It’s a huge day for classic survival horror fans, as some of the most highly requested games for preservation are being ported to GoG this year: the original Resident Evil trilogy.
The news was announced today by The Sphere Hunter, a YouTube creator who specializes in covering classic sci-fi and survival horror video games, often of the Capcom variety. In her 17-minute video, she explains that the first Resident Evil is available to buy now, with the remaining two coming sometime in 2024.
Resident Evil is purchasable now at GoG for $10 / £8.99, and the next two games will follow suit later in the year at the same price. For those interested in buying all three, a trilogy bundle is also available for $24 / £20.99. Players who purchase the bundle will have Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis added to their GoG libraries automatically at the time of release.
The Japanese Biohazard versions of each game are also included here, as well as quality-of-life additions and new features present in the original PC versions. That includes the ability to skip door transition animations, as well as galleries and 3D model viewers. These also appear to be ‘warts-and-all’ ports, meaning that legacy bugs found in the original versions will be present here. However, GoG technical producer Adam Ziółkowski explains in The Sphere Hunter’s video that some audio and visual oddities have been cleaned up for these re-releases.
While the original Resident Evil trilogy has enjoyed some truly phenomenal remakes in recent years, there hasn’t been an easy, accessible way to play the original games since the now-delisted PlayStation 3 ports of the PlayStation 1 versions. Finally, those interested in experiencing the very roots of the legendary survival horror franchise now have a way of doing so on PC, DRM-free, and at a very reasonable price.