It looks like the original Resident Evil is headed (back) to PC

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It looks like the original Resident Evil is headed (back) to PCNot the remastered remake; the 1996 classic

Not the remastered remake; the 1996 classic

Image credit:Capcom

Chris Redfield holds a knife in a Resident Evil: Director’s Cut cutscene

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A second point of clarification for those smart-asses still holding up their hands: yes, the original Resident Evil from 1996 hastechnicallyalready been released on PC before, hitting Japanese computers the year of its release before finding its way to North American and European keyboards-and-mice the following year.

However, that PC version dates from the age of disc drives and CRT monitors - both of which are now dead enough to rise from the grave as shambling techno-corpses themselves - and has never been released digitally through the likes of Steam, Epic Games Store or GOG. So this’ll mark the first time in almost 30 years that the very first, non-remake Resident Evil has been available to play without hunting down a secondhand physical disc or taking, ahem,otherroutes.

The original Resident Evil (1996) has been rated for PC in Europe. Resident Evil was technically already released for PC in 1996, but I guess it’s not actually available via Steam or any digital marketplaces these days.pic.twitter.com/hVHlkCWRrx— Gematsu (@gematsu)June 18, 2024

There’s still time to squeeze in one more clarification, don’t you fear. The PEGI rating doesn’t make completely clear if this Resident Evil will be the very original or its expanded Director’s Cut, featuring rearranged item and enemy placements alongside some new costumes, a better gun (which had a random chance to blow zombies’ heads off, like in the remake) and a beginner difficulty mode, which was only ever released for PlayStation in 1997. However, given that the PEGI entry does specify “Resident Evil (1996)” and the Director’s Cut has never escaped PlayStation, it may well be the vanilla original for now.

Intriguingly, PEGI’s entry states the release date of the Resident Evil PC port as June 18th - yesterday. That might be a mix-up with the date the rating was approved, or it might mean that a surprise re-release isn’t very far away…