to pieces and will keep coming back for more.

Don't expect this game to be anything like Dino Crisis. Apart from some engine and control similarities, these two games are really nothing alike.

PlayStation · by AkibaTechno (238) · 2010

[ View all 5 player reviews ]

Trivia

Sales

According to publisher Capcom, Dino Crisis 2 has sold 1.2 million copies worldwide since its initial release (as of June 30, 2016).

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Grant McLellan.

PS Vita added by Fred VT. PlayStation 3, PSP added by Charly2.0. Windows added by MAT.

Additional contributors: Xoleras, Ms. Tea, DreinIX, CalaisianMindthief.

Game added April 2, 2001. Last modified March 27, 2024.