Players take on the role of the level-headed special task force agent Regina. The mission for Regina and team is simple - find Dr. Kirk and return him unharmed. To help with the infiltration are teammates Gail and Rick. Gail is a hard-headed veteran that sticks to the rules, and Rick is a technical specialist who doesn't mind bending the rules every now and then. Both teammates are constantly at odds with one another, and at several points throughout the mission Regina will be forced to side with one of their decisions to continue the mission. From the last branching point a total of four endings can be reached. Each ending has a very different outcome and provides some nice replay value to the game.

There are scares-a-plenty in Dino Crisis, but jumpy moments don't come from the occasional blast of sound used in the Resident Evil series. Dinos pop out from various places, but the game relies more on the sheer presence of dinosaurs opening their jaws wide to create a some effective scares. Most of the dino scares are handled by a letterboxing of the screen with the appearance of the words "DANGER!!" flashing at the bottom of the screen. Here you must furiously tap all the buttons on the controller to get Regina out of the sticky situation. Depending on how fast the buttons are tapped, Regina can either compose herself and get ready to blast the dino, get injured, or just plain die.

How players deal with the dinosaurs present throughout the facility is the meat of Dino Crisis' gameplay. Ammo is very limited in the game and players will need to make use of items other than bullets to get past the lethal lizards. The simplest to way to dodge dinos is to just run past them and make your way to another room. However, the dino AI is devilishly clever. Dinos will stop at nothing to get a literal piece of Regina by biting, clawing, headbutting, pouncing, and tail-whipping. Even a table in-between you and a raptor won't provide adequate security, as it will jump on top of the table and proceed with a vicious pouncing attack. The brute force of some attacks will cause Regina's weapon to be knocked out of her hand, forcing players to scramble back to their feet and reclaim their weapon. It's pretty thrilling using different tactics to get away from them. The most tense parts of trying to escape being dino dinner has to be running for dear life as a raptor is chasing you, having barely enough time to push a force field activation switch, and watching the dino that was tailing you crash right into the wall of electricity as you breathe a sigh of relief.

The pace of Dino Crisis is excellent. What starts as a simple search and rescue becomes a calculated plot much deeper than players will expect. Digital Disc Keys (D.D.K) and many other codes need to found or deciphered to maneuver through the facility. Codes also get increasingly difficult to uncover as do the other well-integrated puzzles in the game.

Mixing items is very important to survive the game. An effective combination of items can lead to the creation of a lethal dart that sends dinos into a seizure right before their death, or to medical packs that restore health and stop the bleeding caused by several teeth marks on your body.

The star of the game is, of course, the mighty T-Rex. He appears at certain locations in the game with a ferocious roar and a big appetite. Though the T-Rex doesn't appear too much, when he does you know it's time to run for your life - unless you have a nifty grenade launcher.

Dino Crisis is a game that really shows that the Playstation can still do great graphics. The character models are solid, with few visible seams both in the main characters and dinos. A full sized T-Rex can also be seen in the game, complete with light-sourcing from nearby flames. Rooms and laboratories are remarkably detailed and the polygonal environments are put to good use. The camera will occasionally swing when Regina moves to different areas of the room, and there are many moments were the camera follows right behind Regina to provide an eerie chase cam in the deserted hallways of the facility.

The range of Regina's actions are sorely limited by the Resident Evil control scheme. The only new addition is the ability to walk forward and backward while having a weapon drawn. And if you're out of ammo there really is nothing else to do but run, which leaves players with little other gameplay options.