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Why Dino Crisis is great

By: RJ (@rga_02)

A series stuck in the depths of Capcom’s janitorial closet, Dino Crisis is a series – no matter how clunky or old - that every person who enjoys the medium should check out at least once in their life. Be it for five minutes or for the whole duration of the game.

Dino Crisis in my opinion is one of Shinji Mikami’s finest. Often overlooked by his other works such as Resident Evil, this game in a lot of ways is better than the former. It’s more intimidating and a bit frightening. Let’s be real, if you were trapped in a room, what enemy would you rather fend off, a Raptor or some silly little zombie? The thought of a dinosaur lurking in the shadows with their roar muffled in the distance is a more tense experience than some undead goon popping out of a pantry closet.

One of the most common criticisms of the game is that it has “weaker action” compared to Resident Evil. And that’s just were I disagree with those critics. Facing dinosaurs is more action oriented than facing some brainless corpse. Dinosaurs are natural predators; they are inherently a better and smarter enemy to face.

Mikami once said in an interview with GamePro magazine that this game was akin to riding a roller coaster and he is right. Being chased down by a dinosaur was and still is exhilarating to this day like riding a roller coaster. It’s fast pace, scary and you just don’t know when that surprise is coming (in the case of the roller coaster example, that huge drop) because your mind is racing thinking on what you should do next.

The danger events in this game are one of the best quick-time events in videogames. Or in the terms of our people these days, “It’s lit yo.”

One of my favorite things about Dino Crisis is the setting. It’s that feel of the post-future 90s aesthetic vision (I’m pretty sure I just made up that term right now) of what’s to come to our human race. It’s a great mixture of some sci-fi show you’d see on public access television mixed with action from your typical B-Tier movie. The whole game just oozes it and it’s such a wonderful thing. Yeah using floppy disks to open up doors is archaic, but that captured the vibes of 90s futurism so well.  It’s not as try-hard as other games who try to capture a dystopian vision of our future.

Dino Crisis is more than just “Resident Evil with Dinosaurs.” Because there was never a game like it before and to this day, there’s not another one like it out there.

Oh yeah, Regina is better than Jill (tbqh fam).

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You can get Dino Crisis for relatively cheap now. If you search on eBay or Amazon, you can get the game for around $6. If you don’t have access to a PlayStation 1 (or a Dreamcast), you can get the game via PSN to play on your PS3, PSP or PS Vita.