It's finally March, and that means it's now officially the month of the Resident Evil 4 Remake. Launching on March 24, Resident Evil 4 is a ground-up remake of the 2004 action-horror classic that revolutionized the genre. But with heaps of new content, fresh controls, and updated mechanics, this remake is far more than just the same game with shiny new graphics and animations. In fact, the Resident Evil 4 Remake even goes so far as adding brand-new lines of dialogue, with some of them bringing together wider parts of the Resident Evil universe.
During a recently released gameplay preview of Resident Evil 4 Remake, fans got a better look at the iconic Leon vs. Krauser melee boss fight. During this new take on the boss fight, Leon asks his former commanding officer what led him to turning his back on the government, to which he mentions something that happened "two years ago," to which Leon replies, "Operation Javier?" To many Resident Evil fans, this little line of dialogue isn't going to mean much, but for long-time players, this is a fun nod to one of the more underrated Resident Evil games.
Resident Evil 4 Remake's Operation Javier Explained
Operation Javier is the name of the first set of missions in the spin-off game Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles. Released for the Wii and the PS3, Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles is an on-rails light gun shooter that follows several different anthology stories set in the Resident Evil universe. These stories retell some of the major events from Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil: Code Veronica, though Operation Javier acts as more of a prequel to the events of Resident Evil 4.
Operation Javier follows franchise legend Leon S. Kennedy and his Special Forces commander Jack Krauser as they attempt to search for Javier Hidalgo, a South American druglord who's been working with Umbrella, the corporation behind the series' many viruses. When they arrive at Javier's hideout, a South American village not dissimilar to those found in Resident Evil 4, they soon find that it's been overrun by infected and bio-organic weapons. The duo eventually finds Javier's daughter who guides them through the village and its surrounding jungle.
On the other side of the jungle, Leon and Krauser find Javier's hideout, a gigantic mansion. Javier sends hordes of bio-organic weapons at the team, but they manage to fend them off. Getting desperate, Javier sends his wife after Leon and Krauser, who herself turns into a gigantic infected monster due to the T-Veronica virus in her bloodstream. In the fight, Krauser's arm is severely wounded. In a last-ditch attempt to kill the operatives, Javier merges with a bio-organic weapon called the V-Complex, but with his daughter's help, Leon and Krauser manage to defeat Javier and escape via a helicopter.
After completing Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles, players can unlock two bonus missions that tell the events of Operation Javier from Krauser's perspective. During these sequences, players find out that Krauser has a deep mistrust of Leon. When Krauser's arm gets injured, and Leon needs to take point on the mission, he begins to feel worthless, and resigns himself to the idea that he'll be discharged if they make it out alive. While ruminating on this, Krauser starts thinking about the T-Veronica virus and how it could be used to make him an even better soldier than before. After being discharged, Krauser begins his search for Albert Wesker, hoping that he'll fix his arm and give him new purpose. This, naturally, leads into Resident Evil 4 perfectly, with Krauser being one of the game's main antagonists. It's great to see the Resident Evil 4 Remake try to tie together different parts of the lore in an attempt to make this otherwise fairly convoluted universe actually feel a little more cohesive.
Resident Evil 4 Remake will release on March 24 for PC, PS4, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
