E3 2003 – Hands On

Anyone who’s
played a Dino Crisis game knows that it borrows a lot from the Resident Evil
series. The control scheme is similar and so are the weapons, the only
difference is that the zombies are replaced with dinosaurs. Well, with Dino
Crisis 3 things are going to change.

Taking place on a
doomed space ship taken over by mutant dinos, you take on the role of either
Patrick or Sonya. Even though Dino Crisis 3 is more action oriented, survival is
still the key and the dinos are scary, making DC3 kind of an action
survival-horror.

Since action is a
bigger focus, weapon add-ons are aplenty. One weapon is called the Wasp, which
acts as a helper that flies around firing at oncoming enemies. A jetpack has
also been added, allowing you to hover, dash, and make higher jumps.

The graphics are
absolutely stunning, and I’m just talking about during gameplay. The CG
sequences are even better. The controls are no longer like Resident Evil and now
are much more useful in the fast-paced action setting. Instead of pivot and go
controls, they are now fully 3D – up goes up and down goes down. Ammo is
plentiful now as well…in fact, it’s infinite. The main gun didn’t ever run out
of ammo and it has two different modes of fire. If you tap the fire button it
goes into auto fire, but if you hold the button down you charge up your gun for
a more powerful single shot.

The new action
theme of Dino Crisis 3 is definitely the direction the series needed to take.
When it comes to a game with dinosaurs coming at you from different directions,
it makes sense that the game would action packed than slow and cautious. With
its upgraded graphics and gameplay, Dino Crisis 3 is going to make an awesome
shooter when it comes out this September.