I love Dino Crisis less for what it is, and more of what it could be. The concept is just so enticing, since it’s in a unique spot between the genre’s extremes which has yet to be adequately explored. Some survival-horror games pit you against slow monsters you have to run past or kill, others have you avoiding an unstoppable nemesis, but Dino Crisis mixes these concepts to where you have to fight enemies who, even individually, can tear you to shreds. The idea is that in each safe room, you carefully plan your route based on where the dinos are, where you can activate laser grids, how many tranquilizer darts you have and how potent they are, and so on. As soon as you leave the safe zone, it’s a panicked rush to get to the next objective as you’re being hunted down. At least, that’s the idea; what it ends up being is Resident Evil where the hunters replace the zombies from the start, and the other mechanics end up feeling like situational gimmicks. So, with high hopes for the concept to be realized, I started Dino Crisis 2, only to see that it’s not a survival horror game. That’s not just me being a snooty elitist either, you actually have unlimited supplies. Ammo and health kits can be purchased at save stations for a couple hundred points, when killing a single dinosaur grants 100. Each screen can have you killing up to fifteen, and you’re encouraged to maintain a combo and avoid damage for big point bonuses. It’s essentially an entire game of Resident Evil 3’s mercenaries mode with infinite time and ammo, which makes it just running in a straight line and constantly shooting. It can still be frantic and feel pretty satisfying to take down raptors jumping at you from all directions, but that’s really all there is to it. Since you don’t even need to stop to shoot in this game, it’s entirely feasible to just run from place to place holding down the trigger and not paying attention at all. Combine that with a plot that doubles down on the bad parts of the first game’s story, and you have a sequel that’s just laughably mindless. I don’t exactly hate it, it’s still kinda fun and all, but I’m sad that this series got a chance to refine itself and bring life to the panic-horror concept, but used it to make a creatively unambitious shooter.