Skip to main content

Resident Evil 4 remake's demo contains a secret "extreme difficulty" mode

As if it wasn't scary enough already

Resident Evil 4's demo dropped on Thursday and in all likelihood its ganados-packed village is difficult and scary enough for me. If you're made of stronger stuff, you might be interested in the demo's secret ultra-hard "Mad Chainsaw Mode", though.

Watch on YouTube

As spotted by Eurogamer, after completing the demo, players are sometimes presented with a screen offering "Mad Chainsaw Mode". Players can decline and restart in standard difficulty, but the screen contains these details about the "extreme difficulty" mode:

  • Mad Chainsaw Mode will be applied only to this single playthrough.
  • You must wait until Mad Chainsaw Mode is triggered again for subsequent attempts.
  • This mode is specific to the demo and is not included in the final game.

If you accept the challenge, you'll begin the demo from the beginning of the game as normal. Only now, enemies are stronger, their positions have changed, and there are no checkpoints so if you die, it's a proper game over.

News of the Resident Evil 4 Remake demo leaked a little early thanks to some adverts on Twitch, before being officially announced and released later the same day during Capcom's Spotlight stream. The demo features the opening section of the game and has no time limit, so you can play as many times as you like.

Resident Evil 4 remake will be released in full on March 24th - presumably with a different set of difficulty modes for those who crave a challenge.

Read this next