T-Virus vs. G-Virus — What’s the Difference?

What Is the Difference Between the T-Virus and the G-Virus?

Viruses are a familiar horror movie and video game trope that often fails to live to expectations. However, that cannot be said for one of the first (and the most iconic) ones in gaming history — the T-virus and the G-virus from the Resident Evil franchise. There is hardly a gamer out there that hasn’t heard of these infamous viruses. The best part about it is that the hype for them and the franchise hasn’t dwindled over the years. 

This franchise is still going strong today, with its two latest titles being incredible remasters of the original RE 2 and RE 3. Both have received critical acclaim from the critics and fans alike, and gamers worldwide are now eagerly anticipating a new RE title scheduled for 2021. 

We too are huge fans of the Resident Evil games, which is why we decided to do a small homage to them while waiting for the release of Capcom’s new title. So let us revisit that which started it all in the franchise — the T-virus and the G-virus.

What are these viruses? How do they differ? Which one is more dangerous? These are all questions newcomers to the franchise might ask, so we decided to tackle this particular topic.

So let’s inspect the differences between the two most famous viruses in gaming — the T-virus and the G-virus!

What Is the T-Virus?

The T-virus, also known as the Tyrant virus, is an artificially developed virus created by Umbrella Pharmaceuticals. Even newcomers to the RE franchise know that the Umbrella Pharmaceuticals is just a facade for an organization that focuses on researching various bio-weapons to trivialize warfare. The T-virus is their first breakthrough!

This disease was developed to find a weapon that could disable entire military forces without combat. Suffice to say that the virus was successful to a point.

The first developed form of the T-virus would cause minor mutations in the infected, boosting their physical strength and increasing their resistance to physical trauma. The infected could even suffer damage to vital organs and still preserve motor functions. 

Another effect of the T-virus resulted in an increased state of aggression in the infected, obsessive hunger that often led to cannibalism, necrosis of living tissue, and complete loss of intelligence.

Yes, it basically turned people into mindless, flesh-eating zombies!

As you can see from the above, the T-virus proved quite effective as a bio-weapon and had successfully fulfilled its purpose. However, there was one problem — it turned out that 10% of the infected were naturally immune to it.

That is what led the Umbrella co. to further perfect it, soon creating a series of bio-organic weapons, each more advanced than the previous one. The pinnacle of these mutants was the first intelligent bio-weapon, the Tyrant, which is how the virus got its name! You can find this bad boy in Resident Evil 3 if you’re curious!

Years after the T-virus came to be, other world’s secret organization would continue researching and perfecting it after Umbrella crumbled in the 2000s. That would eventually lead to the creation of various new mutagens and less-known strains of the virus.

Transmission

There are four known transmission methods for the T-virus:

• Injection — This method is the primary and the most reliable one. Because the virus was lab-made, this was the first method used.
• Water — If a sufficient amount of virus mixes with water, it can lead to large-scale catastrophes, like contaminating an entire city’s water supply. Organisms that consume infect water will attract the virus and mutate.
• Direct Fluid Transmission — Any laceration, bites, stabs, or mixing of body fluids can lead to infection (not guaranteed, though).
• Airborne — There were instances where it was proven that the virus was also airborne transmissible. That was only possible in specific laboratory conditions, though.

As you can see, the T-virus is not to be trifled with. Due to its high transmissibility, it can quickly go out of control if not contained correctly.

What Is the G-Virus

The G-virus, also known as the Golgotha virus, is a more powerful alternative to the T-virus developed by the Umbrella co. This virus has proven much deadlier than the T-virus for multiple reasons.

This disease causes severe mutations to appear and spread rapidly throughout the host’s body. Depending on the amount of the virus injected, these mutations can take anywhere from mere seconds to a few minutes to completely deform the host so much that they become unrecognizable as humans. The way this virus does that is by rewriting the host’s DNA.

The G-virus is incredibly potent, primarily because it can repair dead cells, even up to the point of resurrecting people from the dead and giving the host incredible superhuman strength. But like the most lethal aspect of the virus is that these mutants can procreate by generating G-embryos. The mutants can then implant these embryos inside living hosts, thus infecting them and further spreading the virus.

Transmission

There are two primary transmission methods for the G-virus:

• Injection — This is the primary method of transmission, and it was the one used for the very first infection. Depending on the amount of the virus injected, extreme mutations can begin manifesting within seconds.
• Implantation by a G-Embryo — This is the secondary method of transmission as the mutants themselves do it. The infected may force their embryos down a living host’s oral cavity, which will cause the embryo to begin growing from within. If the embryo rejects the host, it will exit their body forcefully, killing them in the process. If the embryo finds the host compatible, it will begin mutating them.

The aggressive reproduction pattern that G-mutants exhibit makes this virus particularly dangerous if left unchecked for too long.

T-Virus vs. G-Virus — Which One’s More Dangerous?

To best answer this question, it’s best to put them side-by-side and inspect their key features.

With the above in mind, despite the T-virus being older, it is clear that the G-virus improved upon many of its downsides. Alas, not even the G-virus is an ideal bio-weapon as it is challenging to control and even harder to contain if something goes awry.

So what’s the verdict? G-virus is undoubtedly more dangerous as G-mutants are much more powerful than those infected with the T-virus, but neither are perfect. That is why many other secret organizations continued Umbrella’s research and successfully created various strains of these viruses through gene splicing. Some of the most notable creations are the t+G-virus, t-Abyss, or even the C-virus. These organizations created these to improve upon the flaws of the original two strains.

However, no strain of these viruses will ever overtake their iconic status as some of the first and the deadliest diseases in gaming history! Only one thing is certain — both the T-virus and the G-virus are fantastically terrifying!