Dino Crisis (PC)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 2.5 stars OK
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 5.6 (2.5 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Ron Dulin
• Reviewed on: 01/03/2001
• Updated on: 05/17/2006
• Released on: 12/04/2000
• Originally published on GameSpot: Dino Crisis (PC) Review

Capcom's Resident Evil was released on the PlayStation in January of 1996. The game popularized a new genre, which video game players call "survival horror" and PC game players call "Alone in the Dark clones." Dino Crisis was one of the many games that followed the Resident Evil formula to the letter - its main selling point being that it was from the same designers. Almost a year and a half after its release on the PlayStation, Dino Crisis has been released for the PC. And though it has some startling moments and a few fun sections, it's mostly just a mediocre version of a mediocre game.

The primary difference between Dino Crisis and Resident Evil is the story. Whereas Resident Evil took its setting and its story from Night of the Living Dead, Dino Crisis takes its setting and story from Jurassic Park. You play as Regina, part of a military rescue team sent to a top secret research facility to investigate an accident. The facility, in which a new form of energy is being researched, is located on an island. Something has gone wrong, and the island has been overrun with dinosaurs. In fact, the plot is so much like Jurassic Park that late in the game, one of your teammates exclaims, "It's just like that movie!" Your team isn't much help, needless to say.

Other than the story, the game is identical to Resident Evil. You run around the research facility while picking up items, shooting things (dinosaurs, in this case), and solving puzzles. The game is played from a third-person perspective, and the camera angles change to create suspense. As in most games that borrow the concept of Alone in the Dark's cinematic camera angles, much of the suspense in Dino Crisis comes from the fact that you simply can't get a good look at things that are attacking you. Unfortunately, the winding, narrow corridors of the facility aggravate this issue and can make the combat frustrating. You'll be grateful for the few scenes in the game in which the camera actually trails behind you.

The graphical problems of Dino Crisis are made worse by the fact that the game does little to take advantage of the superior PC hardware. It looks like an old PlayStation game. The characters are blocky, and the backgrounds are pixilated almost beyond recognition at times. Furthermore, the backgrounds occasionally slightly shake, and textures move like liquid. This irritating effect is not unlike the jittery animation found in the cartoon show Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist, and it may make you take those epilepsy warnings seriously.

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