Dino Crisis 3 was originally planned as a "human drama" that took place in an unspecified facility in a city under siege by time-displaced dinosaurs (possibly through the same time distortion featured in Dino Crisis 2 Spoiler:as alluded to with the Noah's Ark Plan), with the player being able to fight the dinosaurs with AI partners, and in which decisions made by the player could change the course of the story. The only public appearance of this early version of the game was at its initial announcement at E3 2001, when a single piece of concept art was shown off featuring a city turned warzone against rampaging dinosaurs. However, later in the year, the September 11th attacks occurred, leading to a sharp collective increase in cultural sensitivity regarding violence and imagery that could be associated with the terrorist attacks in media. As part of this, Capcom decided to scrap the city proposal and later decided on a futuristic environment in space, which would allow for new story ideas.