A sequel to an ambitous yet lukewarm survival horror game of it's era changes it's style of "fixed" camera, drop the fully rendered 3D backgrounds and is more of an arcade action game than survival horror? You get Dino Crisis 2. On paper, this sounds like a case where it could potentially be worse than the first game instead however it's one of the most entertaining games you can find on the PS1.
The best way of describing the campaign is a combination of Resident Evil's mercenaries mode had a wacky, insane and over the top story you'd find in a light gun game. You also have no reloading like in Doom and enemies give currency upon death.
Much of the moment to moment gameplay is spent running around outdoors linear environments gunning down dinos like no tomorrow and racking up kills until you get to the next save station and start spending points on healing items, gun upgrades, ammo or other things like taking more damage or stronger melee weapons.
The guns feel awesome to use with Regina's weapons like her light machine gun and sub machine gun have the strongest and punchiest sounds when fired. Dylan's shotgun feels good to plow through when shooting dinos too. His Solid Cannon can be a tempting weapon to rely on since it has an area of effect that covers both his left and right flank when fired from the front.
This leads to an issue with the combat is that it's easy to get attacked off screen from enemies you didn't see coming or enemies that can attack you when it's in frame, it's too late to even react. It can lead to some some cheap hits especially when the auto aim might not track or be able to target the right enemy in time.
However, it's very obvious that the developers are aware of that if the game was just this combat loop it would wear thin even in a game that is short as this.
This is where the beauty of Dino Crisis 2 lies. It has enjoyable shooting galleries but there is also something else after that to avoid everything getting monotonous.
The first half of the game has some fair share of backtracking and item collecting akin to survival horror. There's also other absurd things you'll be doing that keeps in line with the over the top tone. There's a solid underwater section where you get a spear gun and kill dinosaurs as you backtrack through the facility. The game even embraces it's arcade roots and has some first person on rails shooting. The second half of the game is where things get so wacky and wild. You got a part where you are chased by dinos and you play as one character firing flares and the other uses the turret to kill the enemies chasing you. There's a part where you are riding a tank while being chased by a huge dinosaur. A section where you follow yellow landmarks as a good way to add different spin on the shooting galleries and the enemies you fight there requires sub weapon use to hit them while stunned on their bellies.
There's also an awesome worf effect where the Tyrannaosarus gets killed by a garguntan Giganotosarus and then you do battle with by using switches to hit with bursts of flame.
Since the game is short and it always breaks things up before the shooting galleries get overly monotonous, there's always something entertaining and wacky around the corner. It's why I consider one of the most entertaining games on the PS1.
There are some sore spots here and there. One notable example is when the game makes you think you moved on from the Jungle to the Research Facilty but no, there's a keycard at the jungle, you go back THEN you can continue. It's a stumping moment that can stall the pacing especially after tha rail shooting section you did prior. The hardest part of the game is an escourt mission towards the end due to how slow the ninja girl moves and how quickly enemies can attack her while partnered being attacked off screen from earlier. I'm convinced, someone would probably die on this part.
The final boss against the Giganotosarus can be a little underwhelming when it's you just pressing some switches and then you kill it with an orbital laser all though really considering the way the combat in this game is designed I'm glad it's not frustratingly difficult.
Overall, DC2 is more of an action arcade shooter with PS1 Resident Evil's fixed camera and pre rendered backgrounds but that's fine in the long run since it's less derivative and would indirectly predict what would happen with that franchise later on.
