Dino Crisis 2
Encyclopedia
is a Action-adventure
video game for the Sony PlayStation
, published by Capcom
in North America
, released on September 13, 2000 and publish by Virgin Interactive
in Europe
, release on November 4, 2000. It was developed by Capcom Production Studio 4. The game is the sequel to Dino Crisis
and was followed by Dino Crisis 3
in 2003 and was ported to Microsoft Windows
that same year.
The story follows the events of the last game, where Regina is now on another mission involving a facility located close to the fictional Edward City, where a major anomaly has caused the whole island to be transported back in time to the era of the dinosaur
s, along with all the human inhabitants. Regina is sent on a rescue mission with her new ally Dylan Morton, who has a strange connection to the events on the island. The player's control switches between Regina and Dylan at specific points in the game.
Dino Crisis 2 is a third-person shooter
meaning that the player controls characters in a third person view, yet the perspective changes with movement into new areas and fields of view as the game uses predetermined camera angles. The game also departs more from the survival horror of the first Dino Crisis and is more action-oriented, with more open areas, more items and less emphasis on puzzles.
As players kill dinosaurs in succession, countering attacks and avoiding damage in areas, they can earn "Extinction Points" that act as a form of in-game currency that tally up as player moves between locations. Throughout the game the player can locate and use computer stations that act as save point where players can save and load games, along with spending Extinction Points on new weapons, upgrades, health packs and ammunition. There are also bandages that are used to prevent bleeding that occur when a player takes damage from certain attacks that results in slow draining of the health bar.
There are two forms of weapons in the game, main and sub-weapons, meaning the player can only equip one of each at a time. Main weapons provide the most damage and are used for the majority of attacks, for example shotgun
s, flamethrower
s and rifle
s whereas sub-weapons are used to get past obstacles, like the machete
for cutting plant vines and the firewall gun that creates a temporary wall of fire against foes. Over the course of the game, players will switch roles between Regina and Dylan, who have different weapons, making some passages blocked for one but accessible for the other.
Among the third person shooter gameplay are sections of on rails shooting, such as a chase where the player shoots at dinosaurs that are chasing an automatically driven vehicle and, like the previous game, several puzzles. Throughout the game, the player finds data files and documents that progress the story and give details of certain areas. Hidden "Dino Files" can also be found; these go into detail about each dinosaur in the game. Upon collecting all the available Dino Files, the player is granted unlimited ammunition for weapons on the next play through.
s of the game are 1st Lieutenant Dylan Morton and Regina, with Dylan being new to the series and Regina reprising her role after the events of the first Dino Crisis. Dylan is a Tactical Reconnaissance and Acquisition Team (TRAT) commando who’s been sent back in time with the rest of the team in what was originally supposed to be a search and rescue mission.
TRAT is an off record covert team of shady characters who were recruited from the army special forces. They focus on subversive activities like Terrorism, Jailbreaks, Assassination and Insurgency.
Another prominent character is another TRAT member, David Fork. At the start he is separated from Regina and Dylan after enraging a Tyrannosaurus
he shot with a rocket launcher
but later saves them at Edward City from Velociraptor
s in an attack helicopter
. Another recurring character is Paula, a teenage girl who is a part of the mysterious syndicate who are hostile to the main characters.
The last crucial character of the game is Colonel Dylan Morton. The future Dylan has a very important role in the game, tying the whole story together and revealing the plot. Colonel Dylan tells Lieutenant Dylan to use the time gate to take the surviving children back and prevent them from making the mistake of trying to coexist with dinosaurs.
, Allosaurus
, Oviraptor
, Pteranodon
, and Inostrancevia
. Mosasaurus
and Plesiosaurus
also appear as a common enemy yet only during the Third Energy Facility level, most of which is underwater. Others like Compsognathus
however act towards the game's puzzle aspect such as a segment where it steals the player's key card and Triceratops
that appear in one of the on-rails shooting sections of the game.
Among the recurring human characters, a number of dinosaurs also appear multiple times in the story. The first is the Tyrannosaurus Rex who attacks the main camp at the start of the game before having an eye shot out with a rocket launcher by David. It follows the team, appearing both on the first jungle island in a few instances and again in Edward City, which sits across a very large lake. Another recurring dinosaur is the Giganotosaurus
, which is shown to be abnormally large and powerful (perhaps to make it seem more impressive or possibly a mutation). It is first encountered at the missile silo where it battles and quickly disposes of the T. Rex and is seemingly killed by Regina in the missile silo. Later, it mysteriously reappears inside a secret research facility as the game’s final boss where Dylan must keep it from killing him while he activates a laser from a satellite which obliterates it.
Regina heads back to their ship while Dylan heads off into the jungle where he is attacked by packs of Velociraptors. When Dylan reaches a military facility, the one-eyed Tyrannosaurus Rex attacks him; however, before taking shelter in one of the barracks he is shot at by unknown helmeted figures, almost getting squashed flat by the T-Rex. Inside, he attempts to retrieve a key card but sets off a security alarm and is imprisoned. Back at the ship, Regina receives a distress call from Dylan and sets out to rescue him. Along the way she takes an alternate route towards the research facility. Along the way to pick up a flamethrower weapon, she is attacked by a short-tempered Allosaurus
. After defeating the mild-mannered beast, she encounters more of the helmeted figures, but one fails to escape and is handcuffed by Regina. She removes the figure’s helmet, revealing the figure to be a blonde teenage girl who cannot speak. Regina leaves the girl there while she rescues Dylan back at the military base. She brings the girl from the research facility back to the patrol ship, but finds that it has been ransacked. Before he leaves to look for ship parts, Dylan handcuffs the unknown girl to the ship; strangely, she halts her struggles upon looking at him. She reaches his face, but he backs off. The look on her face means she's trying to tell something to him.
After fighting 2 more Allosaurus, Dylan fights packs of raptors while heading to the research facility, which also houses human containment chambers and is overrun by Oviraptor
s. When he's about to open a door to get the battery for the patrol ship using a card key, a Compsognathus
craftily steals it from him. He chases it back and forth and eventually locks it in a cage, winning the card back. He arrives back at the ship to find the girl gone. They pilot the ship to an offshore under-sea base called the Third Energy facility where Regina turns the prime Third Energy reactor back on, evading attacks from mosasaurs and plesiosaurs that have taken residence in the underwater portions of the facility. She returns to the surface where she and Dylan get a distress call from David who claims to have found the survivors at Edward City. They traverse a cave filled with Inostrancevia
, but stumble into the nest full of angry Allosaurus
. They then come across a dying Triceratops
fawn lying on its side. Dylan and Regina are horrified by the sight, but the fawn calls out. An angry Triceratops comes to the fawn's defense and chases them through the jungle After that they crash just outside the city into a field infested with Velociraptors: however, David saves them in a helicopter, but only to find that the dinosaurs have killed all the remaining survivors in the city. There Dylan encounters the Tyrannosaurus Rex once more and escapes in a tank. The tank is nearly squashed, and the T-Rex screeches in defeat and walks away. He is ambushed by yet another helmeted figure, but the figure is thrown off a bridge by the blonde girl before she leaves. Dylan recovers something in the aftermath of the struggle: a necklace worn by his dead sister, that the blonde girl had been wearing. He then tells Regina of his tormented past.
Regina locates the missile silo and retrieves the Third Energy data disc. Just outside, she is attacked by the Tyrannosaurus Rex. Suddenly a Giganotosaurus attacks the Tyrannosaur and kills it after a brief fight between the two; despite that the Giganotosaurus shown in Dino Crisis 2 is much larger than it really was [A real Giganotosaurus was estimated to be around 43 feet (13.1 m) long and 18 feet (5.5 m) tall and weighs 24000 pounds (10,886.2 kg), but this individual is nearly 2.75 times this size]. The Giganotosaurus then follows Regina into the silo, which triggers a countdown. Regina fends it off by dousing it in flammable gas and igniting it, knocking it out for a moment. After she shuts off the missile, the Giganotosaurus gets to its paws and smashes the silo foundation, starting a fire. Outside David and Dylan are waiting, having opened the bay doors for their escape; but David is killed by an Allosaurus
, which also knocks Dylan into the river, taking him away upstream. He wakes up in an unknown area where the blond girl leads him into a large base complex, where she shows him a recording that reveals the truth.
After the incident in the first game, the humans decided to study the dinosaurs. Widespread Time Skewing was carried out, with disastrous results that threatened the end of the project when it became clear that dinosaurs and humans could not coexist. The military decided to transport all the dinosaurs three million years into the future, where they could thrive, before they were to be sent back to their own time when the Third Energy time gate was perfect; it was called the Noah's Ark
Plan. However, the time gate overloaded and was destroyed, leaving both the team and dinosaurs trapped. Even though the survivors were killed by the dinosaurs, their children were brought to the safety of the habitat support facility, where they were kept in life support chambers, which protected them and allowed for growth and learning. The children learned how to survive around dinosaurs, and because of the nature of the Noah's Ark Plan, they were taught to protect the dinosaurs, but lost the ability to speak, becoming the helmeted figures. One of the members of the team that came to the future was Dylan himself, who made the recording, but much older and with a daughter Paula, the blonde girl. As a result of the overload, Edward City itself had been transported to the future. The future Dylan tells his past self there is a basic gate to take him, Regina and the children back to their time: however, they can only use it once.
Dylan is attacked by another helmeted figure who has set off the base's self-destruct, before their fight is interrupted by the Giganotosaurus
. Dylan manages to set off a satellite laser blasting the dinosaur, burning it to cinders. Regina turns up at the last minute, but Paula's legs are crushed by falling equipment. Unable to free her and with the building ready to explode, Dylan decides not to leave her and so sends Regina back through the time gate with the research disc, asking her to build a time gate to return and save them. Regina runs through the gate, promising to return. Both Paula and Dylan are about to be crushed by falling equipment but at the last split second the building explodes, unknown whether Regina was able to save them in time.
based on 22 reviews and an 86/100 at Metacritic
based on 13 reviews.
In a review by GameSpot
, they mentioned it was possible to argue that the first Dino Crisis just "replaced the zombies with carnivorous dinosaurs" as a Resident Evil spin-off. However they found Dino Crisis 2 "an original, enjoyable experience that can no longer be considered just another entry into the survival-horror genre", as it "avoids the stereotypes of the genre and delivers one of the most refreshing takes on the third-person action shooter to date." IGN
concurred by saying it was "stripped of its slow-paced Resident Evil shell and its haunting, creepy shockeroo tricks". They particularly praised the game’s artwork and level design that "the creatures and the design are both excellent, and the jungle backgrounds, and especially the underwater environments, are simply top-notch." On the game’s sound effects, GamePro
stated the "Sound is solid, with an unobtrusive musical score that blends well with gaming effects, i.e. the telltale rustle of foliage preceding a raptor's leap for your throat isn't drowned out by J-Pop
."
As a survival horror however, Game Revolution
felt the "arcade-like" gameplay "detracts a bit from the whole survival-horror theme". And while they praised the sequel for not over-using puzzles and key fetch objectives, "the back and forth gameplay gets tired after a while" and can make it "very easy to get distracted from the storyline and get sucked into the process of amassing an arsenal."
Like its predecessor, Dino Crisis 2 was a commercial success. The PlayStation version of game has sold 1.19 million copies worldwide.
Action-adventure game
An action-adventure game is a video game that combines elements of the adventure game genre with various action game elements. It is perhaps the broadest and most diverse genre in gaming, and can include many games which might better be categorized under narrow genres...
video game for the Sony PlayStation
PlayStation
The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan on December 3, .The PlayStation was the first of the PlayStation series of consoles and handheld game devices. The PlayStation 2 was the console's successor in 2000...
, published by Capcom
Capcom
is a Japanese developer and publisher of video games, known for creating multi-million-selling franchises such as Devil May Cry, Chaos Legion, Street Fighter, Mega Man and Resident Evil. Capcom developed and published Bionic Commando, Lost Planet and Dark Void too, but they are less known. Its...
in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
, released on September 13, 2000 and publish by Virgin Interactive
Virgin Interactive
Virgin Interactive was a British video game publisher. It was formed as Virgin Games Ltd. in 1981. The company became much larger after purchasing the budget label, Mastertronic in 1987. It was part of the Virgin Group...
in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, release on November 4, 2000. It was developed by Capcom Production Studio 4. The game is the sequel to Dino Crisis
Dino Crisis
is a survival horror video game by Capcom, originally released in 1999 for the PlayStation and later ported to Microsoft Windows and Dreamcast in 2000...
and was followed by Dino Crisis 3
Dino Crisis 3
is a survival horror video game for the Xbox. It was developed by Capcom Production Studio 4, and is the fourth and final video game in the Dino Crisis series. Like the previous iterations of the series, gameplay revolves around fighting dinosaur or other reptiles...
in 2003 and was ported to Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
that same year.
The story follows the events of the last game, where Regina is now on another mission involving a facility located close to the fictional Edward City, where a major anomaly has caused the whole island to be transported back in time to the era of the dinosaur
Dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...
s, along with all the human inhabitants. Regina is sent on a rescue mission with her new ally Dylan Morton, who has a strange connection to the events on the island. The player's control switches between Regina and Dylan at specific points in the game.
Gameplay
Third-person shooter
Third-person shooter is a genre of 3D action games in which the player character is visible on-screen, and the gameplay consists primarily of shooting.-Definition:...
meaning that the player controls characters in a third person view, yet the perspective changes with movement into new areas and fields of view as the game uses predetermined camera angles. The game also departs more from the survival horror of the first Dino Crisis and is more action-oriented, with more open areas, more items and less emphasis on puzzles.
As players kill dinosaurs in succession, countering attacks and avoiding damage in areas, they can earn "Extinction Points" that act as a form of in-game currency that tally up as player moves between locations. Throughout the game the player can locate and use computer stations that act as save point where players can save and load games, along with spending Extinction Points on new weapons, upgrades, health packs and ammunition. There are also bandages that are used to prevent bleeding that occur when a player takes damage from certain attacks that results in slow draining of the health bar.
There are two forms of weapons in the game, main and sub-weapons, meaning the player can only equip one of each at a time. Main weapons provide the most damage and are used for the majority of attacks, for example shotgun
Shotgun
A shotgun is a firearm that is usually designed to be fired from the shoulder, which uses the energy of a fixed shell to fire a number of small spherical pellets called shot, or a solid projectile called a slug...
s, flamethrower
Flamethrower
A flamethrower is a mechanical device designed to project a long controllable stream of fire.Some flamethrowers project a stream of ignited flammable liquid; some project a long gas flame. Most military flamethrowers use liquids, but commercial flamethrowers tend to use high-pressure propane and...
s and rifle
Rifle
A rifle is a firearm designed to be fired from the shoulder, with a barrel that has a helical groove or pattern of grooves cut into the barrel walls. The raised areas of the rifling are called "lands," which make contact with the projectile , imparting spin around an axis corresponding to the...
s whereas sub-weapons are used to get past obstacles, like the machete
Machete
The machete is a large cleaver-like cutting tool. The blade is typically long and usually under thick. In the English language, an equivalent term is matchet, though it is less commonly known...
for cutting plant vines and the firewall gun that creates a temporary wall of fire against foes. Over the course of the game, players will switch roles between Regina and Dylan, who have different weapons, making some passages blocked for one but accessible for the other.
Among the third person shooter gameplay are sections of on rails shooting, such as a chase where the player shoots at dinosaurs that are chasing an automatically driven vehicle and, like the previous game, several puzzles. Throughout the game, the player finds data files and documents that progress the story and give details of certain areas. Hidden "Dino Files" can also be found; these go into detail about each dinosaur in the game. Upon collecting all the available Dino Files, the player is granted unlimited ammunition for weapons on the next play through.
Extra Crisis
Upon completion of the main game, there is an unlockable mode known as Extra Crisis with two gameplay modes: "Dino Colosseum" and "Dino Duel". Colosseum is a survival mode where a chosen character with their own pre-set weapons fight off series of attacks by certain dinosaurs, the larger and more deadly being the latter. Upon completion the player is graded and awarded a trophy on how well they performed. Dino Duel is a mode that allows the player to take control of a dinosaur and battle another in the style of a fighting game. Completion of the game on harder difficulties allows more characters and dinosaurs to become available for purchase, using the final Extinction Points gathered from that play through. Dinosaurs can also be used in Dino Colosseum, however, must be unlocked by completing the game in normal or hard mode.Characters
The two main protagonistProtagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
s of the game are 1st Lieutenant Dylan Morton and Regina, with Dylan being new to the series and Regina reprising her role after the events of the first Dino Crisis. Dylan is a Tactical Reconnaissance and Acquisition Team (TRAT) commando who’s been sent back in time with the rest of the team in what was originally supposed to be a search and rescue mission.
TRAT is an off record covert team of shady characters who were recruited from the army special forces. They focus on subversive activities like Terrorism, Jailbreaks, Assassination and Insurgency.
Another prominent character is another TRAT member, David Fork. At the start he is separated from Regina and Dylan after enraging a Tyrannosaurus
Tyrannosaurus
Tyrannosaurus meaning "tyrant," and sauros meaning "lizard") is a genus of coelurosaurian theropod dinosaur. The species Tyrannosaurus rex , commonly abbreviated to T. rex, is a fixture in popular culture. It lived throughout what is now western North America, with a much wider range than other...
he shot with a rocket launcher
Shoulder-launched missile weapon
A shoulder-fired missile, shoulder-launched missile or man-portable missile is a projectile fired at a target, small enough to be carried by a single person, and fired while held on one's shoulder...
but later saves them at Edward City from Velociraptor
Velociraptor
Velociraptor is a genus of dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur that existed approximately 75 to 71 million years ago during the later part of the Cretaceous Period. Two species are currently recognized, although others have been assigned in the past. The type species is V. mongoliensis; fossils...
s in an attack helicopter
Helicopter
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...
. Another recurring character is Paula, a teenage girl who is a part of the mysterious syndicate who are hostile to the main characters.
The last crucial character of the game is Colonel Dylan Morton. The future Dylan has a very important role in the game, tying the whole story together and revealing the plot. Colonel Dylan tells Lieutenant Dylan to use the time gate to take the surviving children back and prevent them from making the mistake of trying to coexist with dinosaurs.
Dinosaurs
Throughout the game, the protagonists encounter various dinosaurs that inhabit the whole jungle region, along with its waters and skies. Those that appear frequently include VelociraptorVelociraptor
Velociraptor is a genus of dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur that existed approximately 75 to 71 million years ago during the later part of the Cretaceous Period. Two species are currently recognized, although others have been assigned in the past. The type species is V. mongoliensis; fossils...
, Allosaurus
Allosaurus
Allosaurus is a genus of large theropod dinosaur that lived 155 to 150 million years ago during the late Jurassic period . The name Allosaurus means "different lizard". It is derived from the Greek /allos and /sauros...
, Oviraptor
Oviraptor
Oviraptor is a genus of small Mongolian theropod dinosaur, first discovered by the paleontologist Roy Chapman Andrews, and first described by Henry Fairfield Osborn, in 1924...
, Pteranodon
Pteranodon
Pteranodon , from the Late Cretaceous geological period of North America in present day Kansas, Alabama, Nebraska, Wyoming, and South Dakota, was one of the largest pterosaur genera and had a maximum wingspan of over...
, and Inostrancevia
Inostrancevia
Inostrancevia is a genus of gorgonopsid therapsid found in Sokolki, on the Smaller Northern Dvina River near Kotlas in Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. The animal lived 251 million years ago during the Late Permian. The species I...
. Mosasaurus
Mosasaurus
Mosasaurus is a genus of mosasaur, carnivorous, aquatic lizards, somewhat resembling flippered crocodiles, with elongated heavy jaws. The genus existed during the Maastrichtian age of the Cretaceous period , around 70-65 millions years ago in the area of modern Western Europe and North America...
and Plesiosaurus
Plesiosaurus
Plesiosaurus was a genus of large marine sauropterygian reptile that lived during the early part of the Jurassic Period, and is known by nearly complete skeletons from the Lias of England...
also appear as a common enemy yet only during the Third Energy Facility level, most of which is underwater. Others like Compsognathus
Compsognathus
Compsognathus was a small, bipedal, carnivorous theropod dinosaur. The animal was the size of a turkey and lived around 150 million years ago, the early Tithonian stage of the late Jurassic Period, in what is now Europe. Paleontologists have found two well-preserved fossils, one in Germany...
however act towards the game's puzzle aspect such as a segment where it steals the player's key card and Triceratops
Triceratops
Triceratops is a genus of herbivorous ceratopsid dinosaur which lived during the late Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous Period, around 68 to 65 million years ago in what is now North America. It was one of the last dinosaur genera to appear before the great Cretaceous–Paleogene...
that appear in one of the on-rails shooting sections of the game.
Among the recurring human characters, a number of dinosaurs also appear multiple times in the story. The first is the Tyrannosaurus Rex who attacks the main camp at the start of the game before having an eye shot out with a rocket launcher by David. It follows the team, appearing both on the first jungle island in a few instances and again in Edward City, which sits across a very large lake. Another recurring dinosaur is the Giganotosaurus
Giganotosaurus
Giganotosaurus is a genus of carcharodontosaurid dinosaur that lived around 97 million years ago during the early Cenomanian stage of the Late Cretaceous Period. It included some of the largest known terrestrial carnivores, slightly larger than the largest Tyrannosaurus, but smaller than the...
, which is shown to be abnormally large and powerful (perhaps to make it seem more impressive or possibly a mutation). It is first encountered at the missile silo where it battles and quickly disposes of the T. Rex and is seemingly killed by Regina in the missile silo. Later, it mysteriously reappears inside a secret research facility as the game’s final boss where Dylan must keep it from killing him while he activates a laser from a satellite which obliterates it.
Plot
It's 2010: one year has passed since the events of Dino Crisis. Third Energy research continues, this time at the hands of a government agency. However, an accident has occurred: Edward City, an entire town devoted to the research, has completely vanished, and been replaced by a prehistoric jungle. A search and rescue operation is set underway by TRAT to travel back in time and recover the survivors and locate the missing Third Energy research data. In this team are soldiers Dylan Morton and David Folk, and intelligence operative Regina due to her experience from the last encounter. Upon landing on the island, the team sets up camp but is attacked by Velociraptors, with most of the team killed except for Dylan, Regina and David. Unexpectedly, the Velociraptors begin to flee in fear; a Tyrannosaurus Rex suddenly enters the camp site from the jungle. Upon appearing, David shoots at it with an RPG, damaging its eye and permanently disfiguring it. The angered Tyrannosaurus then chases Dylan and Regina to a slope, where they both tumble to the ground below, and then go their separate ways.Regina heads back to their ship while Dylan heads off into the jungle where he is attacked by packs of Velociraptors. When Dylan reaches a military facility, the one-eyed Tyrannosaurus Rex attacks him; however, before taking shelter in one of the barracks he is shot at by unknown helmeted figures, almost getting squashed flat by the T-Rex. Inside, he attempts to retrieve a key card but sets off a security alarm and is imprisoned. Back at the ship, Regina receives a distress call from Dylan and sets out to rescue him. Along the way she takes an alternate route towards the research facility. Along the way to pick up a flamethrower weapon, she is attacked by a short-tempered Allosaurus
Allosaurus
Allosaurus is a genus of large theropod dinosaur that lived 155 to 150 million years ago during the late Jurassic period . The name Allosaurus means "different lizard". It is derived from the Greek /allos and /sauros...
. After defeating the mild-mannered beast, she encounters more of the helmeted figures, but one fails to escape and is handcuffed by Regina. She removes the figure’s helmet, revealing the figure to be a blonde teenage girl who cannot speak. Regina leaves the girl there while she rescues Dylan back at the military base. She brings the girl from the research facility back to the patrol ship, but finds that it has been ransacked. Before he leaves to look for ship parts, Dylan handcuffs the unknown girl to the ship; strangely, she halts her struggles upon looking at him. She reaches his face, but he backs off. The look on her face means she's trying to tell something to him.
After fighting 2 more Allosaurus, Dylan fights packs of raptors while heading to the research facility, which also houses human containment chambers and is overrun by Oviraptor
Oviraptor
Oviraptor is a genus of small Mongolian theropod dinosaur, first discovered by the paleontologist Roy Chapman Andrews, and first described by Henry Fairfield Osborn, in 1924...
s. When he's about to open a door to get the battery for the patrol ship using a card key, a Compsognathus
Compsognathus
Compsognathus was a small, bipedal, carnivorous theropod dinosaur. The animal was the size of a turkey and lived around 150 million years ago, the early Tithonian stage of the late Jurassic Period, in what is now Europe. Paleontologists have found two well-preserved fossils, one in Germany...
craftily steals it from him. He chases it back and forth and eventually locks it in a cage, winning the card back. He arrives back at the ship to find the girl gone. They pilot the ship to an offshore under-sea base called the Third Energy facility where Regina turns the prime Third Energy reactor back on, evading attacks from mosasaurs and plesiosaurs that have taken residence in the underwater portions of the facility. She returns to the surface where she and Dylan get a distress call from David who claims to have found the survivors at Edward City. They traverse a cave filled with Inostrancevia
Inostrancevia
Inostrancevia is a genus of gorgonopsid therapsid found in Sokolki, on the Smaller Northern Dvina River near Kotlas in Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. The animal lived 251 million years ago during the Late Permian. The species I...
, but stumble into the nest full of angry Allosaurus
Allosaurus
Allosaurus is a genus of large theropod dinosaur that lived 155 to 150 million years ago during the late Jurassic period . The name Allosaurus means "different lizard". It is derived from the Greek /allos and /sauros...
. They then come across a dying Triceratops
Triceratops
Triceratops is a genus of herbivorous ceratopsid dinosaur which lived during the late Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous Period, around 68 to 65 million years ago in what is now North America. It was one of the last dinosaur genera to appear before the great Cretaceous–Paleogene...
fawn lying on its side. Dylan and Regina are horrified by the sight, but the fawn calls out. An angry Triceratops comes to the fawn's defense and chases them through the jungle After that they crash just outside the city into a field infested with Velociraptors: however, David saves them in a helicopter, but only to find that the dinosaurs have killed all the remaining survivors in the city. There Dylan encounters the Tyrannosaurus Rex once more and escapes in a tank. The tank is nearly squashed, and the T-Rex screeches in defeat and walks away. He is ambushed by yet another helmeted figure, but the figure is thrown off a bridge by the blonde girl before she leaves. Dylan recovers something in the aftermath of the struggle: a necklace worn by his dead sister, that the blonde girl had been wearing. He then tells Regina of his tormented past.
Regina locates the missile silo and retrieves the Third Energy data disc. Just outside, she is attacked by the Tyrannosaurus Rex. Suddenly a Giganotosaurus attacks the Tyrannosaur and kills it after a brief fight between the two; despite that the Giganotosaurus shown in Dino Crisis 2 is much larger than it really was [A real Giganotosaurus was estimated to be around 43 feet (13.1 m) long and 18 feet (5.5 m) tall and weighs 24000 pounds (10,886.2 kg), but this individual is nearly 2.75 times this size]. The Giganotosaurus then follows Regina into the silo, which triggers a countdown. Regina fends it off by dousing it in flammable gas and igniting it, knocking it out for a moment. After she shuts off the missile, the Giganotosaurus gets to its paws and smashes the silo foundation, starting a fire. Outside David and Dylan are waiting, having opened the bay doors for their escape; but David is killed by an Allosaurus
Allosaurus
Allosaurus is a genus of large theropod dinosaur that lived 155 to 150 million years ago during the late Jurassic period . The name Allosaurus means "different lizard". It is derived from the Greek /allos and /sauros...
, which also knocks Dylan into the river, taking him away upstream. He wakes up in an unknown area where the blond girl leads him into a large base complex, where she shows him a recording that reveals the truth.
After the incident in the first game, the humans decided to study the dinosaurs. Widespread Time Skewing was carried out, with disastrous results that threatened the end of the project when it became clear that dinosaurs and humans could not coexist. The military decided to transport all the dinosaurs three million years into the future, where they could thrive, before they were to be sent back to their own time when the Third Energy time gate was perfect; it was called the Noah's Ark
Noah's Ark
Noah's Ark is a vessel appearing in the Book of Genesis and the Quran . These narratives describe the construction of the ark by Noah at God's command to save himself, his family, and the world's animals from the worldwide deluge of the Great Flood.In the narrative of the ark, God sees the...
Plan. However, the time gate overloaded and was destroyed, leaving both the team and dinosaurs trapped. Even though the survivors were killed by the dinosaurs, their children were brought to the safety of the habitat support facility, where they were kept in life support chambers, which protected them and allowed for growth and learning. The children learned how to survive around dinosaurs, and because of the nature of the Noah's Ark Plan, they were taught to protect the dinosaurs, but lost the ability to speak, becoming the helmeted figures. One of the members of the team that came to the future was Dylan himself, who made the recording, but much older and with a daughter Paula, the blonde girl. As a result of the overload, Edward City itself had been transported to the future. The future Dylan tells his past self there is a basic gate to take him, Regina and the children back to their time: however, they can only use it once.
Dylan is attacked by another helmeted figure who has set off the base's self-destruct, before their fight is interrupted by the Giganotosaurus
Giganotosaurus
Giganotosaurus is a genus of carcharodontosaurid dinosaur that lived around 97 million years ago during the early Cenomanian stage of the Late Cretaceous Period. It included some of the largest known terrestrial carnivores, slightly larger than the largest Tyrannosaurus, but smaller than the...
. Dylan manages to set off a satellite laser blasting the dinosaur, burning it to cinders. Regina turns up at the last minute, but Paula's legs are crushed by falling equipment. Unable to free her and with the building ready to explode, Dylan decides not to leave her and so sends Regina back through the time gate with the research disc, asking her to build a time gate to return and save them. Regina runs through the gate, promising to return. Both Paula and Dylan are about to be crushed by falling equipment but at the last split second the building explodes, unknown whether Regina was able to save them in time.
Soundtrack
Dino Crisis 2: Original Soundtrack was composed by Sayaka Fujita and Makoto Tomozawa with a catalog number of CPCA-1046.Reception
Dino Crisis 2 received a positive response from critics, with an average score of 82% at Game RankingsGame Rankings
GameRankings is a website that collects review scores from both offline and online sources to give an average rating. It indexes over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 games.GameRankings is owned by CBS Interactive...
based on 22 reviews and an 86/100 at Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
based on 13 reviews.
In a review by GameSpot
GameSpot
GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...
, they mentioned it was possible to argue that the first Dino Crisis just "replaced the zombies with carnivorous dinosaurs" as a Resident Evil spin-off. However they found Dino Crisis 2 "an original, enjoyable experience that can no longer be considered just another entry into the survival-horror genre", as it "avoids the stereotypes of the genre and delivers one of the most refreshing takes on the third-person action shooter to date." IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
concurred by saying it was "stripped of its slow-paced Resident Evil shell and its haunting, creepy shockeroo tricks". They particularly praised the game’s artwork and level design that "the creatures and the design are both excellent, and the jungle backgrounds, and especially the underwater environments, are simply top-notch." On the game’s sound effects, GamePro
GamePro
GamePro Media was a United States gaming media company publishing online and print content on the video game industry, video game hardware, and video game software developed for a video game console , a computer, and/or a mobile device . GamePro Media properties include GamePro magazine and...
stated the "Sound is solid, with an unobtrusive musical score that blends well with gaming effects, i.e. the telltale rustle of foliage preceding a raptor's leap for your throat isn't drowned out by J-Pop
J-pop
, an abbreviation for Japanese pop, is a musical genre that entered the musical mainstream of Japan in the 1990s. Modern J-pop has its roots in 1960s music, such as The Beatles, and replaced kayōkyoku in the Japanese music scene...
."
As a survival horror however, Game Revolution
Game Revolution
Game Revolution or GR is a gaming website created in 1996. Based in Berkeley, California, the site includes reviews, previews, a gaming download area, cheats, and a merchandise store, as well as webcomics, screenshots, and videos...
felt the "arcade-like" gameplay "detracts a bit from the whole survival-horror theme". And while they praised the sequel for not over-using puzzles and key fetch objectives, "the back and forth gameplay gets tired after a while" and can make it "very easy to get distracted from the storyline and get sucked into the process of amassing an arsenal."
Like its predecessor, Dino Crisis 2 was a commercial success. The PlayStation version of game has sold 1.19 million copies worldwide.
External links
- Dino Crisis 2 at WikiaWikiaWikia is a free web hosting service for wikis . It is normally free of charge for readers and editors, deriving most of its income from advertising, and publishes all user-provided text under copyleft licenses. Wikia hosts several hundred thousand wikis using the open-source wiki software MediaWiki...