17 years too late, Resident Evil 4 players have discovered a way to survive the game's most notorious instakill attack

gamesradar.com:

It's been around for almost two decades, but players of the original Resident Evil 4 have just discovered a way to survive Salvador's infamous chainsaw attack.

The Resident Evil 4 remake is already one of the most hyped new games 2023, but this life-saving method found by players of the 17-year-old original is less of a strategy, and more of a stroke of luck. The first clip surfaced on YouTube (opens in new tab), showing RE4 hero Leon Kennedy taking a chainsaw to the neck and effortlessly shoving away his assailant. Getting attacked by sack-headed Dr. Salvador (or any chainsaw-wielding enemy) is widely known as an instakill moment; after all, who brings a gun to a chainsaw fight?

But more clips have surfaced from the game's remastered version, showing the Raccoon City veteran able to shake off the otherwise fatal blow. According to a Twitter thread (opens in new tab), Leon has a small percentage of a chance to survive a chainsaw attack if you meet two vital criteria: firstly, that you're playing a remastered copy of the original game for PC, Xbox 360, VR, or Nintendo Switch. Secondly, it seems to only work when you have a full health bar right before the attack.

Although the death-defying measure has yet to be spotted on PS2 versions of the game, some Twitter commenters note that the ability to avoid a chainsaw death might be a remnant of a scrapped mechanic from the original. Twitter user Megxrage (opens in new tab) remembers an interview they watched during the developmental stages of the game, noting that "in development, it wasn't a one-hit kill if you had full HP." This is backed up by other tweets, with another Twitter user (opens in new tab) stating that the ability to shove off a chainsaw enemy existed in beta