Last week, Capcom has released a demo for its upcoming remake the classic third-person horror game from 2005, Resident Evil 4. And while the demo is fairly small, fans have found a hidden weapon and other secrets tucked away in this little teaser of what’s to come later this month.
I jumped at the demo as soon as it went live. After playing through it once, I walked away very excited to learn more Resident Evil 4 make new. As you’d expect, the short demo out now on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S and PC reminded me a lot of the original, but looked and played so differently it was like it would I relive one of my favorite games over and over again. But beyond that one run, I haven’t poked around with it much. It turns out that was a mistake, as this tiny chunk of the upcoming horror remake has some neat secrets to uncover. So you might want to jump back to start digging, or just keep reading.
How to unlock the RE4 hidden mode of the demo
The first cool secret Twitter uncovered shortly after landing the demo is a special exclusive difficulty option: Mad Chainsaw Mode. However, I figured people would be trolling or making up Creepypasta-esque nonsense at first since it According to reports, would only appear randomly for gamers. But no, Mad Chainsaw Mode isn’t some weird hoax, it’s a real part of the demo. And according to the text that appears when it’s triggered, this hidden mode won’t be in the full game, so it just seems like a fun little secret for demo players.
More recently, people have also discovered that you actually can trigger this super secret hard mode manually via a simple cheat code. Simply highlight the Main Story option in the opening menu and hold L1 and R1 (or LB and RB on Xbox, or Shift and Space on PC). Then enter this code:
PS4/PS5: Up, Left, Down, Right, Square, Triangle, Circle, X, X
Xbox Series X/S: Up, Left, Down, Right, X, Y, B, A, A
PC: W, A, S, D, R, I, E, F
(Caution: some players report that the PC code is finicky and tends not to work when using a keyboard.)
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If you get this right, you’ll unlock the option to start Mad Chainsaw mode. However, be warned that the enemies on this difficulty level are much stronger, spawn in different locations, and there are no checkpoints. So if you die, you start over. There’s also a change to the chainsaw-wielding boss you encounter in the village, but I won’t spoil it all…
How to find the demo secret SMG
A hidden difficulty level isn’t the only cool secret players have discovered in the game RE4 Demo. It turns out there is to find a whole secret weapon, to. To find it, you need to start the demo as usual and make your way to the cabin. Once you’re through the cutscenes and fighting your first enemy – before heading up the stairs to escape – open your inventory and drop everything. A little strange, but trust me.
Now escape from the hut and be careful not to collect anything on the way to the village. Once you see the cop getting burned alive (yikes!), you want to head to the left part of the back area of the village. Watch out for villagers trying to attack you.
If you dropped all of your items and haven’t picked up anything since then, you should find a fountain in an area that is normally locked, preventing Leon from entering. Climb down the ladder and open the chest below to get your new TMP submachine gun. Also, break open the barrels near the chest to get some ammo.
Oh, and one more cool thing about this TMP mystery: after finding the hidden SMG, you’ll have it in your inventory every time you play the demo.
What else is there to find?
There may be another secret or two buried deep within this demo, but until now players haven’t found anything. But even if that’s all, I’m more than happy. Demos are so rare these days that even getting one for a big upcoming game is cool. But it’s even better to include demo-exclusive secrets and modes. It reminds me of all the wild secret hunt gamers Resident Evil 7‘s beloved demo. And no, no one has found one as of this writing Mannequin Fingers. Well, at least not yet…
The Resident Evil 4 make new coming soon on March 24th for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, PS4 and PC. Sorry, that’s not a typo. The game is Skip Xbox OneAt least for now.