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The latest series in Capcom’s popular survival horror series is on its way exclusively to Xbox. The series is getting many drastic changes that may prove to better the series, or cripple it. One of the biggest changes is the heavily based action gameplay. Dino Crisis 3 will no longer play like a Resident Evil game, but instead like a Devil May Cry game. Not only will there be much more running and jumping in the series, there will even be jetpacking! That’s right, a Dino Crisis game with jetpacks. However, this isn’t even the biggest change. The biggest surprise, by far, is that you get to fight for survival on a space ship… against space dinos! What? Space dinos? That can’t be right. Indeed it is though. Capcom has decided to take a sci-fi futuristic twist with the series and many old school Dino Crisis fans are skeptical.

From various sources, the game reportedly plays like a survival game still, but with much more control and action. There is almost a platforming sense to the gameplay because of the jetpack jumping across platforms in space and what not. The graphics are also very beautiful in this sci-fi world you’ll be blasting through. Capcom put a lot of detail into level design and made many high quality CG cutscenes for the game as well. The CG is especially amazing. You can literally see the inside out muscles on the dinos pulsate in the cutscenes. Eww. Even the in-game graphics are above par. The game design takes advantage of the many graphical features on the Xbox GPU and shiny, reflective, chrome surfaces are everywhere in the ship.

An unexpected curve Capcom is adding to the mix is the shape shifting ship. The ship itself will change its shape dynamically in-game to add another layer of depth. Some walls will need to be blasted, others will require a more strategic approach. The gameplay is vastly different from what you would expect from a Dino Crisis game but the jetpack, action packed, level shifting mix sounds like a good combo. Capcom has taken a lot of time and care with this game according to sources that have tested the Japanese version of the game and the gameplay is supposedly ultra polished. The AI is also very devious to. If you jump up some boxes to a higher ledge the dinos wont just stay down there and run in circles while you blast them, they will actually jump up the boxes after you!

 All and all this game is sounding promising. A super polished game from Capcom that plays like Devil May Cry with jetpacks has to be pretty good. The only complaint many people who play tested the Japanese version had was that the game was too short. Many sources easily beat it under 10 hours. Stay tuned for Paxgamers.com’s official review of this game shortly after it releases on 09/16/2003 and see how the newest in Capcom’s Dino Crisis series really stacks up.

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