Dino Crisis 2, oddly enough, was probably more of an inspiration for Resident Evil 4 than the other Resident Evil games.
User Rating: 9.6 | Dino Crisis 2 PS
When the original Dino Crisis game first came out back in 1999, it was soon apparent that Capcom had tried to do something new with the Survival Horror premise. The slow, lumbering zombies commonly associated with the genre were replaced by faster, more aggressive dinosaurs, and there were very few ways with which to kill them - often, the best you could hope for was to tranquilize them and then get past without getting munched by a velociraptor or two en-route. The sequel, likewise, tried to do something new once again. It scrapped the less-than-lethal arsenal from the original and outfitted you with tons of weapons to do your reptilian foes in with. It brought back Regina, one of Capcom's greatest character designs to date, and partnered her up with a stronger, slower character named Dylan and gave them unique weapon lists to add some diversity to the two of them. More importantly, however, it threw absolutely tons of enemies your way and rewarded you for taking them out with skill. To that end, the combat system from the original was also given quite a dramatic overhaul. You could run around and back off whilst firing your weapon, which might not sound like much but actually more or less completely changed the way the game played. It was suddenly near as full of carnage as the Metal Slug series, and killing enemies went into a multiplier that would allow you to buy new weapons and ammunition from 'shop' points prudently scattered around the game world. As you racked up the kills without getting hit or taking too long, the points you got for each kill soared through the roof until it started throwing special enemies at you to finish off your kill combo - and if you killed them instead, you got a massive bonus added to the already substantial amount of points you'd already gained. The story wasn't really anything special, though the setpieces were excellent and a few twists thrown in here and there did help to keep the storyline somewhat fresh. All said and done, however, it took a definite back seat to the real star of the show - the cathartic nature of the combat. The sometimes stultifying nature of the puzzles in the original game were likewise simplified, which naturally resulted in less running around aimlessly and more killing everything stupid and reptilian enough to get in your way. And on that note, there were a large batch of new dinosaurs for you to send back to their maker, many with specific weaknesses - such as ones with tough shells you either had to flip over to expose their soft underbellies or simply use an anti-tank cannon on. Yes, the weapons were awesome to behold. There were a few sticking points in the game, to be fair - the camera suffered a brief gameplay pause as it flicked between viewpoints, which could be annoying, and an underwater section later on in the game seemed a little ill advised since it significantly slowed down the gameplay in any successive runs you had through the game. Added to this, the game wasn't particularly large, so completing it in a day wasn't out of the question. These flaws certainly weren't enough to bring down the overall polish of the game, however - even today it can still be a lot of fun to pick up and have a play through, and the feel of the weapons in particular is spot on. It's an old game now, to be sure - but it's still a damn fine game, remaining action packed and exciting even all these years after its release. Given RE4's exceptional return to form this year, what same gamer wouldn't start to salivate at the prospect of a similar amount of care and attention lavished upon a possible Dino Crisis 4? If you find any, let me know. I'll go beat some sense into them, especially since you'll rarely find a survival horror game as fresh, satisfying and just plain enjoyable as this one turned out to be. 
