Some Resident Evil 4 speedrunners are already breezing through the game in an impressive fashion, indicating that Capcom's remake will be a hotly contested speedrunning category on par with the 2005 original. Despite releasing less than two weeks ago, the Resident Evil 4 remake already sold well enough to be in the conversation for one of the most commercially successful games of 2023.Most major speedrunning communities will remain closed to Resident Evil 4 run submissions until mid-April. Such delays are standard practice for all new games, as they allow moderator teams ample time to decide on specific rules and categories while players are still getting familiar with the game. Speedrun.com, one of the largest speedrunning websites on the Internet, says it will start accepting run submissions from Resident Evil 4 remake players no later than April 14.In the meantime, some speedrunners are already hard at work making sure the initial wave of Resident Evil 4 run submissions won't be anything short of impressive. Based on some recently posted runs on Twitch and YouTube, it would appear that the first official world record for an Any% Standard run will be in the ballpark of two hours. Namely, popular speedrunner Maxylobes recently revealed that his sum of best level times is already at 2:12. This particular format has greatly benefited from an early discovery of a scope glitch that lets Resident Evil 4 remake players skip the first Garrador fight and many of the game's other obstacles involving locked doors.
While it remains to be seen whether Capcom patches that particular oversight, speedrunners practicing glitchless runs through the Resident Evil 4 remake aren't far behind their glitch-reliant colleagues. YouTuber WolfDNC recently posted one such run that took him just over three and a half hours, stating that this attempt had "lots of mistakes" and hence leaves much room for improvement. The 3:30 speedrun employed a wide variety of techniques, including a recently uncovered trick that lets Resident Evil 4 players skip the "Goat Head" section of the game.
While many previously discovered speedrunning tricks require a lot of practice, some come down to having the right equipment. For example, most players should be able to reliably skip the Resident Evil 4 remake's village fight on subsequent playthroughs, as doing so only calls for a sniper rifle that will be readily available on New Game Plus runs.
Resident Evil 4 (2023) is available on PC, PS4, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: Soulless_Persona / Speedrun
