is a 2003 action-adventure game developed by Capcom Production Studio 4 and published by Capcom for the Xbox. Like the previous installments in the Dino Crisis series, the gameplay revolves around fighting dinosaurs or other reptiles, but the enemies in this game are not real dinosaurs. They are mutations created from DNA extracted from various dinosaur species. The game takes place on a space station. It is the third and final game in the Dino Crisis series.
The game was originally planned for both Xbox and PlayStation 2, but the latter version was scrapped early in development.
Gameplay
The player can use 2 guns with 6 ammo types (one gun and 3 ammo types per playable character), in addition to small machines called "WASPS" that help against dinosaur encounters. The game is played mostly through the character Patrick and only a small section is played as Sonya. There are three types of body armor available.
Plot
Set in the year 2548, it has been 300 years since Earth lost contact with the colony ship Ozymandias, en route to a<sup>2</sup>. Somehow, the ship has reappeared near Jupiter. A team called S.O.A.R. (Special Operations And Reconnaissance) is sent aboard the probe ship Seyfert to investigate. As the Seyfert sends out a shuttle to investigate the ship, its weapons suddenly activate. A beam destroys the Seyfert and then the shuttle, killing nearly everyone except for Patrick Tyler, Sonya Hart, Commander Jacob Ranshaw, and McCoy. Patrick and Sonya reunite on the exterior of the ship and gain access. The ship's interior is derelict, although there is still power.
McCoy boards as well but is killed by a large Tyrannosaurus-like creature which chases the team. The T. rex is then attacked, mauled and killed by a swarm of eel-like mutants, one of which is ripped in half and thrown to the floor beforehand. After fighting his way through the ship's storage areas, Patrick meets a survivor, a girl named Caren Velázquez. After meeting her, she runs away in fear.
Patrick spots Caren once again, looking at a picture frame of her father, Dr. Miguel Velázquez. Patrick learns she has been on her own for 300 years. Sonya discovers that MTHR - the ship's control system - is creating the dinosaur-like creatures from the DNA of animals in storage as a replacement for the human crew. When Patrick tells them that he is shutting MTHR down for good, Caren opens the door and runs away.
As Caren and the team hurry out of the experimental laboratory, they are attacked by a mutant Ankylosaurus known as a Regulus. Caren is struck in the abdomen and sent flying into the wall by the beast, and later fatally wounded. Jacob sacrifices himself to kill the mutant by setting off his grenades at the creature's mouth. At this point, it is revealed that Caren is an android.
Later, the same beast reappears, revealing that Jacob's sacrifice is for naught. With no choice, Patrick has to put the Regulus to rest.
Caren manages to repair the ship, saving Patrick from succumbing to the broken environmental systems. Patrick returns to the Energy Core to restart it, but the room is severely damaged when a mutant Spinosaurus crashes through the wall, filling the area with water coolant.
After fighting off the creature, the team runs to the MTHR sector as the core begins to go into meltdown. As they arrive at the sector, the MTHR and Engine Sectors detach from the Front Deck, Shaft and Energy Sector, which are destroyed by the meltdown. The Engines soon activate an emergency system and Warp Jump to Earth.
Patrick meets MTHR and questions her. He then tries to stop MTHR's main computer but she opens another hatch releasing the Spinosaurus the second time. Upon defeating the creature, Patrick tries to stop MTHR sending the dinosaurs to Earth and fights her, eventually destroying her system, which has disastrous effects on the ship, causing it to activate the self-destruct sequence. MTHR's last words are "I just wanted to complete my mission".
Patrick is reunited with Sonya and Caren as they try to escape the ship via an escape shuttle, but they are attacked by the "Cebalrai", a two-headed Giganotosaurus. The beast jumps onto the platform and chases the trio down to the bottom of the platform. As Patrick runs, the Cebalrai slams its left head into him and tosses him into the wall, making him unable to reach his gun. Caren lures the creature toward her. Patrick tries to stop her, but a stomp of the Cebalrai's paw causes the platform Caren and the monster are standing on to collapse. Both Caren and the Cebalrai fall into the abyss - much to Patrick's dismay. After defeating another T. rex, Patrick and Sonya are able to escape before the ship self-destructs, but the Cebalrai, being able to survive in a vacuum, was able to get on the top of the shuttle. Patrick gets on top of the shuttle himself to destroy the "genetic freak" in a final battle.
Midway through the battle, the Cebalrai grows a third head, and Patrick is forced to use a "Final Wasp", which weakens the creature and sends it flying into space.
Characters
- Patrick Tyler (Michael Yurchak) - A member of S.O.A.R., Patrick Tyler's strong sense of duty and natural charisma make him an asset to any operation. Trusted by the entire team, he boosts troop morale.
- Sonya Hart (Vanessa Marshall) In reaction to the September 11 attacks in the United States, Capcom Production Studio 4 moved away from the city environment, and it was instead decided the game would be set on board a space ship far into the future. Dino Crisis 3 was always intended as an Xbox-exclusive title when that console was judged to be better at rendering graphics than the PlayStation 2; Hiroyuki Kobayashi considered a PlayStation 2 port of the game to be "impossible" to make. The weapons system itself was different from earlier games; players would rely on a main weapon with infinite ammunition, with the option to switch to other forms of ammunition for stronger opponents which would be limited and have to be found or bought. The WASPs were designed as a secondary weapon which would fly around the map and provide additional aid to the player during combat. which Higuchi served on as a production assistant. Several designs for the ship were also made ahead of the Xbox Conference Summer 2002 and, according to producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi, a competition was held within the development team to pick the design to use for the game.
Reception
Dino Crisis 3 received "mixed" reviews, according to review aggregator website Metacritic. The problem was due to the high speeds that the player can frequently travel at. As with the first two Dino Crisis titles and the early elements of the Resident Evil series, rooms in Dino Crisis 3 are separated into separate, invisible zones where the camera is set to change once the boundary is crossed. Because of the fast-moving jetpack, players would travel between those boundaries rapidly, with multiple camera changes leading to confusion as to where the player is supposed to be going, resulting in them inadvertently turning back. Because of the large size of zones and the long-range auto-aim system, IGN expected that players would spend 80% of their game to be firing at enemies that are out of their view and dodging attacks from off-screen.