Dino Crisis
:// INTRO
Shamefully, Dino Crisis is one of the many titles which I have started but had never completed before. I would load up the game and say “alright baby, this is it”. I would jump from PlayStation to Dreamcast, hell I even have it purchased on the PlayStation 3.
It took me loading it up on the PlayStation Portable to finally be able to beat this title.
Being a fan of Resident Evil, I have played everything that Sensei Shinji Mikami has directed.
I remember the first time I stumbled upon this title, I had read the article and drooled over each screenshot. The magazine was ATOMIX, “the first video game magazine in Mexico”. The magazine was basically Mexico’s version of Electronic Gaming Monthly, today it has basically evolved into Mexico’s version of IGN.
Anyway, “Resident Evil meets Jurassic Park”, I was hooked.
:// PRODUCTION QUALITY
Hailing from an era where CAPCOM produced hit after hit, DC felt extremely familiar yet eerily different. The game felt a bit more fluid than Resident Evil 1 through 3. Back then I could not put my finger on it. All of Resident Evil’s classic tropes were there:
Abandoned Environment? Check.
Your team goes in to investigate then quickly gets split up? Check.
A lack of ammunition? Check.
We are stuck in this impossible situation with unknown creatures trying to kill us? Double check.
This is something which had always stuck with me since my very first playthrough. That answer would not evade me though.
Five years in college and [approximately] 100 thousand dollars later I had my answer:
3D Environments. Not Pre-Rendered 3D Environments. Actual 3D Environments.
You actually moved within 3D space in Dino Crisis, not though beautifully rendered images which looked like they took months to render out [back in 1999].
Here is where DC’s bread and butter really shine through. You actually have to really explore the Environment in order to progress and grip the story. In Resident Evil, you also explore, except there you basically have training wheels on. All objects of interest shine within the static Environments thus activating your call to action.
In DC you can walk into a server room where every computer screen is on, thus making you check every single one in order to find the one terminal which you actually need. There was also a main puzzle which basically lasted throughout the entire campaign: You had to scan dead scientists fingerprints in order to upgrade your access card for specific areas throughout the campaign.
I felt like Batman.
:// EXPERIENCE
As is in classic CAPCOM fashion, you arrive at an abandoned facility and thus begins your adventure. This facility might actually be my favorite within CAPCOM’s titles. The layout is extremely robust and just as you think you have the layout memorized there are different paths you can take in order to proceed.
Each path has its risks and rewards, adding to this is the use of “lazer gates” which can make any specific route faster to traverse and [possibly] put you at greater risk.
Not having a final underground laboratory in a CAPCOM [survival] game would be the equivalent of being Mexican and hating Tacos. Simply unacceptable.
This has also got to be in my top two favorite labs, along with the final lab in Resident Evil 2. Once you arrive you get the feeling that all you have to do is find the exit. Well, it turns out that there are multiple puzzles which will guide you to the next area of the lab.
Full 3D on the PS1 is actually pretty creepy.
:// OUTRO
There are multiple endings in Dino Crisis, from what I have gathered, I obtained the second ending. I escaped through a waterway having the T-Rex following me through the escape tunnel. It appears that the real ending is actually the third [secret] ending. In that ending, you escape and the entire facility is swallowed by the third energy explosion thus taking the facility back to the prehistoric era.
I have been a fan of Shinji Mikami’s work since first playing Resident Evil. This was one of his titles which had escaped me all of these years [hell, I even played Aladdin on the SNES].
I am excited to see that he has established his own studio, helping future game directors find their way into telling their own stories.