Chainsaw Demo – Guide and Walkthrough – Resident Evil 4 Wiki Guide

Ahead of the release of Resident Evil 4 Remake, Capcom has revealed the “Chainsaw Demo”, available on March 9th for Playstation, Xbox, and PC. This demo features the opening of Resident Evil 4 Remake, from Leon’s arrival in a remote European settlement to a climactic attack in the Village Square.

This demo can be played as many times as you wish, and does not have a time limit like some previous Resident Evil demos that have been released.

Below you will find a walkthrough for the main encounters in this demo, as well as important tips to survive the villager attacks and deadly chainsaw man.

Exclusive to the Resident Evil 4 Remake Demo (and not the full game) is a secret Mad Chainsaw Mode. The only way to unlock it is by random chance each time you start a new run on the Demo, which may give a random warning that you are about to embark upon this super difficult mode. Enemies will be extremely powerful in this version, and during the fight in The Village, a super version of the Chainsaw Villager with a flaming chainsaw will appear to fight you! If you fail, you’ll have to keep loading up new runs until the mode appears again.

Don’t waste ammo or time pulling out a knife when you spot a crate or barrel – Leon can simply kick them to reveal their contents.
Ammo is precious! Aim for the head and kneecaps to stagger your enemies, and once the white marker (new to the Remake) flashes above their head, you can get in close to hit them with a melee attack for extra damage, and more importantly, crowd control. You can also melee attack them after perfect parrying with your knife.
Speaking of your knife button, when a white mark appears over a downed enemy, that means you can instantly finish them off with your knife. With a little hit to its durability, of course.
Parrying, stabbing, and stopping enemies from grabbing you by knifing them will all lower the durability of the knife – with the latter taking away the most durability. Break out of grabs with the knife sparingly, or you’ll risk breaking the knife and being unable to block or parry attacks.
You can actually parry the Chainsaw Villager’s attack – but it will likely break your knife in the process or lower almost all of your remaining durability. Still, its preferable to getting killed in one hit by him.
Like the original, RE4 Remake has a quick turn, but it’s bound to “down and R1”, but can be configured in the controls.

This demo begins with a quick recap of the events of Resident Evil 2, which led to Leon being enlisted into a secret goverment program and undergoing rigrous training before his special duty to guard the President’s daughter, who has now gone missing.

This demo starts at the beginning of the game, through the first 20-30 minutes.

See What’s Taking So Long

As you take control of Leon, it seems your police escort has gone missing. You can travel behind you to find the abandoned police car, but there is no one to be found.

Begin by heading down the moody path and ruined huts until you come to a gap that’s blocked by barbed wire.

Look for a smaller path just to the right to bypass the hazard and through a large broken gate. You can inspect the gruesome carcass on the right, or keep heading down the narrow path as it leads up a slope and into a low barrier. Use the indicated prompt to crouch down and move forward to find a battered looking house.

Head on inside to find a long hall to the left that wraps around, and a door before the corner leading to a bedroom. There’s a Crude Charm that you inspect to gain a File, but otherwise the place is empty.

Head back out and down the hall to find a locked door covered in markings, and go right through the other door to meet your first infected Villager.

While not technically a zombie, there’s definitely something up with him, but Leon will quickly neutralize the threat.

Inspecting the downed body, you can grab the Hunter’s Lodge Key, and then investigate the screams coming from behind the locked door back down the hall. You’ll also now have access to your Map, Inventory, and Files to which the Mission Brief and Crude Charm have been added. Check back on the ground where Leon first spotted the missing police’s badge to add the Officer’s Badge to your Files.

Enter the locked door with the markings, and go down the stairs into the basement full of more gruesome things. Inspect the doorway with the cloth over it, and Leon will find out what happened to one of the missing officers, and hear the other officer get into trouble on the radio.

Escape the Hunter Lodge

As you turn to leave the basement, the infested Villager from earlier will come staggering down the stairs – crooked neck and all. He’ll move to lunge at you with surprising speed, so keep backpedaling away while putting some shots around his head or chest if you can. If you manage to quickly run away from his lunge, you can also quickly hit him with some knife slashes by tapping R2, or stabs by holding L1 first (or holding space bar on PC).

If the Villager manages to grab you, you’ll have to spam the prompt to escape their grab while taking damage – but pressing the R2/mouse click prompt will forcibly stop them with a knife stab. Be warned, this will cause the knife to lose a good chunk of durability, so try to avoid getting grabbed at all costs.

Once the infested man goes down, head up the stairs and open the door to spot another Villager staggering out of a door that wasn’t there before. He’ll move into the bedroom along with another enemy (which you can peek into through the cracks in the wall), but it’s best if you conserve ammo and stay away from them.

Instead, head through the door on the right that the enemy came out of to find a stairway going up to the second floor. Look at the base of the stairs for a cupboard holding a Green Herb inside, and use it if that first enemy tore a chunk out of your health – otherwise save it for later.

Once you enter the room up here, Leon will find clues about the target he’s seeking – and a map pointing to the edge of a large lake. Leon’s communication with his supervisor, Agent Hunnigan, will be cut short by the arrival of more enemies, prompting a swift exit to a path at the back of the lodge.

Head for the Lake

Since the enemies aren’t giving chase, you can make your way down the new path at your own pace, and take in the creepy sights. You’ll need to cross a rickety bridge before coming to a path leading to another ruined building.

If you have some ammo to spare, note that you can shoot crows to sometimes find items like money, treasure, or gunpowder. There’s also a barrel splashed with yellow paint outside the house – and these barrels and crates can be broken open to find random items inside like ammo. You don’t even need to shoot or slash them, just pressing Cross/A (or F on PC) will have Leon kick it apart.

Be sure to reload your gun as you head inside the hut to find another barrel, alongside a Typewriter – the classic save spot of the Resident Evil franchise.

Unfortunately, you won’t be able to use ther Typewriter to save during this demo, but there will be autosave checkpoints if you die.

Leaving the save room behind, exit the shack to hear the sounds of more Villagers somewhere close by.

The path will lead towards a butchered wolf and some crows (shoot them if you want), and another ruined building to the left behind it. Check the inside for a drawer with more Handgun Ammo.

As you leave the shack, look for a path leading past an old pickup truck, and approach cautiously. There’s an overgrown building to the left that houses a crate you can break – but more importantly are the two Villagers waiting to ambush you just past the truck. One of them waits behind a nearby tree, while another is up on a ledge to the right of the truck and will drop down to try and flank you.

Make use of your space to back up and aim for their heads or legs to stun them when possible. One of the most important aspects of combat in Resident Evil 4 against enemies like these is to stagger and follow up melee attacks. Most head or leg shots, or those fired by waiting until your target reticle closes in will knock your enemy back, and a white arrow indicator will appear. When close enough, Leon can unleash a melee attack to deal even more damage and send the enemy flying – often killing them.

If they get close with their weapons, you can also wait for them to attempt a slash or stab and tap the L1 button/Space Bar to bring out your knife and parry the blow. Simply blocking will let you avoid taking damage, but a well-timed parry will also stagger the opponent, setting you up to counter.

Be warned – if an enemy falls to the ground and begins to shudder violently, they’ll get back up like that first Villager showing signs of infestation, and can’t be staggered in this state. It’s a good idea to pump several more rounds into them before they get up (or stick your knife in them at the cost of durability) to ensure they can’t try to lunge at you.

Once you’ve dealt with the pair and looted their corpses, make your way up the hill behind the truck and down another path. It’s more than likely you won’t notice the bear trap on the ground here – but don’t worry, it won’t deal any damage. Still, it’s a good indication that you’ll want to keep an eye on the ground in the future so you don’t get caught when enemies are coming at you.

Speaking of enemies, there’s one hiding in the overgrown building on the left as you head down the path. You can either try and be ready for his lunge and parry with your knife, or see if you can line up a shot through the cracks in the building to force him out.

Once he’s down, check the building he was in to find some Handgun Ammo, a Flash Grenade, and a Red Herb to mix with the green ones you find to improve health restoration.

Past the long corridor is a large creepy looking door, which will lead you to the main village in this region. As you cautiously approach the village square, look for some cover to the left and a prompt to investigate the horrendous display just down the road.

The villagers won’t notice you right away once they are done with the execution, which is a good time to start planning for the eventual fight. The village encompasses a large area, and mobility will be your key to survival.

You can start getting a feel for the terrain by crouching down and quickly moving off to the narrow path on the left going behind the locked barn. Be warned as a woman will patrol down the alley between the barn and house near the village square, but will also walk back to the opposite side giving you time to dart by and pick up a Green Herb along the back wall.

Going further along this back path will give you cover from the square, and lead you to another woman with her back turned away by some chicken coops – you can quietly eliminate her with your knife that only uses a bit of durability.

Since the far road to the gate in the northeast is guarded, you’ll likely want to grab the attention of everyone when you’re ready (or stab the patrolling woman in the back as she returns to the square).

Survive the Attack

From the moment the entire village is alerted to your presence, you’ll have to survive for around 4 and a half minutes (give or take depending on cutscenes). Make no mistake: You will be severely outnumbered, and even though you can find ammo and items stashed all over, you will want to prioritize running and gunning over trying to fortify and take on all comers.

While it might be tempting to hole up and try to take them all out, it’s usually better to conserve ammo (and your knife durability) by attacking sparingly only when you need to clear a path. Most of the Villagers will chase and jog after you, but a few others will almost always lag behind or take alternate paths in an attempt to grab or attack you by surprise. In such cases, a shot to the head or leg to stun them should be enough to create some breathing room.

Be wary of not watching your back. Some Villagers will lurk up from behind you grab and hold you down. It doesn’t deal any damage, but you won’t be able to dodge incoming attacks until you break out of their hold, and can’t use your knife to free yourself!

Some may even try to plant bear traps when you aren’t looking, so be aware of traps on the ground, and try to bait enemies into them if you spot one planted in the village!

There are multiple routes to take during this survival mission, and every path has its own benefits depending on where the bulk of the townsfolk are bunched up. Many of the buildings also offer cover, items, and a moment of peace before enemies come barging in after you – as well as multiple escape routes through windows. However, you’ll likely want to avoid the upper northeast part of the village as the small huts here are cramped and offer no easy escape routes – and most only have a bit of currency to loot, which serves no purpose for this demo. Below are some of the more important areas to consider moving through:

The large two-story house on the top right of the village square has a single front entrance behind some low fences. It’s one of the most important locations as it will actually trigger a cutscene upon entering where Leon locks the door, buying you a bit of time before they come in after you – and allowing you to push a shelf in front of a boarded window near the stairs.

It’s also important because it holds the most valuable loot: you can look under the stairs to find a First Aid Spray and some Handgun Ammo (get these first so you don’t get trapped later with enemies behind you. Just up the stairs, you’ll find a Shotgun mounted on the wall next to a glass display cabinet you can break to retrieve a Grenade, and also find Shotgun Ammo on the bed past the stairs.

The downside to going into this house is that it will summon even more Villagers to begin attacking on all sides, raising ladders to the second floor window and walkways around the second floor on both sides. It will also force the appearance of the terrifying bagged-head Chainsaw Villager (who will also appear about halfway into the fight from the Northeastern gate if you don’t go into the building first) Thankfully, going into the house after the Chainsaw Villager appears at the gate doesn’t seem to cause more than one to appear.

As the enemies take a chainsaw to the front door, race to the second floor window overlooking the square to push down the ladder when you spot someone trying to climb it, then hop out one of the other back windows once they bust down the door. The wooden walkways out here have more ladders to kick down, and more space to gain distance on other rooftops from your attackers (but watch for those throwing axes at you!)

Just to the side of the two-story house is a shorter house close to the locked barn, and has a few items inside – but be aware there’s a Villager hiding in the closet waiting to jump out and ambush you!

Across the other side of the village square is an open barn with a cow inside. Once you have a large group on your heels (including the Chainsaw Man), consider darting through the barn, as it will trigger the lamp above to crash down and light everything on fire — including the cow that will charge forth and crash into anyone unlucky enough to be in range.

A smaller collapsed house can be found off in the southwest corner, but offers limited room to escape pursuers and a path leading back to a dead end above the entrance gate, and is best avoided until after the fight. You can instead run around past a cart with a Red Herb to the southeast alley up past a larger home with two rooms — just be aware of Villagers inside the home early on that will freak out when you enter, and can block your escape through the window.

Lastly, there’s a tower just above the large church building with a long ladder to climb. There’s only a bit of money up here, but it’s not advisable to try escaping up here, as the floorboards will break away to send you hurtling back down to the ground in front of your enemies. However, if you are careful and don’t go too far away from the ladder, you can try to run down the clock picking off enemies trying to climb up one at a time.

As for the Chainsaw Villager, he is a formidable and tough foe to deal with, and you can either avoid him entirely (and let his wild chainsaw swings hit his friends instead), or try to eliminate him using the bulk of your ammo. The Grenade and Flash Grenade can also open him up for extra damage, but you may want to save that until you are completely surrounded, as it will make all Villagers in the area stunned and open to getting kicked in the face.

If he manages to get enough space to charge at you, you’ll have one chance to parry with your knife – taking the huge durability loss is far preferable to getting instantly sawed in two, but you likely won’t be able to use your knife again. Always try to put a bit of distance between yourself and the chainsaw by climbing, jumping, or vaulting out of a direct path.

Remember if you’re low on health, the chickens that scramble around the village square can drop eggs you can eat for a bit of health – no need to shoot them!

After enough time has elapsed, you’ll hear the church’s bells begin to ring, and all the enemies will instantly stop fighting you. A moment later, they’ll trudge toward the church and leave a bewildered Leon behind as they lock the door behind them.