Unlike, say, the Resident Evil series, whose move towards action-adventure games over the years has alienated many fans, Dino Crisis has the benefit of having worked and been enjoyable as both a survival horror game and as an action-adventure game. Despite being massively different from one another in tone and general gameplay, Dino Crisis and Dino Crisis 2 highlight the fact that a new game doesn't have to strictly stick to either genre. Whether it has you slowly wandering through cramped corridors wondering if a Velociraptor is hungrily waiting for you around the corner or has you standing on a rooftop in the middle of the day frantically blowing away pesky Pteranodons attempting to distract you from the Giganotosaurus quickly bearing down on your location, its inherent amenability to the strengths of either genre could provide any number of entertaining possibilities. Potentially, depending on whatever identity the game decides to take on, the addition of optional co-op could also provide another level of fun, as you and a friend have to watch one another's back while trying to outrun a pack of hungry predators. In any event, the capacity for a new game to carve out its own identity is there, whether as a straight survival horror game, a fast-paced action-adventure game or even a hybrid of both. If done with care and respect to what worked so well in the first games, playing as fear-filled prey or gun-toting predator could be quite a lot of fun.
Writer, film enthusiast, part-time gamer and watcher of (mostly) good television located on the fringe of Los Angeles, who now has his own website at www.highdefgeoff.com!
