Dino Crisis

Dino Crisis is a Survival Horror game series by Capcom, the first of which came out in 1999. The game had a lot of similarities to the company's other Survival Horror series, and has often been compared to it, even though Capcom originally insisted it was a new genre they called "panic horror". Mainly because, as the name suggests, you fight dinosaurs. The series has not seen a new installment since Dino Crisis 3 in 2003, however, the main character of the original two games, Regina, does appear in the 2005 crossover game Namco X Capcom and the "Borginian Republic" the first game takes place in is reused in various parts of the Ace Attorney franchise (Make of that what you will).

The series consists of (in order of release):

Dino Crisis
A team of soldiers from the clandestine Secret Operation Raid Team is sent to capture Doctor Kirk, a genius scientist who had allegedly died in a lab accident, but instead used it as a chance to defect. Kirk's work involved "Third Energy Theory, which caused a rift in the Space-Time continuum, bringing dinosaurs into the present day. Players take the role of Regina, a SORT member who is attempting to survive the island, whilst her squad mates debate on whether or not to pursue Kirk or abandon the mission and escape.
Dino Crisis 2
A Third Energy research outpost disappears and is replaced by Prehistoric Jungle. Regina and new character Dylan Morton are sent to investigate, running afoul of both the dinosaurs, and a mysterious group of teenagers wearing futuristic gear. The game is notable for having a more action-oriented focus than the original (which was primarily Survival Horror), to the point of including a combo meter and a ingame currency system based on kills (similar to Devil May Cry).
Dino Stalker
A.k.a. Gun Survivor 3: Dino Crisis. A first-person shooter starring Mike Wired, a World War II pilot who becomes stranded in the dinosaur-ridden future thanks to the timeline meddling that occurred in the earlier games.
Dino Crisis 3
Taking place in the Twenty-Sixth Century. Players take the role of Patrick Tyler as he investigates the U.N. Ozymandias, a spaceship that had disappeared centuries earlier. Along with Sonya Hart and Jacob Ranshaw, he fights mutants based on Dinosaur genetic codes.
Tropes used in Dino Crisis include:

Dino Crisis

  • Abandoned Laboratory - Most of the facility is an abandoned research outpost, with the rest being offices or living quarters for the staff. The B1, B2 and B3 levels are where the main laboratories are based.
  • Advancing Boss of Doom - Battles against the Tyrannosaurus almost always take this form. As it cannot actually be killed, your weapons are useful only in slowing it down.
  • Always Check Behind the Chair - You never know where you'll find a helpful Apocalyptic Log or plug.
  • American Kirby Is Hardcore - Regina's character model in CG artwork was modified. In the Japanese version, she had small lips and big anime-style eyes. In the western version, she was given smaller eyes and fuller lips.
  • And Your Reward Is Clothes - You can unlock three alternate costumes for Regina. As a cameo, in Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, one of the outfits Jill gets is one that makes her look exactly like Regina.
  • Apocalyptic Log - All the journal entries and papers left behind, considering most of the staff are dead.
  • Art Major Biology - This is why dinosaurs can take gunshots at point blank range and not die immediately.
  • Awesome but Impractical - The grenade launcher looks impressive, but its usefulness is limited until it gets upgraded to shorten the reload time.
  • Back Tracking
  • Badass - Regina, considering she has to do most of the grunt work, takes on several attacks and ambushes during the game and survives.
  • Big Damn Heroes - Gail in the Training Room.
  • BFG - Shotgun.
  • Black Dude Dies First - Averted. Rick survives no matter what ending you get. Gail on the other hand...
  • Bladder of Steel - Save Scumming is encouraged, since there will be long gaps during which you can't save the game at all.
  • Blasting It Out of Their Hands - Kirk's gun is shot out of his hand by Gail, who probably wouldn't have cared if Kirk lost a few fingers anyway.
  • Blond Guys Are Evil - Dr. Kirk.
    • Subverted by Gail, who is very cold and pragmatic with regards to his teammates' lives but won't hesitate to help them out so long as he's able to, and totally averted by Dylan in the sequel, who's a straight-up good guy.
  • Body Horror - Lots of mutilated corpses lying around, including those of the dinosaurs.
  • Bragging Rights Reward - The grenade launcher with infinite ammo is fun for a New Game+, but by this point you have already proven that you can complete the game without it.
  • Cardboard Obstacle - The DDKs. You have to find two keys, the right door, and work out the code, and the code changes style as the game progresses, but you won't know how they've changed (or even that they've changed) unless you read the right manuals in the right rooms.
  • Casual Danger Dialogue - Regina sees a guy whose entrails are no longer inside him, and comments, "That's disgusting," like she's talking about the weather.
  • Comm Links - Used to keep in touch with Gail and Rick, complete with holding the hand up to the ear to hear.
  • Container Maze - The Underground crane room, which fortunately is uninhabited. There is another crane room in the B3 Armory, though this one 'is' inhabited, and a third one can be found in the room on your way to the Heliport.
  • Deadly Gas - There is a puzzle Regina has to solve in order to access a sealed room where a researcher has barricaded himself. For some reason, the room he's in is filled with a fair amount of poisonous gas. By using the helpful hint left in the previous room, you can combine the gases in such a way as to neutralize them in order to gain entry. He'll give you an important key card before expiring. Near him is a small key you can use in the Medical Room in order to obtain extra goodies.
    • However, if you mix the gases wrong, either accidentally or because you're feeling like a jerk, you'll end up killing him. You still get the important key card, but you don't find the small key.
  • Deadpan Snarker - Regina has her moments:

Rick: So how do we get around this thing?
Regina: Either we find a way, or we both end up as dino droppings.
Rick: Not funny.

  • Death Course - Gail's options consist of tackling packs of dinosaurs head-on.
  • Death Is Cheap - As long as you have a Resuscitation Pack in your inventory, that is.
  • Difficulty Levels - Normal or Hard.
  • Disc One Final Dungeon - The Underground laboratory, B1.
  • Disconnected Side Area - The Underground lab cannot be accessed from the B1 Level because there is a security shutter blocking the way. Regina has to head back to the ground level and use the elevator to get down.
  • Downer Ending - Depending on which ending you get, and on how you interpret it.
  • Drop in Nemesis - A collapsing pathway outside the facility, of all things.
  • Dull Surprise - Regina reacts to seeing the trail of blood that could be Gail's, as well as her very first Velociraptor, by saying, "What is this?" and backing away maybe half a step very slowly.
  • Elaborate Underground Base - The B3 and B2 levels are where the action is.
  • Elevator Action Sequence - Subverted; the Large Elevator found outside the facility looks like it is inviting one, and it is where the Pteranodons are first encountered, yet no action sequence occurs when it is actually used. That's not to say it doesn't come in useful later, or that it isn't relevant to the plot.
  • Empty Corridor Until The Trap.
  • Equivalent Exchange - How the Third Energy Generator's time-travel function works. This is revealed by Dr. Kirk after the first attempt to activate the generator fails.
  • Escape Sequence - The end of the game becomes this once Regina sets the Third Energy Generator to overload.
  • Escort Mission - A convoluted one involves saving the undercover operative Tom, and getting him to a medical room to cure his wounds. Fortunately, Rick is there to take care of Tom, so your job is largely to remove the obstacles. Even better, they will sit and wait patiently until you have finished, and since Rick has a rifle with him, they're not helpless.
  • Evil Brit - Dr. Edward Kirk.
  • Expy - Regina from Dino Crisis is an expy of Jill from Resident Evil. As an in-joke, in Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, Jill can unlock Regina's outfit.
  • Fetch Quest - Once or twice you have to fetch items, usually keys, for specific purposes, such as for restoring the power.
  • Fixed Camera - You have no control over the camera, which varies from being perfectly still to following Regina down a corridor. Some reviews criticised the system, pointing out that it often meant taking a corner blind.
    • Rule of Scary was probably applied, hence the reason why you can't see around some corners.
  • Four Is Death - Four team members land on the island. Only three make it out of the opening cutscene alive.
  • "Friend or Idol?" Decision - Regina must choose between assisting a severely wounded Gail, her commanding officer, in completing their mission objective of capturing renegade scientist Dr. Kirk, causing Gail to die in the process; or force Gail to give up to the chase and leave the island with her and Rick, allowing Dr. Kirk to escape, thus ending the mission in failure. However, Regina can also Take a Third Option by leaving Gail with Rick and going after Dr. Kirk by herself, allowing her to complete the mission without Gail dying.
  • Fun with Acronyms / Heroes-R-Us - Regina's unit is SORT (Secret Operation Raid Team).
  • Fur Bikini - One of the bonus outfits.
  • Giant Flyer / Airborne Mooks - The Pteranodons are Death From Above, swooping down on their victims to knock them over, before carrying them away in their talons. It is possible to struggle out of their grip, but the more devious ones do more than simply drop you from a great height.
  • Glass Cannon - Pteranodons have powerful attacks and are tough to hit, but can easily be felled by two well-aimed shotgun blasts.
  • Guide Dang It - Unless you're fanatically checking out every nook and cranny in every room, you probably won't find all of the Med Packs, ammo, and other items, without a guide.
  • Healing Potion - The Med Packs S, M, and L (small, medium, and large) and the Hemostat, which prevents bleeding but does not restore health.
  • Heroic Sacrifice - All of the main Dino Crisis games have one of these. In this game, it is Tom, which is a real Kick the Dog moment from the dinosaurs.
  • Hey, It's That Voice! - Ivy is Regina.
  • Hollywood Science - The Reveal about the Third Energy generator features an example.
  • Hopeless Boss Fight - The T. Rex is Nigh Invulnerable, and if it catches up with Regina, it will swallow her whole. Although it cannot be killed, it can be slowed down with gunfire.
  • Hyperspace Arsenal - Regina has three guns; a handgun, a shotgun, and a larger grenade launcher for firing incendiary bullets. It's hard to see where she keeps the last two.
  • Incredibly Durable Enemies
  • Inescapable Ambush - The office room and rooftop battles with the T. rex.
  • Infinity+1 Sword - The infinite ammo grenade launcher. Sadly, it's only for the New Game+.
    • To a lesser extent, the poison darts for the shotgun. Sure, it costs Resuscitation Packs to make them, but seeing a Therazinosaur convulse in its death spasms from only one shot is an absolutely beautiful sight to behold.
  • Instant 180-Degree Turn - Regina can do this to evade enemies. It was deliberately introduced to prevent the faster dinosaurs from having an advantage.
  • Instant Sedation - The tranq. darts.
  • Inventory Management Puzzle - You'll have to ration between ammo stocks and medical items often, though the emergency supplies can be stored in green, red, and yellow boxes around the facility, and the boxes are interconnected according to colour code. So, for example, if you have opened two yellow boxes and a green box with the right plugs, with one yellow box on the ground floor and another in the Underground, you can access both boxes' contents whichever box you go to, but you cannot access the green box's contents from either of them.
  • Item Crafting - You can combine items already procured into new, more powerful items, such as stronger tranquiliser darts or more efficient Med Packs. There are even customised components whose only purpose is to be combined in this way.
  • It's Up to You - Regina is the only one who collects key items and kills (most of the) dinosaurs, despite having two teammates with her.
  • Jerkass - Doctor Kirk and Gail.
  • Kleptomaniac Hero - Not that anyone's in a position to complain as you rummage around the guard's locker rooms or the chief's office.
  • Knight of Cerebus - Somewhat, the Therizinosaurs in the underground late in the game. They are much harder to kill than raptors. And don't comically fall over when they hit the laser gates. Cutting the time they are stunned short. They are also more likely to burst through doors to case after you.
  • Knockback - Pteranodon attacks can knock Regina over, leaving her vulnerable if the pterosaurs then attempt to carry her away. Therizinosaurs can also knock Regina onto her back with a punch to the stomach.
  • Let's Split Up, Gang! - Regina is always working alone.
  • Lightning Bruiser - The raptors.
  • Jump Scare - Par for the course of the horror game, and one of the reasons why Capcom tried to have it branded as the first Panic Horror title. See for example, the head of the T. rex smashes through the window in the office on the second floor. Which by the way can be triggered by accident.
  • Made of Iron - Shoot the T-Rex all you want, none of your guns will kill it. The Therizinosaurs are also ridiculously tough.
  • Mad Scientist - Doctor Kirk in spades.
  • Menu Time Lockout - Never mind that a raptor was about to pounce on you. Just crouch down reading that diary entry for as long as you want.
  • Mighty Glacier - The Tyrannosaurus. The Therizinosaurs to a lesser degree.
  • Monster Closet - A raptor leaps out of an electronics zone in the wall during the Underground lab segment. It's hard to see what it was doing there.
  • More Predators Than Prey - Given The Reveal at the end of Dino Crisis, doesn't it seem improbable that every dinosaur you encounter is a carnivore, and that almost all the carnivores are dromaeosaurids? What do they feed on?
  • Multiple Endings - Depending on the choice you make in the last choice menu, the first game can end one of three ways:
    • If you choose to let Gail go after Doctor Kirk, Gail ends up succumbing to his wounds after cornering the doctor. Regina and Doctor Kirk then meet up with Rick and escape.
    • If you choose to stop Gail and follow Rick to the boat, the three of you escape after a couple run-ins with the T. Rex. Gail survives and Doctor Kirk is presumed to have found another means of escape.
    • You can choose to stop Gail again and then go after Kirk yourself. Doing this causes the best ending where Gail survives and Doctor Kirk is recaptured.
  • New Game+ - Starting a new game from the old one allows you to carry over costumes (Dino Crisis).
  • Nothing Is Scarier - One of the complaints fired at the first game was that, when they finally appeared, the dinosaurs were nowhere near as terrifying as the zombies of Capcom's more famous horror title, Resident Evil. When they weren't around, however, the game could be terrifying enough.
  • Ominous Save Prompt - Why is there a save prompt when you leave the communications room?
  • One Name Only: All the members of SORT.
  • Palette Swap - The super-raptors from the B2 level are normal raptors with different skins and a conspicuously Improbable Power Discrepancy as a result.
  • Path of Most Resistance - At one point in the first game, you can choose to follow Gail and fight your way out of the lower level of the laboratory instead of letting Rick open an emergency passage for you.
  • Personal Space Invader - Get off my arm!
  • Player Headquarters - The control room once Rick takes over the security systems. The save rooms also act as places where the player can find useful items.
  • Point of No Return - After a certain point, the T. rex destroys the over-sized elevator leading to the lower levels of the lab, leaving you unable to return to the surface.
  • Pre-Mortem One-Liner - "End of the line for you, handsome...You're extinct!"
  • Preexisting Encounters - There are many in each game, some of which would be iconic of the series (for instance, the aforementioned scene where the T. rex pokes its head through the office window).
  • Press X to Not Die - The first game has many of these scenarios, in which a raptor would pin Regina down and start to maul her. The player has to mash the buttons as quickly as possible to kick it off or else Regina gets mauled to death.
  • Ptero-Soarer - Painfully evident with the Pteranodons.
  • The Radio Dies First - The radio man, Cooper, gets hunted down by the T. rex in the opening cutscene.
  • Raptor Attack - The raptors that appear in the game are lifted straight out of Jurassic Park: featherless, oversized and excessively aggressive, they seem to roam alone or in packs as the game demands and are apparently smart enough to work their way through elevator shafts.
  • Redheaded Hero - Regina.
  • Red Shirt - Cooper, who does not even make it out of the opening FMV.
  • Respawning Enemies.
  • The Reveal - A rather chilling one, once the action moves to the lowest underground.
  • Save Game Limits/Save Point - Certain rooms in the first game let you save when you try to exit them.
  • Scripted Event - See Preexisting Encounters.
  • Send in the Search Team - Regina, Cooper, Gail and Rick are sent to Ibis Island to find Doctor Kirk.
  • Shaggy Dog Story - Tom dies even if you go to all that effort with Rick to save him, because a raptor was sleeping in the Medical room.
    • Also a Senseless Sacrifice, since he shoved aside the healthy and better-armed Rick to deal with the raptor himself.
  • Short-Range Shotgun - Annoyingly enough.
  • Shout-Out - A small one in a bit of dialogue between Rick and Regina.

Rick: So, you saw the beast, right?
Regina: Yeah. Pteranodon, wasn't it?
Rick: I meant, you saw that it was a real dinosaur? It's unbelievable.
Regina: Didn't I tell you?
Rick: * faintly* This is just like that movie.

    • And also when Regina calls Rick about Gail being attacked by a dinosaur, he quips, "Oh-hooo! Now that's a good one! So, who was it? Barney?"
    • Also slightly subtler, the shotgun is the same model as was used in Jurassic Park when fully upgraded.
  • Shows Damage - Regina will limp, clutch her arm, stoop and bleed when injured. The worse the injury, the more exaggerated this effect becomes.
  • Sinister Subway - The Underpass.
  • Smug Snake - Doctor Kirk quickly proves himself to be one when you finally catch up with him.
  • Somewhere a Paleontologist Is Crying - Every dinosaur has something wrong with it, or has been made unnaturally bullet-resistant for Rule of Scary. Apart from Raptor Attack and Ptero-Soarer, there are also the Therizinosaurs in the first game. They look barely like the real ones; they have crested heads, featherless bodies, and a less upright stance, with none of the pot bellies you would expect to see on real Therizinosaurs. They eat meat, crush their victims underfoot, and are Made of Iron. Combines Science Marches On and Rule of Scary.
  • Sorting Algorithm of Weapon Effectiveness - In the first game, you only get three weapons (handgun, shotgun, and grenade launcher), but you can find a pair of upgrades for each gun scattered throughout the game.
  • Spy Catsuit - The S.O.R.T. uniform.
  • Standard Status Effects - After an attack, Regina can end up bleeding which slowly saps her HP. Unless you use a Hemostat, she might end up bleeding to death if her health is low enough.
  • Stock Dinosaurs - Tyrannosaurus, the raptors, and Pteranodon and Compsognathus. Averted with the Therizinosaurs.
  • Stock Videogame Puzzles - Regina will have to solve several puzzles to complete the mission, and some of them are inevitably these.
    • Block Puzzle - A nasty one needs to be solved before you can reach the Heliport (thank goodness for Puzzle Reset). There is also usually one for each crane room (why else would you need the cranes?).
    • Control Room Puzzle - The generator room puzzles require pushing buttons in the correct order. Fortunately, you get instant feedback on how they affect the battery configuration.
    • Enter Solution Here - The DDK keys and some passwords require you sometimes to consult Apocalyptic Logs elsewhere in the facility.
    • Lock and Key Puzzle - The DDKs are the most obvious examples, but smaller keys are sometimes needed. This often ends up leading into The Password Is Always Swordfish, because the passwords on the DDK keys ended up to be painfully obvious and usually pertained to the room it was locking you out of. For example, the password to the passageway to the Training Room was "Newcomer".
    • Set Piece Puzzle - A lot of these are found wherever there is a computer interface Regina can interact with, such as the ones in the Underground lab. One of them involves Regina trying to access a secret stash in the electronic library.
    • Simon Says Mini Game - During the Underground lab fiasco, Rick will send you a code that enables you to escape. You have to re-enter the code into the computer as it is presented, from memory.
    • Two-Keyed Lock - How Gail and Regina access the secret lab. It isn't a puzzle the player has to coordinate directly, but you will need to find both keys and to answer a prompt to call Gail.
  • Super-Persistent Predator - The T. rex, to the point where you wonder if it has some personal vendetta against Regina. If the raptors are standing in for the zombies, the T. rex must be standing in for Nemesis of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. It even swims after Regina and Co. at one point.
  • Take a Third Option - In the end of the first Dino Crisis, Regina must choose between helping a mortally wounded Gail (Regina's commanding officer) apprehend the renegade scientist Dr. Kirk, causing Gail to die in the process; or knock Gail out, forcing him to escape the island without capturing Dr. Kirk. The third option comes when the player chooses to knock out Gail, only to go after Dr. Kirk alone.
  • Techno Wreckage - Areas of the facility have lost power, most likely because there's no longer a maintenance crew around to fix it, and some rooms have actually been attacked (in a B3 Armory, a military vehicle has been smashed against a shutter hard enough to dent it). Sometimes, the scenery is trashed as the game progresses. Regina often has to restore the power before she can proceed.
  • Teleporting Keycard Squad - Be careful when you pick up those keys ...
  • Time Travel - How did the dinosaurs get here? Kirk explains this near the end of the first game: it is what happens when a Third Energy Reactor overloads while converting air into pure energy, the result coming about when two pockets of space-time are exchanged in the reaction. In other words, a fancy way of saying "Hand Wave", since by a happy coincidence, the Late Cretaceous seems to be the space-time era of choice. Hence we have the premise of the game.
  • Took a Shortcut
  • Tyrannosaurus Rex - What dinosaur game doesn't have one?
  • Unblockable Attack - The Tyrannosaurus has attacks like these that can only be interrupted or avoided.
  • The Very Definitely Final Dungeon - The Third Energy Generator.
  • Where Are They Now? Epilogue - Regina delivers one at the debriefing, which resembles the You Have Mail cutscene at the start of the game.
  • With This Herring - Dino Crisis begins with cutscenes and an introductory area featuring Regina and her fellow soldiers. The others have large automatic rifles, but Regina is carrying only a pistol. Some cheat codes actually allowed you to begin the game with different weapons, so you could give her a riot gun just so she'd look suitably badass in those scenes.
  • X Meets Y - Resident Evil meets Jurassic Park.

Dino Crisis 2

  • Abandoned Laboratory, Abandoned City, Abandoned Military Institution - Edward City was a place completely devoted to all sorts of Third Energy research. By the time Regina and Dylan arrive to investigate, the city and everything else has been abandoned for years with the survivors moving to an outpost some distance from the city ruins.
  • Actionized Sequel - The first game was very much focused on bare-bones survival, giving you very limited ammo to carry around, and relatively weak weapons[1]. This game tosses all this out the window: You build up combos by slaughtering dinos by the dozen, and you can buy ever larger weapons and ammo to do it with.
  • Always a Bigger Fish - Towards the end of the game, the T. rex that has been chasing the player characters since literally the opening cutscene gets curbstomped by a Giganotosaurus about twice its size. Ignore the crying paleontologists and prepare for a boss fight... several of them.
  • Back Tracking
  • Badass - Regina takes on the Giganotosaurus alone using only jets of gas from gas valves and a stun gun.
  • Bait and Switch Boss - See Always a Bigger Fish.
  • BFG - Some of the weapons, like the Missile Pod, definitely count.
  • Combos - String together kill chains to be awarded bonus points
  • Comm Links
  • Convection, Schmonvection - Dylan takes a trip through the center of an active volcano without so much as getting heatstroke.
  • Critical Hit - Interrupting an attack scores you one of these.
  • Deadly Gas - There's a sequence where you have to pass through a few areas populated by fungi emitting poisonous spores. The first two are dealt with by incinerating the fungi using a flamethrower. The last one can only be navigated by obtaining a gas mask.
  • Death Is Cheap - The Resuscitation Packs resuscitates you if you die.
  • Difficulty Levels - More conspicuous than the previous game's.
  • Downer Ending - You spend Dino Stalker trying to fix it.
  • Escort Mission - Dylan has to protect Paula from being killed by dinosaurs while they make their way to the complex from the future.
  • Eye Scream - In the opening cutscene, David fires a missile at the attacking T. rex, hitting it in the eye. However, instead of killing it (as it would in real life), this just pisses it off even more.
  • Fish Out of Temporal Water - Edward City and the dinosaurs.
  • Fixed Camera
  • Fun with Acronyms / Heroes-R-Us - Dylan and David's unit, TRAT (Tactical Reconnoitering and Acquisition Team)
  • Giant Space Flea From Nowhere - The Gigantosaurus, which literally busts in out of nowhere. The only foreshadowing you get is a file that you may or may not even pick up.
  • Giant Flyer - The Pteranodons make a comeback.
  • Guide Dang It - Unless you're fanatically checking out every nook and cranny in every room, you probably won't find all of the Dino Files without a guide.
  • Guns Akimbo: Regina gets a pair of sub-machine guns which can each target separate enemies.
  • Healing Potion - Like Dino Crisis, you can choose from Medpacks S, M, or L. Hemostats are also available.
  • Heroic Sacrifice - David Falk.
  • 100% Completion - This game keeps a tally of how many Dino Files you find.
  • Hyperspace Arsenal - While the amount of items they can carry is limited, neither Regina nor Dylan appear to have any sort of pack that would accommodate the amount of weapons, healing items, and ammo they carry.
  • Inescapable Ambush - The (underwater) Plesiosaurus and Giganotosaurus battles.
  • Infinity+1 Sword - Dylan can buy a weapon that fires plasma balls directly in front of him that deals silly amounts of damage and automatically Counters any dinosaurs pouncing at you, netting you easy bonus points.
    • If you find all of the Dino Files in a playthrough and beat the game, you unlock the Infinite Ammo option which pretty much makes any high-powered gun this.
  • Instant 180-Degree Turn - For easier dinosaur killin'!
  • It's Up to You - This trope is subverted as both Dylan and Regina have to find everything.
  • Kill Sat - You need to use one to take out the Giganotosaurus once and for all.
  • Kleptomaniac Hero
  • Knockback - The Pteranodons like to knock Dylan and Regina onto their asses.
  • Left Hanging - The next sequel not only did nothing to resolve that little Cliff Hanger, it also ensured that it never would be resolved. Thanks a lot, Dino Crisis 3.
  • Let's Split Up, Gang! - Regina (and later Dylan). Partially justified in that Dylan and Regina are cut off from any surviving members of their team for the first part of the game. It later turns out that only David survived. Everyone else got eaten.
  • Load-Bearing Boss - After defeating the Giganotosaurus and stopping the missile countdown, said dinosaur gets back up and knocks over the missile, causing a massive explosion that all but destroys the missile complex. It comes back as the final boss.
  • Made of Iron - The Allosaurus.
  • Mass Teleportation - Edward City when it Third Energy reactor overloads. What the Noah's Ark Plan is purposefully trying to do.
  • Mini Game - Several in-game, such as an On Rails Shooter fighting off the Triceratops and defending David from raptors with a turret as he opens a valve. After beating the game once, there's also "Dino Colosseum" and "Dino Duel."
  • Monster Compendium - The Dinosaur Files you can collect throughout the game.
  • More Predators Than Prey - This is particularly egregious in this game, in which thousands of dinosaurs, plesiosaurs, pterosaurs, therapsids and mosasaurs infest the place and there are only three dinosaurs which are not carnivores.
  • New Game+ - Starting a new game from the old one allows you to carry over nifty unlockables.
  • Nigh Invulnerable - The Tyrannosaurus. Same deal with the Giganotosaurus, which in a cutscene also shrugs off the Tyrannosaurus, which is biting it in the leg.
  • Numbered Sequels
  • Orphan's Plot Trinket - Paula Morton is carrying one of these. It turns out to be inverted: said trinket is Dylan's dead sister's necklace. Towards the end of the game, Dylan watches a holographic message from his future self and learns that Paula is his daughter.
  • Palette Swap - The Super Raptors make a return.
  • Point of No Return - The end of the missile silo battle leaves you with no other direction to go but forward.
  • Preexisting Encounters
  • Redshirt Army - The opening scene shows all the members of TRAT getting killed and eaten by raptors.
  • Respawning Enemies - Running so that the camera angle changes allows for continuously respawning enemies. If you have enough ammo and are able to avoid getting hit, racking up Combos is a good way to earn tons of Extinction Points in order to buy better guns.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge - The Triceratops battle is caused by this. Regina and Dylan find a dead baby Triceratops, but then one of the adults shows up, and immediately thinks that they killed the baby. Cue rail shooter sequence in which you defend your jeep from two understandably pissed Triceratops.
  • Run, Don't Walk - Since the game is more Shoot'Em Up than Survival Horror, there's no walk button.
  • Save Point - You have to find a Save Panel to save your game and buy equipment.
  • Scripted Event - See Preexisting Encounters.
  • Send in the Search Team - The reason Regina, Dylan, and the rest of TRAT are sent to where Edward City used to be.
  • Set Right What Once Went Wrong - The military eventually realizes that dinosaurs and humans weren't meant to co-exist so they enact a plan that would eventually get the dinosaurs back to their proper time. At least, that was the plan before their Timegate overloaded...
  • Shows Damage - Regina and Dylan will limp, clutch their shoulders, and bleed depending on how much damage they take. The worse the damage, the slower they move.
  • Somewhere a Paleontologist Is Crying - The Allosaurus, which look like downsized version of the Tyrannosaurus, and the Giganotosaurus that much larger than it was in real life. Also, Allosaurus, Giganotosaurus and Tyrannosaurus didn't live in the same time period, and Giganotosaurus lived in a completely different region. Then again, given the absurd resilience they display, that's the least of the heroes' problems.
  • Sorting Algorithm of Weapon Effectiveness - Certain weapons become available after progressing to a certain point in the game, with each weapon being more powerful than the previous weapons.
  • Spy Catsuit - Regina wears one almost identical to the one she wore in the first game. Dylan's outfit, too.
  • Standard Status Effects - Like its predecessor, some attacks can leave Dylan and Regina bleeding which gradually drains health. Using a Hemostat will fix that problem.
  • Stock Dinosaurs
  • Super-Persistent Predator - The T. rex again. At one point, Regina quips "You again? Persistent thing, aren't you?"
  • The Reveal - Dino Crisis 2 has a rather convoluted one, so it is spoilered here and left to the reader to muddle through if he/she/it/pronoun-of-choice so wishes. After the events of the first game, some scientists got together and decided it would be a good idea to study the dinosaurs. After several groups brought dinosaurs into our time, with predictably disastrous results, the military got a team (which Dylan's older self was a part of) together and decided to send the dinosaurs home. However, the "Timegates" (powered by Third Energy) were defective so the military sent all of the dinosaurs 3 million years into the future until the Timegates could be perfected at which point the dinosaurs were to be brought back to their proper time in a plan called "The Noah's Ark Plan". When they brought the dinosaurs into the future, their Timegate overloaded, stranding the military teams along with the dinosaurs. Before all of the survivors were killed by the dinosaurs, their children were put into life-support pods to protect them as they grew. While they were in the pods, they were taught through some Applied Phlebotinum how to live with the dinosaurs, with one side-effect being that they would also protect the dinosaurs. Paula was one of those children and since she's Dylan's daughter, she cooperates with him. It's hinted that the Third Energy overload caused by Edward City's reckless Third Energy experiments happened at the same time as the military group tried to return home, causing a synchronicity between the two overloads and pulling Edward City into the future.
  • Time Travel - Naturally. Not only does Edward City have an overload which causes it to warp to another point in time, but the ship that Regina and TRAT are on has a "Timegate", a device that utilizes Third Energy to travel in time. To make no mention of what Future!Dylan's group tries to do.
  • Timed Mission - Bring down the Giganatosaurus and deactivate the missile in 10 minutes or you're toast. That said, at least you'd be taking the giant bastard with you.
  • Tyrannosaurus Rex - For once not the Big Bad.
  • Underwater Ruins - After reaching Edward City proper, Regina has to don a diving suit and go down into an underwater reactor cooling system, complete with the suit-clad bodies of the unfortunate workers and the Mosasaurs who killed them.
  • The Worf Effect - The Giganotosaurus introduces himself by crashing through a wall, grabbing the T. rex in its jaws, holding it in the air, throwing it against a wall and then eating it.
  • X Meets Y - Devil May Cry meets Jurassic Park.

Dino Stalker

Dino Crisis 3

Patrick: "Hey, genetic freak! You're not on the boarding list so get off the boat!"

  • Recycled in Space - This game is a literal example of this, and whether it was due to this or to other problems, reviewers scored it significantly lower than its predecessors. In fact, the only thing Dino Crisis 3 had in common with the previous two games was the fact that they shared a name.
  • Red Shirt - McCoy, the fourth person to survive the destruction of the Seyfert gets killed by an Australis during the first few minutes of the game.
  • Redshirt Army - The probe ship Seyfert, containing the other members of the SOAR team sent to the U.N. Ozymandias is destroyed by cannon in the opening scene.
  • Send in the Search Team - The reason why SOAR is sent to the U.N. Ozymandias. is because it reappears near Jupiter nearly 300 years after contact with it was lost.
  • Senseless Sacrifice - Jacob dies in an attempt to use a grenade explosion to kill the Regulus. It survives and attacks the others mere minutes after his death.
  • Shout-Out - MTHR may or may not be a reference to Mother from Alien.
  • Somewhere a Paleontologist Is Crying - Biologists too, for that matter.
  • Space Marine - The SOAR team.
  • Space Is Noisy - The opening scene with the cannons and the final boss fight which takes place on the hull of the escape shuttle.. The whole game is rife with this, as even the parts that take place on the outside of ships sound the same as the parts that take place in areas with atmosphere.

"This isn't a joke, you idiot! I was just attacked by a big-ass lizard!"

  1. ↑ For example, one item-slot only let you hold 34 handgun bullets. If you were lucky, this was enough to bring down three Raptors.
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