David Fork

Dino Crisis 2 is an action-adventure video game for the PlayStation developed by Capcom Production Studio 4 and published by Capcom. It is the second installment in the Dino Crisis series.

After the events of the previous game, unsafe research into time-distorting Third Energy has resulted in an entire research base, military institution, and fictional metropolis of Edward City to be transported to another time; along with all of its inhabitants. Secret Operations Raid Team operative Regina returns as one of the main playable characters, sent along as an adviser to the rescue team that travels through time to find survivors of the time displacement and recover data on the Third Energy experiments. Dylan Morton, the rescue team leader, is the second playable character. Despite Dylan and Regina initially going their separate ways, they end up joining forces to find a way back to the present. The player switches between controlling Regina and Dylan at specific points during the story.

Gameplay

Dino Crisis 2 is an action-adventure game that uses predetermined camera angles. Capcom Production Studio 4 changed the series' focus from the survival horror of the first Dino Crisis by creating a more action-packed arcade-style experience that featured more open areas, greater varieties of weapons and enemies and less emphasis on puzzles.

As players kill dinosaurs in succession, countering attacks and avoiding damage in areas, they can earn "Extinction Points" 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 a save point where players can save and load games. They can also spend Extinction Points on new weapons, upgrades, health packs and ammunition. There are also bandages (used to stem bleeding). This type of injury occurs when a player takes damage from certain attacks, and it results in slow draining of the health bar.

There are two forms of weapons in the game, main and sub-weapons; 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 shotguns, flamethrowers and rifles 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 switch roles between Regina and Dylan, the two have different weapons, making some passages blocked for one but accessible for the other.

Among the action-adventure 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. These include Gail and Rick, two characters from the first game. Dinosaurs can also be used in Dino Colosseum, however, they must be unlocked by completing the game in normal or hard mode.

Characters

• Regina (Stephanie Morgenstern) - A member of Secret Operations Raid Team (SORT), Regina is the only returning character from Dino Crisis that features in the main story. She is extremely intelligent, and is skeptical of Dylan's abilities at the outset, calling him "Mr. Barbarian," before going it alone.
• Dylan Morton (Gabriel Hogan) - Part of the Tactical Reconnaissance and Acquisition Team (TRAT), an off-record covert group of shady characters recruited from the United States Army special forces. They focus on subversive activities, e.g. jailbreaks and insurgency.
• Paula Morton (Lisa Yamanaka) - A recurring character. This teenage girl is part of a helmeted syndicate that is hostile towards Regina and Dylan. She appears childlike and is unable to form complete sentences. Paula shares a special connection with Dylan.
• David Fork (Eric Hempsall) - Another prominent TRAT member, David is a heavy weapons specialist and Dylan's friend. He is separated from the others during the opening cinematic. David is boastful, loyal, and can fly a helicopter. Towards the end, he is slain and eaten by an Allosaurus.
• Colonel Dylan Morton - Appearing as a hologram at the end of the game, Colonel Morton plays an important role in the story. He reveals the truth about the helmeted attackers and what went wrong with the experiment.

Plot

On May 10, 2010, the United States Army's TRAT unit is deployed to investigate the disappearance of Edward City and its surrounding countryside. Their mission: Locate 1300 survivors and collect data remnants on the Third Energy Project. Intelligence operative Regina is brought along as an adviser due to her past experiences. During insertion, the team's camp is attacked by a pack of Velociraptor, leaving Lieutenant Dylan Morton, Regina and TRAT operative David as the only survivors. The velociraptors flee when a Tyrannosaurus rex attacks the group. David damages the tyrannosaur's eye with a rocket-propelled grenade to ensure Dylan and Regina's escape. Regina returns to the transport ship while Dylan heads into the jungle, spotting a mysterious helmeted figure while investigating a military facility. Upon arrival, he is confronted by the wounded T. rex. While escaping to the barracks, he is shot at by helmeted attackers. Later, he attempts to retrieve a key card, triggering a security alert that imprisons him.

Regina receives Dylan's distress call and rescues him. While rescuing Dylan, Regina captures one of the mysterious attackers, a blonde teenage girl who is unable to speak. When they return to their ship, they find the engine room ransacked, stranding the heroes, while the teenage girl exhibits a familiar connection to Dylan.

At the Research Facility, Dylan discovers human containment chambers and a starter battery for the ship in order to get it mobile. Dylan returns to find the girl has escaped, and theorizes that the helmeted attackers could be from a different time period. They use the repaired ship to reach the offshore Third Energy facility.

Regina uses a diving suit at the facility to investigate the underwater reactor. Once topside, she and Dylan receive a distress call from David, who has found survivors at Edward City. However, Dylan and Regina arrive too late. Upon splitting up, Dylan engages the T. rex with a tank before being jumped by another helmeted figure. The blonde girl saves Dylan and runs away. Deciding they have no business at Edward City anymore, Regina heads to a missile silo in the jungle.

Regina discovers the Third Energy data at the silo, but is confronted by the Tyrannosaurus. Her savior is a Giganotosaurus that kills it. The Gigantosaurus follows Regina inside the missile silo, causing damage that triggers a countdown to launch. Regina ignites gas vents to incinerate the Giganotosaurus's head, rendering it comatose. Regina stops the countdown, but the beast awakens and smashes the missile to the ground, destroying the base. While evacuating Regina, Dylan is attacked and injured by an Allosaurus. In order to save him, David sacrifices himself by throwing Dylan into the river before getting eaten.

Dylan arrives at another research facility and encounters the blonde-haired girl. Inside, she plays a hologram recording of an elderly Dylan from 2055 and learns the origins of the disaster. The overload in 2009 affected Earth's history dramatically, creating an alternate timeline where humanity did not exist. To fix this, an international organization enacted the "Noah's Ark Plan": utilizing the Timegate technology, they would transport the living organisms of the Cretaceous to a different time period, three million years in the future, with similar environments, where they could thrive unaffected by the alterations. With the distortions prevented, the organisms would then be returned to their original time period. However, when the Noah's Ark team attempted to return, the gate overloaded and was destroyed, stranding both the dinosaurs and humans in the future. The helmeted attackers are revealed to be the only remaining children of the survivors, who were brought to the safety of a facility and placed in special life support chambers for growth and learning. The side-effects of the chambers cost the children's ability to speak and allowed them to co-exist with the dinosaurs, attacking anyone who threatened them. Dylan also learns at this point that the blonde girl is his future daughter, Paula. The hologram instructs Dylan there is a basic gate they can use to go home, but it will work only once, asking Dylan take Paula with him.

The facility's self destruct system is activated by the sole surviving helmeted figure, causing the Giganotosaurus to appear. The helmeted figure is killed, while Dylan incinerates the Giganotosaurus with an orbital laser. While attempting to evacuate with Regina, an earth tremor leaves Paula trapped by falling equipment. Unable to free her and with the building ready to explode, Dylan stays with his daughter, telling Regina to return home with the Third Energy data and save them at an earlier time period.

Reception

Dino Crisis 2 was met with mixed to positive reviews, with an average score of 80.70% based on 22 reviews for the PlayStation version and an average score of 57.33% based on 3 reviews for the PC version at GameRankings and an 86/100 based on 13 reviews for the PlayStation version at Metacritic.

In their review, GameSpot commented that the first Dino Crisis was as if Capcom "replaced the zombies with carnivorous dinosaurs" for 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 action-adventure genre to date." IGN concurred that the game had been "stripped of its slow-paced Resident Evil shell and its haunting, creepy shockeroo tricks". They had even more praise for the game: "the creatures and the design are both excellent, and the jungle backgrounds, and especially the underwater environments, are simply top-notch." GamePro's review commented that, "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."

The Cincinnati Enquirer gave the game four stars out of five, stating that, "overall, Dino Crisis 2 is a fantastic sequel that delivers more adrenaline-pumping action, beautiful scenery and a hearty dose of terror." However, the newspaper added that "tasks such as running around looking for keys can be tedious. And some of the action portions of the game can get repetitive, too." Game Revolution felt the "arcade-like" gameplay "detracts a bit from the whole survival-horror theme". They also noted that "the back and forth gameplay gets tired after a while," and that it can be "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, with the PlayStation version selling 1.19 million copies worldwide. Capcom would later re-release the game for PC, and bring it to PlayStation Network in the US and Japan.