Resident Evil 2 Remake ’s 30-minute demo is supposed to be just a single go-round , literally one chance to live or die, but that obviously hasn’t stopped enterprising players from finding ways to get around the restriction. PC players have figured out a hack to reset the timer, and console players are using multiple profiles to get around it. Naturally, the best choice when confronted with the idea that you can play an extremely short demo more than once is to make it even shorter. Thus, we have the burgeoning, likely short-lived, idea of speedrunning the thing. As of writing, the current world record is just under three minutes, at 2:55, dethroning yesterday’s record of 2:57. Knowing speedrunners, surely someone will do better, but here’s the video: The Resident Evil 2 Remake demo is available until January 31st. The full game releases on January 25th.<doc-sep>When Capcom announced the Resident Evil 2 demo was a "1-shot" with a 30-minute time limit, many complained about not having long enough to try the game out. Well, it turns out players have found easy workarounds - and of course the speedruns have begun. Somewhat hilariously, once you've used up your 30 minutes on one account, you can simply load the demo up on another account on your console and play all over again (we've verified this works with our own tests on PlayStation 4). You can do this as many times as you're willing to create accounts across PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Steam. PC players have come up with ways to reset the demo timer, but these involve tinkering with Steam itself, which you may not feel comfortable doing. With players able to give the "1-shot" demo more than one shot, the speedruns have already begun. There are multiple videos online showing players complete the thing in under three minutes. The fastest time I've seen so far is two minutes and 57 seconds (that run is in the video below), but I'm sure by the time the weekend is done, it'll be down further. It's worth taking your time with the Resident Evil 2 demo because it's superb. It gives you a great idea of the tone, atmosphere and feel of the full game, while also being pretty scary.<doc-sep>The Resident Evil 2 remake got a demo today, but it’s one that comes with 30 minute time limit. Predictably, the PC version has already been modded to let you go beyond that time limit, but it turns out there’s not much extra to discover even with those limits removed. A new trainer lets players stop the time counter, and take advantage of all the cheating tools you might expect from that type of software. Given that this is a free demo, it’s tough to call this piracy – but the trainer does come courtesy of a notable crack group, so you’re on your own if you want to track down the program. It appears that you can’t go beyond the bounds of the content intended for the demo, even with the timer disabled. Unless you need to replay the demo a thousand times over heading into the game’s launch, there’s little reason to seek this one out. With or without the time limit, if you want to play the RE2 demo it’s available now on Steam but it’ll be pulled from digital shelves on January 31 – shortly after the game’s proper release. This slice of the game has you play as everyone’s favourite rookie cop Leon S. Kennedy as he takes his first steps into the zombie-riddled Raccoon City police station. You can keep playing until your 30 minutes are up, whether you die or complete the main objective in the meantime. If you do finish it, you’ll see a “brand-new cinematic trailer exclusive to demo participants.” While you’ll be locked out of playing once that time limit is up, if you unlocked the trailer you’ll be able to watch it as many times as you want afterward. (Yes, the demo is assuredly already up on YouTube, but just think of the compression artifacts.) It’s nice to see Capcom providing a demo on PC for one of it’s big titles – I’m looking at you, Devil May Cry 5 – even if it comes with a bizarrely contrived set of limitations on your playtime. But hey, at least it’ll keep you from getting sick of the game’s opening moments before it’s even out. Read more: Get spooked in the best horror games on PC We got a look at the later parts of Resident Evil 2, including the Tyrant, pretty recently, and had a long look at the series’ human tragedies. This return to one of the most beloved entries in the core series is looking terrific so far and this demo should be a good taste of what’s to come, time limits and all.<doc-sep>
When I played the Resident Evil 2 demo with its 30-minute time limit, I made a few concessions to my usual see-it-all playstyle: leaving the outskirts of rooms unexplored, skimming through in-game texts, that kind of thing. Watching speedrunner jaypreemo blaze through Leon's initial encounters in the Raccoon City Police Station in 2:52 (the current verifiable world record, as far as I can tell) makes my 22-minute-and-change attempt look like watching paint dry. Naturally, you can get through any game much more quickly if you know exactly where you're going and how to get there. But what struck me about watching these Resident Evil 2 demo speedruns is how differently they treat zombies. I only managed to untrain the instinct to shoot every zombie in the head and keep shooting until it doesn't get up again fairly late in my time with the demo. In that speedrun video, the runner only shoots a zombie twice (and it's actually the same one, once to stun it going up the stairs and again going down). Even if you're not trying to save time, you should try to conserve ammunition, so my All Zombies Must Die (Again) attitude probably won't be sustainable in the full game. The way speedrunners treat combat with zombies as a tool for navigating around rotters in their path is something I'll take with me when I'm playing the full game. Unless Leon retroactively learns some of the sweet grappling moves he knew in Resident Evil 4, in which case you bet your sweet bippy I'm going back to the ol' "kneecap into suplex" routine. Oh, and if you're wondering how this speedrunner practiced enough to get this good when the demo's only supposed to let you play for minutes, the answer is that gamers find a way. There are semi-illicit tools to stop the demo's timer cold on PC which I won't link to here, or you could always just make a new account to play through again on any platform.