Dino Stalker is mostly a worthwhile rental for it's short length and very little appeal.
Game Title: Dino Stalker
Platform: PlayStation 2
Developer: Capcom Production Studio 3
Publisher: Capcom
Genre: Light Gun Shooter
Age Rating: ELSPA: 15+, ESRB: M for Mature
Release Date: 27th June 2002 (Japan), 9th August 2002 (America), 20th August 2002 (Europe)
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Game Score: 4.0/10
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Summery:
Dino Stalker is mostly a worthwhile rental for it's short length and very little appeal.
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Capcom's Gun Survivor games are very mixed at best. The first game was awful while the second game has improved a little bit, now there is Dino Stalker where believe it or not it's both a spin-off from the Dino Crisis games and also the third of Capcom's Gun Survivor series from the Resident Evil franchise. It doesn't have anything to do with Resident Evil for that matter and also for the fact that this game will be a bit disappointing.
In Dino Stalker you play as Lieutenant Mike Wired who's in a life or death situation during a dogfight in World War II before being teleported mysteriously by some one in the future from Dino Crisis 2. Mike is then tasked to find his daughter named Paula, fight off against dozens of Dinosaurs that are out for him and most importantly prevent damage to the dimensional time shift. The premise of the game is simple but however suffers from a boring script and lazy voice acting.
Like Resident Evil Survivor and Survivor 2 it's an first person shooter where you can play the game with the standard controller of with the Light Gun controllers. It's not an On Rail shoot em up as you need to control your movements manually. You would not want to use the G-Con 45 with this game as you need the controller to move about which is almost pointless unless if you can get a friend to help control your movements. The standard controller setup is unreliable but however the G-Con 2 setup is a little better. No matter setting you use however you'll still have a battle with the game's controls then actually playing.
Using the D-Pad moves your character while using the A or B Buttons make your character sidestep. Pressing both A and B Buttons together enters a Sniping mode where you can pick off Dinosaurs at a long range. C Button switches between your main weapon to a another weapon you have, you can only carry one special weapon with you. This is what makes games like this uncomfortable to play due to the gameplay style that makes the Light guns more unsuitable.
Dino Stalker has about 7 Stages and can be played on Easy, Normal or Hard. Each stage involves you shooting dinosaurs in your path and collecting powerups like Health, Antidotes and revival items as well as different guns that you can find in the game such as Handguns, Machine Guns, Rocket Launchers and a Laser Gun. Most of the stages are simple FPS fare but some stages become on rails where you're limited to only shooting and turning, There is also a Time Limit that you need to keep an eye out on cause if that runs out it's Game Over just like dying, and you have to press a button to resume playing. You have unlimited Continues and on the Hardest difficulty getting through a stage will get really frustrating for the fact that you just haven't got enough Time to get the power ups needed to survive and beat the level.
At the end of a Stage you'll have a boss fight with giant Dinosaurs and they can be taking out by shooting them at their weak points. Overall the gameplay in Dino Stalker is bogged down by the controls and short length, sure there are some unlockables but they are hardly even worth it.
The main attraction to Dino Stalker is the graphics which are nice in gameplay but cutscene graphics tend to flicker which is unpleasant. Environments like the jungle areas to the volcano are mixed but the Dinosaur models do look impressive, especially up-close when a T-Rex is chasing you on the 5th stage which almost resembles a scene from a Jurassic Park Movie. The soundtrack consists of some adventure soundtrack which is somewhat fitting to the games mood. The Dinosaur shrieks are poor and the computer voice in the gun you have is kind of amusing at time cause of it's mispronunciations.
The game won't last for long and also the control scheme should have been left out of the game. It's mostly a worthwhile rental for it's short length and very little appeal. It's obvious that Capcom really didn't learn from the problems that Survivor 1 and 2 have done. It's better if you stick to Time Crisis II and Vampire Night instead of this game.
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The Good Points:
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1. The Dinosaurs and environments look nice
2. Computer voice during Gameplay is amusing
The Bad Points:
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1. Bad Control Scheme
2. It's too short and has little replay value
3. It's frustrating on Hard Mode
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Reviewed by: Anthony Hayball (AQWBlaZer91)
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