Resident Evil 4 Remake speedrunners are already clearing its hardest difficulty in under two hours

The Village Chief from Resident Evil 4 player looks at Leon — (Image credit: Capcom)

Resident Evil 4 remake speedrunners are already completing the game's hardest difficulty in under two hours.

As first noted by PC Gamer, speedrunner spicee has managed to beat Resident Evil 4 remake's supremely tough 'Professional' difficulty setting in under two hours. To be precise, that's merely one hour, 58 minutes, and 47 seconds taken to beat Capcom's latest horror remake on the hardest difficulty it has to offer.

The Professional difficulty might be just downright torture for most, but not for this speedrunner. It's important to note that, as per the rules on speedrun.com, out-of-bounds glitches are allowed for the Professional speedruns, but using extra treasure maps, and items that give you a gameplay advantage like the sunglasses, are entirely ruled out.

What's key to this Professional run from spicee is to simply avoid most enemies, and not even bother trying to parry them out of your way, as the parry timing window is so punishing. There's also, as you can probably imagine from a speedrun at under two hours, absolutely zero time for any side activities, including saving the poor dog that helps Leon out in the first El Gigante fight.

Completing Resident Evil 4 remake in under two hours on Professional difficulty is just bananas, and so far, spicee is the only player in the world to have managed it. The second-best Professional run comes from Captain Ezekiel, who managed the mode in a blistering two hours and nine minutes.

Speedrun.com shows that five other players have got their speedruns under two hours, but they're all playing on the Standard difficulty mode. The world record holder in that category is speedrunner Frit, whose playthrough you can see just below, who pulls many of the same tricks spicee uses in their run.

In fact, there's an excellent breakdown of all the tricks that these speedrunners are pulling, via the video below. Oh, and the channel is even hosting a speedrunning tournament for Resident Evil 4 remake's Professional difficulty later this week on April 15, if you fancy seeing speedrunners going head-to-head.

It's fantastic that we're already seeing these incredible speedruns for Resident Evil 4 remake, in what feels like right after launch. Capcom's horror remakes always make for top viewing at speedrunning events like Awesome Games Done Quick, so look for Resident Evil 4 remake to join those ranks in the near future.

Check out our Resident Evil 4 weapons guide for a look at every single gun you can unlock in the horror remake.

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.