Dino Crisis is a decent survival horror game for the PS1 that does change a lot of things from the RE games, some for better and some for worse but it ultimately doesn't do enough to escape the label of it basically being Resident Evil but with dinosaurs.
A few things jumped out at me when starting the game, firstly, the game uses 3D environments rather than pre-rendered backgrounds so visually, I think it aged quite well, same with the voice-acting which is pretty solid for a PS1 era game. It's easier to take characters seriously because of it and on the topic of characters, I think they're pretty good here, the core trio are all distinct with Regina being level-headed and non-chalant, Rick being easy-going and Gail being stern. It's pretty basic but gets the job done in making them feel unique and I'd say they're all likeable, even Gail who starts off seeming like a typical mission-obsessed asshole ended up growing on me. Characters aside though, I wouldn't consider the story here to be very good, the setup is pretty cool but after that a lot of it feels like filler and the fact that you don't keep the files you read in your inventory makes it hard to piece information together so I'd be lying if I said I really cared about Kirk and whatever that whole Third Energy thing he was developing was.
As for the actual survival horror aspects, I think Dino Crisis does a decent job overall with a few short-comings. Dinosaurs here are way more terrifying than zombies in RE since not only are they just way bigger and faster but the coolest part of this game for me is that dinosaurs can break through doors and chase you into other rooms which surprised the hell out of me the first few times this happened. You can sometimes keep dinosaurs out of rooms by utilizing the laser shutters and they're another cool feature adding a bit of choice between deciding to bolt towards the nearest door and risk being chased down or opting to stay and operate the laser shutters to keep dinos out. So that's all good but the problem is that the game is weirdly light on the Dinosaurs. Enemy variety is severely lacking here and with how often you'll be backtracking in this game, dodging the same couple dinosaurs over and over at points, it makes these encounters feel really sterile after a while. When you're not fighting Dinosaurs, you're solving puzzles and I actually really like them here, outside of the DDK passwords, the puzzles are varied, for the most part they require actual thought and they're pretty enjoyable though I would've liked less puzzles and more dinosaurs in my dino crisis but I'll take what I can get.
As for the inventory management, the actual survival aspect of these games, it just sucks here. Regina can carry 10 items with her at all times so you'd think you'll have a decent amount of room to hold items while also leaving spare room. Nope, that's where the mixing system comes in. Throughout the game you get various healing related items, hemostats, med paks, multipliers etc. It's not well explained what combinations create what and the abundance of items you get end up clogging your inventory big time. Aside from healing items, ammo is the only other item that takes up slots in Regina's inventory. Key items and Weapons are just held on Regina at all times and this means that the decision-making of games like RE1 which made those games so engaging is absent here since it's all been simplified. The way you store items is also frustrating with it requiring emergency boxes that need plugs to be opened. This would be fine if not for the fact that unlike item boxes in RE, these boxes are not magically interconnected so if you leave an item behind in one of these and forget about it, it's gone for good unless you can be bothered backtracking a ton which I just wasn't.
The reason why I couldn't be bothered was because of this game's structure. I just didn't find the research facility of Ibis Island to be nearly as fun to go through as something like the Mansion in RE1 because it's much more linear and areas feel very segmented so I never felt like I got the satisfaction of feeling that I got to grips with the areas layout.
The only other part that I want to mention is the replayability which is one of the strongest points of the game. There's 4 endings all of which are different enough to warrant seeing and at different points in the game, you get choices between going with Gail or Rick. The choices you make changes what you'll be doing with Rick's areas being puzzle-focused and Gail's being action-focused. They're different enough to justify a second playthrough and are way better than the choices in RE3.
Overall though, if you're itching for more survival horror action on the PS1 like I was, you can't go wrong with this game. For me it's just a notch below the original RE but it was still a good time.
A few things jumped out at me when starting the game, firstly, the game uses 3D environments rather than pre-rendered backgrounds so visually, I think it aged quite well, same with the voice-acting which is pretty solid for a PS1 era game. It's easier to take characters seriously because of it and on the topic of characters, I think they're pretty good here, the core trio are all distinct with Regina being level-headed and non-chalant, Rick being easy-going and Gail being stern. It's pretty basic but gets the job done in making them feel unique and I'd say they're all likeable, even Gail who starts off seeming like a typical mission-obsessed asshole ended up growing on me. Characters aside though, I wouldn't consider the story here to be very good, the setup is pretty cool but after that a lot of it feels like filler and the fact that you don't keep the files you read in your inventory makes it hard to piece information together so I'd be lying if I said I really cared about Kirk and whatever that whole Third Energy thing he was developing was.
As for the actual survival horror aspects, I think Dino Crisis does a decent job overall with a few short-comings. Dinosaurs here are way more terrifying than zombies in RE since not only are they just way bigger and faster but the coolest part of this game for me is that dinosaurs can break through doors and chase you into other rooms which surprised the hell out of me the first few times this happened. You can sometimes keep dinosaurs out of rooms by utilizing the laser shutters and they're another cool feature adding a bit of choice between deciding to bolt towards the nearest door and risk being chased down or opting to stay and operate the laser shutters to keep dinos out. So that's all good but the problem is that the game is weirdly light on the Dinosaurs. Enemy variety is severely lacking here and with how often you'll be backtracking in this game, dodging the same couple dinosaurs over and over at points, it makes these encounters feel really sterile after a while. When you're not fighting Dinosaurs, you're solving puzzles and I actually really like them here, outside of the DDK passwords, the puzzles are varied, for the most part they require actual thought and they're pretty enjoyable though I would've liked less puzzles and more dinosaurs in my dino crisis but I'll take what I can get.
As for the inventory management, the actual survival aspect of these games, it just sucks here. Regina can carry 10 items with her at all times so you'd think you'll have a decent amount of room to hold items while also leaving spare room. Nope, that's where the mixing system comes in. Throughout the game you get various healing related items, hemostats, med paks, multipliers etc. It's not well explained what combinations create what and the abundance of items you get end up clogging your inventory big time. Aside from healing items, ammo is the only other item that takes up slots in Regina's inventory. Key items and Weapons are just held on Regina at all times and this means that the decision-making of games like RE1 which made those games so engaging is absent here since it's all been simplified. The way you store items is also frustrating with it requiring emergency boxes that need plugs to be opened. This would be fine if not for the fact that unlike item boxes in RE, these boxes are not magically interconnected so if you leave an item behind in one of these and forget about it, it's gone for good unless you can be bothered backtracking a ton which I just wasn't.
The reason why I couldn't be bothered was because of this game's structure. I just didn't find the research facility of Ibis Island to be nearly as fun to go through as something like the Mansion in RE1 because it's much more linear and areas feel very segmented so I never felt like I got the satisfaction of feeling that I got to grips with the areas layout.
The only other part that I want to mention is the replayability which is one of the strongest points of the game. There's 4 endings all of which are different enough to warrant seeing and at different points in the game, you get choices between going with Gail or Rick. The choices you make changes what you'll be doing with Rick's areas being puzzle-focused and Gail's being action-focused. They're different enough to justify a second playthrough and are way better than the choices in RE3.
Overall though, if you're itching for more survival horror action on the PS1 like I was, you can't go wrong with this game. For me it's just a notch below the original RE but it was still a good time.