Capcom brings the OG Resident Evil trilogy to Steam, but their DRM could be a sticking point

Resident Evil 2 is one of the first console games I ever played. Growing up, we had a case of PS1 games that my dad had accrued, though I always tactically waited for him to be out of the house before I switched out Toy Story 2's Buzz Lightyear for Leon and Jill. Now, many many years later, Capcom's finally put the original Resident Evil trilogy on Steam, offering up an irresistible nostalgia hit. However, considering the publisher has ported them, alongside the incredible Breath of Fire 4, over from 2024's GOG release and slapped on a heavy DRM layer, I'm reluctant to fork over my money to Valve, despite their discounted price.

The Resident Evil Remakes are all phenomenal horror games in their own ways, but sometimes you just want to dig out your old CRT, disconnect from the world, and revel in some low poly goodness. Unfortunately, if you're DRM-adverse, the Steam store listings for all four games show that they've had The Enigma Protector applied. I've previously done a deep dive into Denuvo DRM, and many of the potential issues discussed there also apply here.

To be honest, it's a bit of a weird decision, seeing as these are direct carry-overs from GOG's DRM-free versions. All of these games are over 25 years old at this point, and are very much affordable. Enigma is considerably cheaper than Denuvo, with a company license only costing $499 as opposed to the thousands Irdeto demands for its solution, but I'm still struggling to see the point of it here. That being said, I can't imagine you'll experience any sort of performance drop commonly associated with these DRM layers on modern setups here, so I suppose it's harmless in the grand scheme of things.

All three of the Resident Evil games can be currently found on Steam with an introductory 50% discount, bringing their price down to just $4.99 / £3.99 each. Likewise is the case with Breath of Fire 4. The Resi 1 HD remaster is also currently going for $4.99 on Steam as part of the Capcom Spring Sale, and is DRM free, so definitely opt for that if you are looking to go all the way back to the start. If you want to keep them neat and tidy in a single library, then all four games will set you back a few more bucks on GOG, but that's the price for preference.

Regardless, it's great to see these classics become more widely-available across storefronts. Though I very much doubted we'd ever be at risk of them becoming lost media, even before the GOG re-releases, buyer choice is always important, and the series' immortality will continue to persist.