So Capcom deliver us this: Dinosaurs in Space.

But hold on, Capcom are one of the most experienced and respected developers around, and lately they’ve been delivering some of the most original and refreshing games in years – there must be a reason for sending a good idea into space.

To be fair, the story itself is probably the game's strongest point, which is arguably reason enough for the strange theme. A mammoth space craft called the Ozymandias was sent from Earth bound for Alpha 2, only to be discovered outside of Jupiter’s orbit some 300 years later, set on a course back to Earth. Similar to Biohazard’s STARS team, Dino Crisis 3 follows team SOAR (Special Operations And Reconnaissance), your task is simply to investigate the huge craft. During the atmospheric introduction, the Ozymandias opens fire on our crew sending them all flying out to space, though they are saved by their jetpacking abilities.

So the game starts with the player taking control of the ginger-haired Patrick Tyler, while another member of SOAR, Sonya Hart, stands at your side. After a brief rundown of the controls you must run to the other end of a corridor, press a switch, pick up a new weapon and walk through another door. Cue impressive cut scene. One of the highlights of the game shows a mutated T-Rex (as detailed on the box) attack our team with frightening ferocity, but itself is then taken down by large number of alien-like parasites. It’s a startling display of gore, technical ability and direction, but unfortunately it only highlights what a game this could have been, for when the player is given control over the action, the whole experience falls over within an instant.

Games in 3D nearly always have moments where the camera causes problems; Dino Crisis 3 has rare moments where it doesn’t. Large spaces are, bizarrely, the main stumbling block for the camera, as it has the uncanny knack of pointing the wrong way in almost every instance, while changing direction at the most inappropriate times. The game features a large quantity of platforms to negotiate, occasionally requiring pixel-perfect precision. Unforgivably, the camera has a habit of changing direction mid-jump. While it is true that during these camera changes you can still keep pressing the stick in the same direction -keeping you moving in a straight line - the slightest movement on the analoge stick can completely change your direction. Expect to make a giant leap forward but have your direction changed at the peak of the jump, often resulting in a plummet back to the start of the section.

Unfortunately, yet unsurprisingly, Dino Crisis 3 has not been designed around such a flawed camera, expecting you to traverse thin walkways and make almost impossible jumps. Such is the severity of the problem: a simple task of navigating from A to B in a single room often requires the use of the first-person mode (where the player is granted control of the camera) and the cumbersome map. Dino Crisis 3 has been billed as an action-packed adventure, but it has failed on almost every level.

Any hopes of a Gunvalkyrie-style use of a jet pack may as well be forgotten, as it is essentially an extended jump, a slow decent or a speed boost on the ground. As with combat on the ground, aerial combat is a simple case of tapping X while gliding around the room not, as hoped, an elegant display of skill. Since the game will automatically lock onto the nearest enemy, combat is about as unexciting as it comes. While the movement is more Devil May Cry than Biohazard, the action never feels natural, falling a long way short of either of the aforementioned titles.

The design of the Ozymandias is repetitive and often uninteresting. The stark use of colour is similar to that of Capcom’s own PN03, but the over-saturation of reflection effects makes the pleasing architecture look messy and difficult on the eye. Required treks back and forth through the ship irritate, though partially saved but one of the games more sensible design choices. At specific points through the story, the player will be required to access a computer terminal and initiate a ‘formation change’, which changes the layout of the ship completely. What had previously been a small corridor can change into a giant room, while large rooms can have their layout and design completely shifted.

A storyline that takes more than a few cues from Event Horizon and Aliens, mutated dinosaurs, multiple characters, anti-gravity rooms, moments in space and a few surprising set-pieces – on paper at least, Dino Crisis 3 sounds very special indeed. This must be the reason why Capcom went ahead with the project, adding to the disappointment in the final product. Fans of the series will no doubt turn away; fans of Capcom, too, will be expecting far more than what has been delivered. Anyone expecting an enjoyable blaster against dinosaurs will be let down entirely by poor execution. To be fair the game does have a handful of set pieces that have been well designed, but these are sparsely placed throughout the adventure and the trailing gameplay falls well short of the excitement promised in the cutscene.

Capcom will no doubt be trying to repair the flaws in Dino Crisis 3 for the American and PAL releases, but you have to wonder if it is at all worth it, for these flaws are so deeply woven into the very basics that even presenting a fault-free camera will result in merely an average experience. The action is dull, and the gameplay repetitive. Indeed, the very fact that the non-interactive cutscenes are by far and away the highlight of the game speaks volumes.

The most disappointing franchise shift since Star Fox Adventures. One to avoid.