Speedrunners are laughing at Resident Evil 4 remake’s hardest difficulty
We're revving our chainsaws and slicing our way through the carnage, as Capcom's Resident Evil 4 remake carves itself a new legacy. A lot has changed in the 18 years since we first booted up the original on the Gamecube, and in that time, we've dialled up the difficulty.
There are four difficulty levels for Resident Evil 4, with Assisted for those who need a hand, Standard if you haven't played 2005's game, Hardcore for those who've been here before, and the super-hard Professional if you fancy yourself as a real-life Leon S. Kennedy. However, some are laughing in Capcom's face.
Speedrunners are destroying Resident Evil 4's hardest difficulty
As reported by PC Gamer, there's a loyal crop of Umbrella employees wiping out the Any% category in under two hours. Given that the average playthrough can be around 15-16 hours, we're left with our jaws on the floor.
On Speedrun.com, user Frit has an impressive 1:51:45 run on the game's PC version. Taking it one step further, spiceeTV has completed the palm-wrecking Professional mode in just 1:58:47. While it's true Frit has pipped spiceeTV in general runs, the fact the latter has bested Professional in a similar time is staggering.
If you want to tackle Professional for yourselves (we wouldn't recommend it), you must finish the main campaign and jump back in. As well as having the restrictions of Harcore, like stronger enemies and harder challenges, there's no autosave and you can only parry if you perform a perfect parry.
Resident Evil 4 is a speedrunner's paradise
The site notes that are currently no speedrunning records for the console versions, leaving an unchallenged gauntlet for those who want to pick it up on PS5 and Xbox Series. We'd suggest avoiding the PS4 version.
The trick to these speedruns seems to be running past enemies, which might sound like a pretty obvious way of doing it. There are currently 91 runs, but we expect those numbers to soar and the times to tumble. Both spiceeTV and noted speedrunner Distortion2 have said there's room for improvement.
Expect other speedrunners to learn these tricks of the trade and run all the way from the start to the jet ski in no time at all. In the meantime, the rest of us will get back to dreaming of besting a Professional run, let alone in under two hours.
