Resident Evil 4: Remake’s Demo Contains a Cheat Code to Unlock ‘Mad Chainsaw’ Difficulty Mode

Resident Evil 4: Remake’s demo has a secret cheat code that lets players unlock the demo-exclusive brutal Mad Chainsaw difficulty.

As shown by Jigzaw Killer on YouTube, players must go to the main menu in the demo with the “Main Story” choice highlighted. Then, hold L1 and R1 and press up, left, down, right, Square, Triangle, Circle, X, X on PlayStation, or hold LB and RB and press up, left, down, right, X, Y, B, A, A on Xbox. This will bring up the option to select Mad Chainsaw difficulty mode for the playthrough.

Before this cheat was discovered, Mad Chainsaw difficulty only appeared to unlock by chance, as the game would said: “You must wait until Mad Chainsaw Mode is triggered again for subsequent attempts.” This difficulty increases enemy damage and health, as well as changes their placements in the game and makes them even more aggressive.

Additionally, the chainsaw-wielding Dr. Salvador will come equipped with a flaming chainsaw this time around. There are also no checkpoints, so if players die during this playthrough it’s a complete game over.

The difficulty option might keep fans entertained until Resident Evil 4: Remake launches on March 24. Though the game is fully single player, Capcom has announced that it’s working on a Day One patch to improve the game’s rain effects that fans found to be too distracting.

It’s also working on a PlayStation VR2 version and confirmed this will be free DLC, but fans eager to experience the horror in virtual reality will have to wait a while yet as it has no concrete release date.

In IGN’s Resident Evil 4 remake preview, we said: “It was always going to be hard for any newer game in the series to experience quite the same technical jump that the Resident Evil 2 remake did. But so far Capcom seems to be making smart choices in what it iterates on for Resident Evil 4. It feels as if it’s trying to find that perfect balance between tribute and innovation.”

George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. He’s been writing about the industry since 2019 and has worked with other publications such as Insider, Kotaku, NPR, and Variety.

When not writing about video games, George is playing video games. What a surprise! You can follow him on Twitter @Yinyangfooey