The speedrunning community does not mess around, and there are already plenty of examples of people getting through the recent remake of Resident Evil 4 in a breeze, even managing it on Hardcore mode. With events such as Awesome Games Done Quick raising millions for charity, speedrunning is not just an opportunity for people to show off their prowess, beating or setting world records, as there's also some good that comes from the community.
It was recently reported that RE4 is so far the second-fastest selling entry in the Resident Evil series, with millions of units shifted in a short span of time. It's hardly surprising, given just how much people were anticipating this modern reimagining of one of the survival horror franchise's most iconic installments. Of course, among those millions who have bought it so far, some of them have been speedrunners who have been only keen to show off their abilities.
As reported by PC Gamer, there are already plenty of runs that have been done of the Resident Evil 4 remake, many of which are beating the game in under two hours in the "Any%" category. Given that a casual playthrough can take around 15-16 hours, less than two is a staggering amount. According to Speedrun.com, user Frit is currently at the number one spot, with a time of 1:51:45 on the PC version of the game. However, spiceeTV has so far managed to complete a Professional run in 1:58:47, which is slightly slower than the previous user, but considering it's on the game's hardest difficulty, that is a mighty impressive time. It's interesting to note that there are currently no speedrunning records for the console versions of the remake.
Resident Evil 4 has a number of difficulty settings ranging from Assisted to the aforementioned Professional, the latter of which is only available after players complete the game once. For newcomers, the remake can be quite intense, especially the opening section during the village fight. Those who are unprepared can find themselves overcome quickly, so for people to get to the end of RE4 in such a short amount of time, and on the toughest difficulty as well, takes a lot of dedication.
This is even more impressive considering the game hasn't been out that long. However, there are some who waste no time in beginning to perfect their runs. For anyone interested, there are plenty of games for first time speedrunners. As time goes on, no doubt more will take on RE4 to see whether it's possible to usurp the current Hardcore champion.
Resident Evil 4 is out now for PC, PS4, PS5, and Xbox Series X.