With just a couple of weeks until the much-anticipated release of Resident Evil 4 Remake, Capcom has dropped a demo for the action-horror game. Stepping into the shoes of special agent Leon S. Kennedy, players start the demo toward the beginning of the title. Here’s some help from our Resident Evil 4 Remake Chainsaw Demo walkthrough. Why is it called the Chainsaw Demo? You’ll find out soon enough.
After a brief recap of the events of Resident Evil 2 and 3, the Chainsaw Demo tasks players with exploring a remote village. Head up the path, go around the barbed wire, and check out the gross animal carcass if that sounds fun. Duck under the rest of the barbed wire and head into the house.
Making your house call, you can stop into the room on the right side of the hallway to examine the Crude Charm. It’s pretty crude, all right. Head back into the hallway and follow it to the right. You can’t get into the door ahead yet, so go into the room on the right-hand side to find a creepy man who is absolutely sauced. After the aggressive cutscene ends, take his key and spy into the nasty sauce this man was consuming if you like.
Head back to the locked door. Use the Hunter’s Lodge Key to open it and descend into the dark basement. Admire more of these crude charms and move the curtain to find out what happened to the officer.
The demo will tell you how to shoot, hinting that we may be about to suffer the same fate as the officer. But we’re Leon S. Kennedy, so when an undead man barrels down the staircase, we shoot him in the face. He’s spongey, so when he grabs make sure to stab him with the knife to finish him off. This won’t be necessary for other enemies, since we’ll want to preserve the knife’s durability.
Head up the stairs and back down the hallway. There are a bunch of enemies on the left in that room with the Crude Charm. What are they up to in there? Making more crude charms? Fight them if you like, but you can just as easily avoid them and head up the stairs to the right. Open the door and enter a cutscene, with Leon giving intel on “Baby Eagle,” aka Ashley Graham, to Agent Hunnigan. This scene will get interrupted as Leon dives out the window while an infected villager stares longingly after him.
Head down the path, smashing the barrels for ammo and gunpowder. You’ll enter a save room, but you can’t save since this is a demo (don’t worry, it has checkpoints if you die). Head out and into the next tiny shack, picking up more ammo in the drawer.
Move out and duck under the tree branch to hear two enemies chatting. They’re probably talking smack about you since they get really mad when you arrive. Shoot the first one in the head and run up to melee him in the face. This is the fastest—and most fun—way to take out enemies. Do the same for the next spooky guy, then knife his wriggling body, so he doesn’t come back for more.
Head down the path, and get momentarily stuck in a bear trap. It’s okay; Leon shrugs it off like a champ. Watch out for the man in the house, and then go in and take his stuff when he’s dead: ammo, a flash grenade, and a red herb.
From there, go back to the path and enter the village proper. You’ll get a heads up (or heads down?) that bad things are going on here once you open the gate. Confirm your suspicions past the next gate by pulling out your binoculars behind the big rock when prompted. Zoom in to get a sneak peek at the worst Fire Fest yet.
And here is where the demo turns up the heat in a figurative sense as well. There are a number of ways to approach this scenario, which involves staying alive as long as possible once spotted—until the bell rings. But here’s a way that worked great for me, and hopefully will for you.
Instead of heading directly to your flaming friend, go down the side path on your left. Pick up the green herb and notice the freaky zombie lady facing away from you, mindlessly farming. You could stab her, but better to shoot her in the head three times to drop her. Leon will then say, “Here we go.” That’s the signal for starting off the fight for survival.
Don’t continue down the path. Instead, head back down the way you came, taking on any enemies that get in your way. That said, prioritize moving so as not to get trapped. Whenever you arrive in the main square, notice the barn with a cow on the other side. Go through, shooting the lantern on the way out to send that cow running out of there and moooowimg down your pursuers.
Around this time, the gates should open to reveal a man with a bag on his head and a chainsaw in his hands. Run towards the pyre and duck into the farmhouse to the left of it. The chainsaw man may be rounding the corner, but don’t worry, you’ll get saved by a cutscene of Leon barricading the door. Note that if you head into the farmhouse, or up the far path, before the first cutscene reveals of the chainsaw man, that will trigger his early arrival. You want to head into the farmhouse after he spawns.
Head up the stairs and notice the shotgun on the wall. Don’t grab it yet, instead, go down the hall and knock over the ladder your enemies planted at the window. Then head back, pick up the shotgun, and smash the glass on the left for a grenade.
Shoot any enemies coming up the stairs with your new boomstick, and once chainsaw man appears, vault through the window opposite the grenade cabinet to head onto the roof. Go to the far end but don’t jump off yet. Turn around to find the window bottlenecking your enemies. Start shooting. You should even be able to get a few good shots off on chainsaw man, potentially staggering him for a melee attack if you’re feeling bold.
If or when you get overwhelmed, jump off the roof and head to pretty much any path that will force these village people to gather close. The one you entered the village from will work just fine. It’s time for grenades. Toss one, or even both, to send these baddies off with a bang once the bell rings. It’s bingo time. Yep, the famous line from the original game gets a shoutout, reassuring you that the terror is over—and that Resident Evil 4 Remake still keeps some of the cherished cheesiness of the original.
And for the full game, Resident Evil 4 Remake will arrive on March 24th.
