Dino Crisis (video game)

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Dino Crisis
Dreamcast cover
Developer(s) Capcom Production Studio 4
Publisher(s) Capcom
Release date(s) 1999
Genre(s) Survival horror
Mode(s) Single player
Rating(s) ESRB: Mature (M)
CERO: 15+
Platform(s) PlayStation, Dreamcast, Microsoft Windows
Media CD-ROM, GD-ROM

Dino Crisis is a survival horror game created by Capcom that was released in 1999. The controls, movement and gameplay is very distinct Resident Evil style, but unlike Resident Evil, Dino Crisis uses a 3D playfield rather than prerendered backdrops. Its sequel, Dino Crisis 2, was released in 2000.

Contents

[edit] Story

Regina, an intelligence agent of S.O.R.T. is sent along with three other agents to a secret military facility on Ibis Island in the Borginia Republic. Another agent of S.O.R.T. called Tom who was there seeking information on top secret new-type weapons being developed there, reported with rather interesting news. Dr. Edward Kirk, who had supposedly died three years ago in a lab accident, was alive and at Ibis Island as the head on a non-weapon project. It would appear that his "death" was staged and that the Borginia Republic was somehow involved.

Tom requests that appropriate measures be taken, and S.O.R.T. decides to send a team to take the doctor into custody.

It was supposed to be a simple extraction mission...

Regina and her team paradrop onto the island, and she soon meets up with two team members on the beach; the team leader Gail, a cold and calculating veteran agent, and Rick, the team's hacker.

The fourth agent, Cooper, was blown off course, and finds himself in the jungle quite a way from the facility, and is eaten by a Tyrannosaurus rex.

Regina and Rick want to wait for Cooper, but Gail cuts in saying they don't have time for waiting, and orders them to move out.

So the mission begins.

The team arrives at the Ibis island Facility and find the back entrance in disarray; blood stains the ground, fences are torn to shreds, and lights are out in the guard house. Rick decides to explore the facility as Regina and Gail explore outside. After restoring power, Regina hears the sound of gunshots, as well as Gail screaming. She runs outside, but Gail is nowhere to be found. Soon after, she is attacked by a velociraptor and makes her way to the facility to rendezvous with Rick.

Inside, the facility appears to be abandoned, except for the occasional dead body; it now belongs to raptors. Regina catches up with Rick in the control room and decides to search the facility for Dr. Kirk as he operates things from there. Upstairs, she finds a survivor who is badly wounded. He gives her some info about Kirk being a fool but before he can finish, a Tyrannosaurus Rex bursts its head through the window and eats him. After a brief fight with the Rex, Regina discovers that Kirk is nowhere to be found. During her search, she is attacked by a raptor, but is saved by Gail, who apparently survived his previous attack.

In the control room, Rick turns on the controls for the Underground. He also receives a distress call from Tom coming from outside of the facility. Gail says they should stick to the mission, but Rick decides to go to Tom. In a heated argument, both go their separate ways and Regina has a choice of going with Rick or Gail.

After going with Rick, Regina is attacked by Pteranodons right before they meet Tom, who has been mortally wounded. They take an elevator down to the basement. Rick stays with Tom in a medical room while Regina goes to find Gail. In the medical room, Tom is attacked and killed by a raptor. Regina joins up with Gail and they find the Lab of Dr. Kirk, who has already left. Regina uses an accessway under the lab to catch up with Dr. Kirk. Gail turns up and takes Kirk to Rick and then leaves, claiming that he has "unfinished business".

Regina goes to the second floor where she calls for the helicopter and has another fight with the T. Rex. She then runs to the heliport where Rick and Kirk wait. Gail is nowhere to be seen. At that point the helicopter arrives and is destroyed by the T-Rex. In the ensuing fight, Kirk escapes. Regina and Rick flee to an elevator, taking it down to the third floor basement. The T. Rex attempts to follow, but is knocked unconscious by an electrical surge. Regina finds Kirk, who explains that his new experiment, Third Energy, can transport creatures from a different time period to the present day... in this case, dinosaurs. He attempts to kill Regina, but Gail shoots the gun out of his hand before he can fire. Gail agrees to watch over Kirk as Regina hurries to find the "Initializer and Stabilizer" to overload the third energy and create a path of escape. During the overload, Gail is mortally wounded by a falling pipe and Kirk escapes, but not before Gail tags him with a beacon. Regina and Gail make their way back to the computer room where Rick is trying to open the port door allowing them to escape. While there, Gail decides to go and find Kirk. Rick disagrees and say they should just escape. Regina must make another choice either. 1. Join Gail and find Kirk, or 2. Knock out Gail and all three escape. Which choice is made determines the ending of the game, there are three endings.

1. Join Gail and find Kirk. Regina and Gail go after Kirk and catch him. Gail reveals that the whole mission was a cover up to gain info on Third Energy as a weapon, and hands Regina a disc containing all the information he had gathered. Regina, Rick and Kirk make their way to a boat house where they take a hovercraft and speed down a tunnel to freedom. The overload causes the entire facility to begin collapsing around them. Suddenly, the T-Rex appears for a final showdown in which Regina shoots at it with a grenade launcher from the roof of the craft. An explosion occurs as half of Ibis Island is caught in a third energy reaction and transported to another time. Regina, Rick, and Kirk make avoid the explosion only to have the T. Rex attack them yet again. This time, Regina throws a live grenade into its mouth, killing it once and for all.

2. Knock out Gail and all three escape. Regina punches Gail in the stomach and he is knocked out and Rick carries him to the hovercraft port. Regina follows, there it is found that the hovercraft needs fuel and minor repairs. Rick repairs the craft while Regina finds fuel. After collecting the fuel, Regina returns to the hovercraft and finds that Rick has fixed it. Regina hands the fuel to the Rick and they prepare to leave. When the ground starts to shake, Rick presumes it's the T. Rex and Regina decides to "take care of him". As Regina leaves the port the large shutter next to her shakes and the T. Rex busts through and roars at her. The door behind Regina locks as a computer voice says that an intruder has been detected and a lock down has taken place. Regina runs from the T. Rex, only stopping to fire at it with a grenade launcher to slow it down mutiple times. Then eventully Rick appears in the hovercraft with Gail. Rick holding a rockett launcher yells at Regina to get down. Rick fires a rockett at the fuel tanks near the T. Rex causing a chain reaction of explosions detering the T. Rex from chasing Regina. Regina boards the hovercraft and they drive off. The T. Rex starts to swim after them. Then as the T. Rex gets close, the Third energy reactor explodes releasing a tidal wave of energy, the T. Rex is enveopled in the wave and roars as the wave disappears. The hovercraft speeds off into the horizon as the camera shows half the island is gone.

3. Knock out Gale and all three escape. Same as above but Instead of following Rick. Regina chases Kirk and traps him at a heliport, revealing one last chopper. Regina knocks him out with a swift, hard kick to the head and puts Kirk in the chopper. Regina then gets a call from Rick saying that the T. Rex has found them and has destroyed the hovercraft. Regina replies telling Rick that Kirk is caught and there's a chopper ready. Rick tells her that they're on the way. Regina finds Gail and Rick under attack from the T. Rex and halts it by closing a heavy shutter on its neck. As they make their way back to the chopper. The T. Rex lifts up the shutter and squeezes through and chases after them. Regina fends off the T. Rex as it attacks them enroute to the chopper then all three board the chopper. Fortuntly Kirk is still knocked out and still onboard. As the chopper lifts off the T. Rex gives chase and the chopper can't outrun it. Rick drops a armed bomb that was attached to the chopper on the T. Rex enveloping it in an explosion as it roars. Rick, Gail, Regina and Kirk fly into the horizon.

[edit] Characters

[edit] Regina

Regina is the only female member of the team, and is the character the player controls. She is an intelligent spy and weapons expert. Her specialty is customizing weapons. She also has the gift for helping others in a heart beat!

[edit] Gail

Gail is a veteran spy, and the leader of the team. He is well known for his cold demeanor and seems to have a heart of stone. He carries a large heavy machine gun and his field of expertise seems to be combat. He cares a lot about his mission.

[edit] Rick

Rick is the third member of the team, and hacking into computers is his specialty. He carries a Sniper Rifle. He seems to be much more easy-going that Gail, providing most of the comic relief. He is not in the game very long because he stays mainly in the control room, but packs a good punch when Tom dies. He is African-American.

[edit] Cooper

Cooper is the fourth and final member of the extraction team. He's blown off course at the start of the mission and ends up being eaten by a T. Rex. The team never learns this, and he is declared M.I.A. at the end of the mission. Cooper is the team leader because he jumps out of the helicopter before anybody else. When he gets separated from the team, Gail takes charge because he is the team's second-in-command.

[edit] Tom

Tom is an agent of S.O.R.T. and infiltrated the Ibis Island facility to investigate the reports of new-type weapons being researched. He is wounded by a dinosaur, and later dies.

[edit] Dr. Edward Kirk

Dr. Kirk is the genius behind the Third Energy Theory. He was approached by the Borginian Republic who were interested in the properties of Third Energy as a weapon, and promised him all the funding, facilities, researchers and equipment he needed. To that end, he staged his death and moved to Ibis Island, to where a Third Energy research facility had been set up for him and killed most of his workers with the help of the dinos.

[edit] Strategy Choices

During the game, the player has to choose between a strategy that Gail comes up with and a strategy that Rick comes up with, Rick's almost always end up being easier (except for one puzzle that makes you input codes into a computer) and Gail's almost always ends up being more challenging; causing you to run into more dinosaurs, making you use more ammunition.

[edit] DDK (Digital Disk Key) Lock System

Dino Crisis makes you use the Digital Disk Key (DDK) lock system to open doors. It has you collect two disks and insert them into card readers next to specific doors (most of which lead to main areas of the facility) and make you input a code to open them. The first letter of the code is the specific key that you input into the reader.

[edit] Enemies

[edit] Tyrannosaurus

  • Length: 14.50 m (48 ft)
  • Height: 4.80 m (16 ft)

The largest enemy in the game, Tyrannosaurus can kill with an instant bite. Only one Tyrannosaurus is featured in the game, but it persistently attacks Regina and the others throughout the game.

[edit] Velociraptor

  • Length: 4.80 m (16 ft)
  • Height: 1.80 m (6 ft)

Velociraptor is the most frequently appearing enemy in the game. Clearly based on the raptors from Jurassic Park, it is much larger than its prehistoric counterpart, looking more like its larger relatives Deinonychus and Utahraptor. Raptors sometimes attack in pairs and will chase Regina from room to room, breaking down doors. Although Regina usually stumbles across wandering or sleeping raptors in hallways, they sometimes attack from ambushes. Raptor attacks usually cause Regina to bleed severely. A different coloured, more powerful version with a few extra attacks referred to as the Super Raptor appears later in the game.

[edit] Pteranodon

  • Length: 3 m (10 ft)
  • Wingspan: 6 m (20 ft)

Soaring high in the sky, Ibis Island's Pteranodon are nothing like the gentle fishing cliff dwellers from dinosaur books. Instead, they will attack Regina whenever they get the chance, dive-bombing to stab her with their sharp beaks or lifting her into the air and then dropping her to break her bones.

[edit] Compsognathus

  • Length: 1.20 m (4 ft)
  • Height: 50 cm (1 ft 8 in)

Like the 'compies' from The Lost World: Jurassic Park, the Compsognathus of Ibis Island are vicious little pack hunters that can bring down prey several times as large as themselves.

[edit] Therizinosaurus

  • Length: about 6 m (20 ft)
  • Height: about 3 m (10 ft)

These strange looking carnivores have huge arms with scythe-like claws which can severely injure Regina. They are often seen in pairs. If Regina is knocked onto the ground, it can stomp on her, killing her instantly regardless of her health. In reality, Therizinosaurus was a herbivore.

[edit] Game Boy Color version

A Game Boy Color port was in development by UK developer, M4, in 2000. Because of technical limitations, the game would instead feature the classic top-down style of gameplay instead of the original 3D. However, it was later quietly cancelled at some point. [1]

[edit] Trivia

  • The most apparent influence on Dino Crisis is the book and subsequent film adaptation, Jurassic Park. As an inside joke, Rick mentions that "It's just like that movie."
  • When Regina first calls Rick after facing and killing a Velociraptor, he is understandably skeptical about this and asks, "So, who was it? Barney?" This is a reference to the purple dinosaur of the same name.
  • The movie, Jurassic Park III (which was released in 2001), carries some similarities with the Dino Crisis series.
    • In Jurassic Park III, one of the mercenaries hired by the Kirbys is named Cooper, possibly a reference to this game. Just like the mercenary in the game, Cooper is killed relatively quickly. Both meet their ends at the hands of large carnivores - the game's Cooper is killed by the T-Rex in the opening sequence of Dino Crisis, whilst the movie's Cooper is eaten by a Spinosaurus.
    • The roar of the Spinosaurus is so powerful that it blows things over, similar to the Giganotosaurus in Dino Crisis 2.
    • Similarly to Dino Crisis 2, the newcomer giant carnivore easily kills the T-rex in a fight.

[edit] Reviews

  • IGN: 9.2 out of 10 (92%) (PlayStation version reviewed)
  • GameSpot: 8.5 out of 10 (85%) (PlayStation version reviewed)
  • Edge (magazine): 8 out of 10 (80%) (PlayStation version reviewed)

[edit] External links

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