Retro Review: Dino Crisis 2

<p>Capcom was on a roll in the late 90&&num;8217&semi;s and early 00&&num;8217&semi;s with their survival horror titles&comma; the numbered <em>Resident Evil<&sol;em> games were amazing and Shinji Mikami&&num;8217&semi;s other franchise was also giving survival horror lovers another game to bite into&period; Unfortunately&comma; Mikami&&num;8217&semi;s hands didn&&num;8217&semi;t touch this game that much&comma; unless he was playing it at home and it shows&period; Mikami not being a part of the sequel didn&&num;8217&semi;t ruin the game&comma; but it certainly took the horror out of survival horror&period; You can&&num;8217&semi;t make a serious horror game without one of the greats&comma; and Mikami is one of the greats&comma; if not the greatest&period; <em>Dino Crisis 2<&sol;em> is closely linked to the first game&comma; unlike later entries in the series like <em>Dino Crisis 3<&sol;em> and <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;retro-review-dino-stalker&sol;"><em>Dino Stalker<&sol;em><&sol;a>&period; As the series progressed the game strayed more and more from what made the first one so great&comma; and that is pretty sad&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The game takes place after the first game&comma; where once again scientists are messing things up&period; Their research into Third Energy has transported an entire military base and surrounding city Edward City into another time with all the residents&period; Regina is called in as an advisor to the rescue team seeing as she has had some experience with this before&period; She and her crew must travel through the Time Gate&comma; rescue the 1300 hundred survivors and return safely&period; When the team is finally camped they are attacked by Raptors and only three survive&comma; Regina&comma; Dylan&comma; and David&period; Your job now is not only to save yourself but find those survivors and ensure their safety as well&period; You not only fight dinosaurs in this game&comma; you have to find helmeted assailants that are hell-bent on keeping you in the past&period; When it rains&comma; it pours&semi; and I right&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;130307" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-130307" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-130307" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;10&sol;06161451&sol;51985-Dino&lowbar;Crisis&lowbar;2&lowbar;E-3&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"479" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-130307" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Dino Crisis 2<&sol;em> &&num;8211&semi; Capcom&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>One mechanic that they left in from the first game was the &&num;8220&semi;bleeding&&num;8221&semi; mechanic&period; If a dinosaur bites you or claws you&comma; it has a chance of causing you to bleed&period; Should you not stem this bleeding with bandages in the game you could bleed out or dinosaurs will find you quicker&period; The controls are pretty self-explanatory and you can pick between three options&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;m sure one will suit your needs&period; I also chose the first one because I realize you can change it in the middle of the game and it is far too late for my muscle memory&period; I chose Control Configuration A&semi; Circle will be your sub-weapon&comma; Square and X are attack&semi; you can only attack when you are pressing Left Trigger down they have to make it a little confusing right&quest; So when you&&num;8217&semi;re surrounded by dino&&num;8217&semi;s hit Circle a few times to scatter them with your machete then lay into them with Left Trigger and X&period; Not the best controls in the world&comma; but it was the tank control era which added that extra stress to the survival horror genre&period; This annoyed me in the first and second game&period; However&comma; this game is much less survival horror than its predecessor&period; The developers turned this into an arcade style shooter that still has some scares&comma; but fewer puzzles and more shooting&period; You can see that this was slowly turning into what <em>Dino Stalker<&sol;em> became&comma; which is a neat little concept&comma; but it takes the scares and intensity out of the game&period; They tried to bring back the horror in <em>Dino Crisis 3<&sol;em> but by that time I think that true survival horror enthusiasts had already been burned&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Graphics in this game are a smidge better than they were in the first one&period; Capcom developers were still smart enough to use the pre-rendered graphics to make the game look all that more real&period; Obviously&comma; the 64-bit era was not the prettiest of eras&comma; but it was the gameplay&comma; strong stories&comma; and originality that kept the video games industry afloat during its awkward and ugly years&period; The Regina and Dylan character models are done quite well&comma; then all the nameless enemies look similar&period; It is no wonder they are all wearing helmets and the same uniform&comma; it was easier for the developers to put them in the game&period; Even in today&&num;8217&semi;s games some of the NPC&&num;8217&semi;s are all similar&comma; it is getting rarer and rarer that they do this&comma; but it still happens from time to time&period; So should you hop into this game&comma; just remember&comma; real beauty is on the inside and that consists of story and gameplay&period; You will still like this game even if it makes you squint now and then&comma; just be ready to die a lot&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;130316" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-130316" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-130316" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;10&sol;06173227&sol;437571-dino-crisis-2-playstation-screenshot-the-dark-green-raptors&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"480" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-130316" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Dino Crisis 2<&sol;em> &&num;8211&semi; Capcom&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>I enjoyed this game a lot&comma; it was nice to see Regina back in action for one last time before Capcom scrapped her for some very different offshoots&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m one of the few people who really misses this era in gaming&comma; lots of people I&&num;8217&semi;ve spoken to who weren&&num;8217&semi;t alive or too young for this time have no desire to play these games and it is quite sad&period; We wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t have a game like <em>Resident Evil VII<&sol;em> or<em> The Evil Wit<&sol;em>hin if these developers hadn&&num;8217&semi;t cut their teeth on some very old tech&period;  I love the tank controls&comma; I love that fact that if you save poorly you can lose hours of progress with one dinosaur bite&period; This was part of the era in gaming that made boys men and I miss it&period; I wish I could play this game again and it be as new and fresh as it was when I played it for my first time&period; There are a few titles in this era I still need to play for the first time&comma; but these early survival horror gems can only be played once for the first time&period; I urge all new survival horror enthusiasts to download or find a copy of both of these titles and enjoy them in a dark secluded room where you can scream to your heart&&num;8217&semi;s content&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;