Dino Crisis 2

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Dino Crisis 2 is a third-person action-adventure game and sequel to Dino Crisis. The game was developed and published by Capcom and Virgin Interactive, respectively and was released for the PlayStation on September 30, 2000. The game received mixed to positive reviews and was followed by another sequel, Dino Crisis 3, which was released in 2003 for the Xbox. However, the official story-arc sequel to Dino Crisis 2 is actually Dino Stalker.

Plot Edit

"One year has passed since the "Third Energy" incident... Dr. Kirk's research on "Third Energy" has been taken over by a government agency, and massive research has begun at a base somewhere in the mid west. However... In the pursuit of immediate results, they have failed to take the necessary precautions, and once again an accident has occurred. This time, the entire research base, military institution, and a small town close by have disappeared. In their place there now lies a jungle from another time... " — Dino Crisis 2 prologue (English version)[excerpt 1]

Over the course of a year after the 2009 raid on Ibis Island, Dr. Kirk's Third Energy research has prospered at a government-run research outpost. In March 2010, however, another runaway reaction has occurred, and an area encompassing the laboratory complex; the reactor facility; a military barracks; a missile silo and Edward City - a small town for the lab workers and their families - has been temporally displaced. In its place stands a jungle populated by Cretaceous-era fauna.

On 10 May 2010, the accident is re-created on a smaller scale to send a hovercraft carrying a platoon of the Tactical Reconnoitering and Acquisition Team (TRAT) in a rescue operation, carrying among them SORT agent Regina, owing to her prior experience fighting temporally-displaced dinosaurs on Ibis Island. Shortly after their arrival, the camp is attacked by a pack of Velociraptors, resulting in the deaths of the entire team sans Lt. Dylan Morton, David Falk and Regina. Falk is separated from Morton and Regina, who jump down a cliff to escape a Tyrannosaurus. The two also decide to split up in order to cover more ground.

As the two struggle to stay alive, they encounter leather-clad helmeted inhabitants who are hostile towards them, but their female leader, a girl named Paula is easily captured (saved, really). Though the girl is hostile towards Regina, she acts differently towards Dylan, almost as though she knows something about him. After constantly fleeing from the two heroes, she eventually leads Dylan into a large base complex where she shows him a recording that reveals the truth.

In the future, it is discovered that the 2009 overload in the Borginian Republic had consequently caused time alterations to the Cretaceous Era that would lead to disastrous results. The space-time skew would take its effect on all living organisms and would alter the Earth's history dramatically; preventing the human race from ever existing. To fix this, the international organization WAPP decided to transport all the creatures to a similar environment, 3 million years into the future, where they could thrive. They would then be sent back to their own time (bef.65 million years ago) when the crisis passed. This was called the "Noah's Ark Plan". However, the team suffered another overload when they were about to go back, and their Time Gate was destroyed. Thus, the team was trapped with the dinosaurs. All the survivors were killed, but their children were saved and brought to the safety of the Habitat Support Facility, where they were kept in life support chambers. However, the machines were meant for dinosaurs, and long habitation caused them to lose their ability of speech (although they could regain it) and internalize instinct to protect the dinosaurs. These children are the mysterious helmet-wearing teenagers Regina and Dylan encountered throughout the game. Apparently, one of the members of the team that came to the future was Dylan himself, older. His daughter, Paula, is the blonde haired mystery girl. It appears that in the overloading incident, Edward City itself had been transported to the same future.

GameplayEdit

In a change from the survival horror theme of the first game, Dino Crisis 2 is more shoot 'em up oriented. The character always runs, thus removing the need for the run button from the first game, a second gun (machete, stun gun, firewall, chain mine and shock gun) can be carried and more weapons were added to the game (hand gun, shotgun, solid cannon, flame launcher, sub-machine gun, heavy machine gun, anti-tank rifle, missile pod, rocket launcher, needle gun, aqua grenade). Besides changes to the gameplay, the game also introduces new species of dinosaurs and lizards, such as the Triceratops, Giganotosaurus, Allosaurus, Pteranodon, Mosasaurus,Plesiosaurus, Inostrancevia and Oviraptor. The game also adds "extinction points" and "combo points" which help you to buy ammo (which is no longer scarce) and weapons and to unlock hidden features when the game is finished. Some of the features include Extra Crisis mode, which has two minigames: "Dino Colosseum" where the player faces a procession of dinosaurs in turn, (similar to the Survival mode seen in many fighting games) and "Dino Duel", a battle mode where players were able to play as certain dinosaurs, much like the video game Warpath: Jurassic Park.

DevelopmentEdit

Dino Crisis 2 entered production shortly after the release of Dino Crisis. Still handled by Production Studio 4, Hiroyuki Kobayashi took over as producer. The game was the first in the series to be written by Flagship, with the studio's lead author Noboru Sugimura developing the series lore for the rest of the series.

ProgrammingEdit

Running contrary to the previous game in the series, producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi wanted Dino Crisis 2 to be rely on arcade-style features, abandon item-management, and give the player easy access to enemies so they could far outperform the dinosaur enemies so the user experience is more fun. In an interview for Prime Games, Kobayashi described the core theme of the gameplay as being "the exhilaration of defeating a succession of dinosaurs".^[1] A points system was designed so players have more enjoyment in fighting; these points can be used as currency at in-game shops, where more ammunition and more powerful weapons can be purchased, eliminating the need for item management. Sub-Weapons were also designed to give players more ways of fighting enemies,^[1] such as a powerful machete or the Firewall.

DesignEdit

The graphic department was headed by Kazunori Tazaki, who was also in charge of creating and designing the characters for the game. The CG models were then created by Yasuyo Kondou and Kaoru Araki.

As was more typical with Studio 4 titles, Dino Crisis 2 used 2D pre-rendered backgrounds. These were done by creating 3D environments, taking 2D 320 × 240 still shots of them at different angles and then programming hidden walls to simulate a third dimension. This was a process Capcom started with Resident Evil due to the PlayStation's graphics and memory limitations, and since Resident Evil 2 the absolute limit was reached at sixteen still shots per room.^[2]

The background art team was led by Masachika Kawata, with Yusuke Kan drawing sketches for each room. When agreed upon, a larger team would then create CG artwork based on the sketches. To create a more convincing jungle environment, a team had to do research on what jungle environments look like, as well as how the ground is lit in such dense woodland.^[1]

StoryEdit

Development of the Dino Crisis 2 story was split between the internal planning department and the external professional writing studio, Flagship. The story was created by Flagship's head writer, Noboru Sugimura, with Yusuke Hirano and Kishiko Miyagi as co-writers. The scriptwriting process focused initially on the opening and ending cutscenes; other scenes were written afterwards around the game objectives, following meetings with the Planning department. This department consisted of.^{[excerpt 2][excerpt 3]} 

The story development was not set in stone, it should be noted. The ending cutscene was scripted to be longer, and feature Regina exiting the time gate in 2010, running into the arms of her lover and SORT superior, Alex. The 2010 setting was removed, and Alex is not mentioned at all in the released game. At one point the character of Paula was intended to be the daughter of Dr. Edward Kirk, who appeared in the previous game. This was altered to make her Dylan's daughter, possibly to add a time-travel element.^{[excerpt 4]}

ReceptionEdit

Reception
Aggregate scores
Aggregator	Score
Metacritic	86/100[3]
Review scores
Publication	Score
Famitsu	(PS1) 32/40[4]
GamePro	(PS1) 5/5[5]
Game Revolution	(PS1) B[6]
GameSpot	(PS1) 9.2/10[7]
IGN	(PS1) 9.3/10[8]

Dino Crisis 2 received a positive response from critics, with an average score of 86/100 at Metacritic based on 13 reviews.^[3]

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."^[7] 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."^[8] 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."^[5]

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."^[6]

Like its predecessor, Dino Crisis 2 was a commercial success. The PlayStation version of game alone reached the one million mark before the end of the financial year,^[9] and currently has sold 1.2 million copies worldwide.^[10]

Further notes Edit

• The game features three post-rating epilogue scenes showing the main characters in happier settings. One features Dylan driving a red sports car through a city, Regina has two endings with her standing in front of a window in her bedroom, and a third shows Paula lying in a grassy field, wearing her necklace and smiling as bubbles float by. Which image is shown changes depending on how many times the player has beaten the game.

SourcesEdit

excerpts

1. ↑ Japanese script of Prologue:
   "サードエネルギー暴走事件"から1年…… この究極のエネルギーの研究は開発者カーク博士の手を離れた 政府は開発都市を建設大規模な研究が開始 しかし 強引かつ性急すぎたプロジェクトは破綻をきたし再び"事故"は走こった…… 事故こよる空間転移は最大規模を記録 研究基地 軍事施設隣接する居住エリアそのすべてが消失 巨大な密林がそこに現れたのである……
2. ↑ Excerpt from DINO CRISIS 2 Official Guide Book: "Q14. 今回のシナリオは、 フラグシップとの共同作業ということですが、 シナリオを発注するまでの流れは？  ある程度の企画とストーリーの骨子が固められた時点でフラグシップが参加するのか、 あるいは逆にフラグシップ側から企画案に近いストーリーを提起するパターンもある？"
   A14. "最終稿に関しては、 フラグシップにイチからストーリーの骨子を作ってもらいました。 それをもとに、 カプコンのプランナーが打ち合わせに入り、 ゲーム要素を付加していく、 という形をとっています。"
3. ↑ Excerpt from DINO CRISIS 2 Official Guide Book: "Q16. 物語を組み上げていくさいに、 おもに取られる手法はつぎのどちら？・キャラクターが行動するにまかせて自在な展開を導く手法・はじまりと終わりを決めてその間の物語を埋めていく手法"
   A16. "後者です。 どんな世界に行き、 最終にどうその物語が収束するかをまず決めました。 そして、 そのなかで起こる事件をおおまかに決め、 つぎに、 その間をゲーム要素でつないでいく、 という手順で作成しました。"
4. ↑ Excerpt from DINO CRISIS 2 Official Guide Book: "Q24. "開発スタッフだけが知っている秘密は？"
   A24. "シナリオの初期段階では、 じつはレジーナに恋人役がいました。 名前は、 たしかアレックス、 とか言ったと思います。彼はS.O.R.T.の先輩で、 なぜかどんな局面でもレジーナにキスしたがるという設定でした （シナリオのラストシーンもキスで締めだった）。 スタッフから 《キス魔》 というニックネームを与えられていたアレックス、 いつの間に消えてしまったのか、 いまとなっては謎です。 また、ポーラは最初、 カーク博士の娘として設定されたりもしていました。 ディランをいじめるメチャクチャな上官が出てくるバージョンもありました。 シナリオが固まるまでは、 いろんな愉快なキャラクターが現れては消えていきました。"

references

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Dino Crisis 2 Prima Guide.
2. ↑ Twitter feed: PG kamiya, dated Apr 24 2020. Accessdate: 2020-05-23.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} Dino Crisis 2 Review (PS) at Metacritic. Metacritic. Retrieved on 2012-11-10.
4. ↑ プレイステーション - Dino Crisis 2 (ディノ クライシス2). Weekly Famitsu. No.915 Pt.2. Pg.17. 30 June 2006.
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1} "2BARRELFUGUE" (2000-11-24). GamePro Dino Crisis 2 Review (PS). GamePro. Archived from the original on 2011-06-07. Retrieved on 2008-08-15.
6. ↑ ^{6.0 6.1} A.A. White (2000-10). Game Revolution Dino Crisis 2 Review (PS): They just won't stay extinct.. Game Revolution. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved on 2012-11-10.
7. ↑ ^{7.0 7.1} Ben Stahl (2000-09-23). GameSpot Dino Crisis 2 Review (PS). GameSpot. Retrieved on 2012-11-10.
8. ↑ ^{8.0 8.1} Doug Perry (2000-09-25). IGN Dino Crisis 2 Review (PS): Capcom aims its dinosaur "horror" game at the action genre and comes up with a bull's eye.. IGN. Archived from the original on 2016-04-26. Retrieved on 2012-11-10.
9. ↑ Annual2001.pdf. capcom.co.jp. Retrieved on 2018-10-03.
10. ↑ CAPCOM Platinum Titles. Capcom.co.jp. Retrieved on 2009-04-05.

External linksEdit

• Dino Crisis 2 official site (Japanese)

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