Life Finds A Way As GOG And Capcom Resurrect First Two ‘Dino Crisis’ Games For PC With “All The Original Content” And “Numerous Improvements”
In a move that will ensure the red-headed Secret Operation Raid Team agent Regina isn’t left to the archaeological dig sites of the future, GOG has re-released Capcom’s classic survival horror games Dino Crisis and Dino Crisis 2 for modern PCs.
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For those who unfamiliar with the CD Projekt-owned endeavor, GOG is a digital storefront whose services are focused on preserving classic games, which they do by both releasing DRM-free versions of said games and ensuring that they can always be played on modern hardware.
Thus far, the company’s preservation efforts have extended to such fan-favorite titles as CD Projekt Red’s original The Witcher, Blizzard’s first two Warcraft titles, Capcom’s original Resident Evil trilogy, and many more.
And in paying further respect to Capcom’s early horror survival efforts, GOG has now added the aforementioned Dino Crisis and Dino Crisis 2 to their library of offerings, making them available both individually or as a bundle.
Sharing the news on January 31st via their official Twitter account, GOG happily announced “Thanks to the tremendous efforts of Capcom and GOG, Regina’s iconic line, ‘You’re extinct!’ no longer applies to the first two entries of the Dino Crisis series themselves. The timeless thrillers that defined generations of gamers are part of the GOG Preservation Program—made to live forever, enhanced for today’s systems, and featuring all the original content you loved with numerous improvements.”
“We’ve ensured that with GOG’s versions, these masterpieces are better than ever,” said GOG, proceeding to tease the aforementioned “improvements” made to Regina’s kit. “You can expect full compatibility with Windows 10 and 11, full support for modern controllers, new render options, and an improved DirectX game renderer – just to name a few”.
Helmed by original Resident Evil director Shinji Mikami (unsurprisingly so given the similarity between the two series’ gameplay), Dino Crisis was an instant upon its release for the PlayStation in 1999, going on to sell 2.4 million copies worldwide.
The critical and commercial success of the first title spawned the sequel Dino Crisis 2, which launched in 2000 with eventual Ace Attorney series creator Shu Takumi taking over the for Mikami in the director’s chair and a more action-oriented gameplay direction.
However, the combination of this faster combat, a new scoring system, and its predecessors survival horror elements helped the sequel to sell nearly 2 million copies – slightly less than the original, but still wildly successful for a PS1 release.
And while a third Dino Crisis game did see a release in 2003, the less said of it the better, as not only did it fail to capture the essence of what made the first two titles so much fun, but it also saw so many changes made to the series’ core identity – including the complete dropping of Regina from its narrative – that players utterly rejected it.
As a result, Capcom chose to abandon the Dino Crisis IP in favor of pursuing their other, more widely lucrative franchises like Resident Evil and Monster Hunter – and sadly, in the over two decades since 2003, they’ve never looked back.
But despite the series having been left to lay dormant for so long, it nevertheless still enjoys a reliable fan base who are keeping the torch alive for some form of official franchise resurrection.
Unfortunately, despite Dino Crisis having even won the 2023 Capcom Super Election player vote regarding which of the publisher’s franchises they’d like to see make a return by a large margin, there still exist no officially confirmed plans for a resurrection of Regina and her prehistoric playmates.
Rather, in adding insult to injury, the only movement the franchise has seen in recent years prior to its re-release by GOG was when Sony brought Dino Crisis to PS4 and PS5 consoles without trophy support and locked behind the PlayStation Plus Premium paywall.
While it’s unknown just how much involvement Capcom had in bringing them up to code for the GOG Preservation Program, the fact that they had any at all suggests that maybe – just maybe – there exists a pinch of probability that the publisher is testing the waters to potentially give Dino Crisis the true comeback it deserves.
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