The April 10 Proton Experimental changelog quietly dropped some good news for retro horror fans:Resident Evil (1996), Resident Evil 2 (1998), Dino Crisis, and Dino Crisis 2 have all been bumped to playable status on Steam Deck and Linux. That's a meaningful upgrade for four games that only made their Steam debut earlier this year after a very long absence from the platform.
What was broken before
The Dino Crisis games and the original Resident Evil titles have had a rocky road to Steam. When the first two Dino Crisis games finally arrived on Steam this year, they came packaged with Enigma DRM, which created headaches for Linux and Deck users from day one. The original Resident Evil entries weren't in great shape either, sitting in an unverified limbo where basic functionality wasn't guaranteed.
For Steam Deck users, "unverified" is a spectrum. Some games run fine anyway. Others refuse to launch, drop inputs, or produce garbled audio. These Capcom titles fell firmly in the frustrating middle ground where you could sometimes get them working, but it required more effort than just hitting play.
What the April 10 build actually changes
The official Valve Proton changelog confirms the April 10 Proton Experimental build moves these titles to "playable" status:
- Resident Evil (1996)
- Resident Evil 2 (1998)
- Dino Crisis
- Dino Crisis 2
The same build also promotes From Dust, Metal Gear Survive, and Warhammer: Vermintide 2 to playable, so the Capcom fixes are part of a broader wave of compatibility improvements.
These games are not yet Deck Verified. You need to manually enable Proton Experimental in each game's compatibility settings to get the improved behavior. The default Proton version may not apply these fixes automatically.
"Playable" in Valve's terminology means the game runs and is completable, but may have minor issues. It sits one tier below "Verified," which requires full controller support, correct default settings, and a clean experience out of the box.
The one catch worth knowing
Dino Crisis 2 still has a problem with its FMV cutscenes. These aren't rendering correctly without community-sourced fixes, so if you want the full experience, you'll need to do a bit of extra setup. The gameplay itself appears to be in solid shape, but the cutscenes are a known rough edge for now.
For Dino Crisis and the two Resident Evil entries, the situation looks cleaner. These are short, dense games that fit the Steam Deck format well, and getting them to a reliably playable state is a genuine quality-of-life improvement for anyone who wants to work through Capcom's back catalog on the go.
Why this matters for the back catalog
Here's the thing: Capcom executives apparently needed convincing that anyone would want to play the original Resident Evil when remakes exist. The games still landed on Steam, and the player appetite was clearly there. Getting them running properly on Deck is the natural next step, and Valve's compatibility work is doing the heavy lifting that Capcom itself hasn't prioritized.
The Steam Deck is a genuinely good machine for short, older games. Titles like Resident Evil 2 (1998) and Dino Crisis clock in at a few hours each, fit entirely in the Deck's storage without drama, and benefit from the portable format. Playing a 1998 survival horror game on a handheld in 2026 has a particular kind of charm that the remakes, good as they are, can't replicate.
For the latest on what's worth playing on Deck and beyond, check out our latest reviews to see what's holding up.
Valve updates Proton Experimental on a rolling basis, so further improvements to these titles and others in the Capcom back catalog are possible as the compatibility layer matures. If Dino Crisis 2's FMV situation gets resolved in a future build, that game will be in genuinely strong shape from start to finish. Keep an eye on our guides if you need help getting Proton Experimental set up for the first time.
