It has only been two months since Reburn revealed La Quimera, a gritty, sci-fi shooter reminiscent of FPS titles like Crysis and Killzone. Reburn, formerly 4A Games Ukraine, uncovered La Quimera after the game leaked in February. I got hands-on with La Quimera before launch, and I went into the game with high hopes.
Everything about this title had spoken to me ahead of release. It has been in development for five years, some post-apocalyptic vibes are front and centre, and the gunplay looked intriguing.
Sadly, I was quick to be disappointed by La Quimera as I pieced together my review.
Run of the Mill
La Quimera is not a strong ‘debut’ for Reburn, which is leveraging this title as part of a company-wide rebrand to move further away from 4A Games, the creator of the Metro series.
The team had some bold promises for La Quimera ahead of release, touting a story written by Nicolas Winding Refn and production led by a 20-year industry veteran.
I don’t fully understand how, but La Quimera has turned out to be a fairly woeful disappointment, for me at least.
Nothing about this shooter stands out as being innovative or unique. I feel I’ve played it before, and everything from the visuals to the movement mechanics feels dated. The opening cutscene was enough to set me on edge, with characters boasting models worthy of a game that could have been released 15 years ago.
The combat mechanics are uninspired and very run-of-the-mill. You run, you shoot, you throw grenades, you heal, and then perhaps you use a few extra abilities on account of your advanced suit of armour, which is where the Crysis vibes start to leak in.
I was particularly disappointed by the voice acting, set pieces, and general stability of the game. I had a few glaring bugs as I played, including a weird one that surfaced when you tried skipping cutscenes. As I pushed through some cinematics, the dialogue from the cutscene would linger long after I’d skipped, talking over whatever came next.
I also had a weird shadow bug that made it look like my player model was plagued by floating orbs.
This is what I mean:
I’m on the fence about the general feel of the game, as the world looks okay, but there’s almost no reason for me to explore it any further than what’s required to complete the linear missions that you get given as a PMC in this war-torn world.
As you embark on your missions, you’ll pick up orders from a terminal, gear up, select your difficulty, and load into whatever area has been selected. La Quimera can be played with friends, so that adds another angle for why you’d want to get it, but I can’t see how much more value that would add to the game.
The missions you get given are fairly stock-standard and involve pushing through an area, eliminating enemies, and solving minor objectives to eventually pull out of that area again.
For a game that was created by more than 100 people and dubbed as having tense gunplay and intimate storytelling, I’m shocked by how plain La Quimera is.
Is La Quimera Worth It?
I wanted so badly to enjoy La Quimera. The leaked screenshots revealed something akin to Killzone, which is one of my favourite shooter franchises of all time.
What has been delivered is nowhere close.
The visual effects (fire, etc) are sub-par, gunplay is cut-and-dry and unimpressive, the voice acting and animations are dated, and nothing engaged me from a story perspective. I simply didn’t care to become immersed in La Quimera, which has ultimately revealed itself as a relatively short shooter with uninspiring mechanics that won’t leave a lasting impression on me as a gamer.
I still see Reburn as the studio that helped bring to life one of the best post-apocalyptic franchises ever made – Metro. It surprises me that this is what comes next.
Verdict: Wait
I won’t say that La Quimera isn’t worth playing, period. It’s a mid-range, mid-table shooter that offers a few hours of basic entertainment, and it might be better if you align with friends to explore the story. I will say that it’s probably not worth full price, and I’d recommend waiting for a sale, which I imagine won’t come too long after launch.
I firmly believe that La Quimera will come and go without much muster. It failed to enter the top 200 or so on Steam’s wishlist charts, and the two-month window from reveal to launch has shown that there’s just no hype for the title.
If you get La Quimera, feel free to let me know what you think over on the Insider Gaming forum.
Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
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