Chris InglisLa Quimera is an FPS developed by Reburn, formerly known as 4A Games Ukraine who was the original studio behind the Metro series of games, and the game was set to release on April 25 however, has since been delayed for an unknown period of time. Given the name change, I wasn’t aware of the developer’s previous connection, so I went in with fresh eyes and watching the game’s trailers which looked intriguing. Having now finished the game after just 3.5 hours, while I drew some comparisons to playing Outriders, and I did enjoy what was there, the game falls significantly short of its potential. Cooperative play is available for the three main story missions, but as of writing this review Reburn as held the release of the game indefinitely while they work on improving the product.
The story is set in 2064 after a series of natural and human-caused catastrophes triggered collapse of global systems leading to the fragmentation of human communities, and the world split in two. On one side is the rebuilding of society, while on the other is a dystopian land with unknown quantities of bionic and robotic monsters. As one of a few new PMC recruits turned operatives, you’ll take on intense high-risk missions across a megalopolis and lush jungle combining highly advanced weaponry and technology battling against rival factions.
I found the story intriguing enough to make me want to load the next mission, and I thought the voice acting was decent enough for most of the main characters. However, the voice of the main playable character seemed muffled or distorted. If it wasn’t for having subtitles on, I would have missed some of his inner thoughts. There is one other main character that had a mix of hilarious dialogue one minute and poor phrasing the next. It was successful in making me dislike the character which proved a point later in the story.
In terms of mission-to-mission gameplay, La Quimera felt somewhat like playing Outriders. Where Outriders had connecting areas of groups of missions, La Quimera utilised a central hub where you rest in your bunk and can walk around your quarters, but other than a mission table in the middle, there are no other interactable areas. The mission table offers you the next mission and a chance to use the armoury to change weapons, armour and items such as grenades or gadgets to aid in battle. As you complete missions you will earn currency, and you can also find currency in mission zones by looting caches or hacking specific laptops/terminals.
The combat, initially a point of potential strength with its meaty weapon sounds and blend of projectile and energy weapons, ultimately suffers from the game’s overall shortcomings. While the moment-to-moment gunplay can be satisfying with two different weapon types, ballistic and energy, having a more powerful effect on certain enemies, the limited playtime and lack of substantial weapon variety prevent it from truly shining. I did get some enjoyment out of exploring around every explorable area I could find in each of the mission areas that netted ammo, medkits, currency items, audio recordings that gave more insight into the lore, and scannable objects that nets you more currency.
Despite the presence of unlockable weapons via in-game currency earned from hacking and loot caches, the overall selection remains sparse, reinforcing the feeling of a truncated experience. It was interesting to note that the game will not let you load into a mission if you try use two ballistic or two energy weapons, it forces you to take one of each into battle. This makes sense given the balance of enemy types.
I’m not sure how to unlock the new armour sets, and I could re-run missions to earn enough to buy the remaining weapons I hadn’t tried yet, but I don’t see the point with the game being held from release to be worked on further. The inclusion of cooperative multiplayer by inviting a friend into your next mission is a feature that could inject some much-needed fun, particularly when playing with friends over voice communication. However, as I played during the review period, this functionality was unavailable for testing and will now have to wait for the game’s re-release sometime in the future.
Overall, while I did enjoy my time in the game’s prologue and three main story missions, I feel like La Quimera was just getting started before I was spat back to the main menu. I was starting to enjoy the combat and had settled on my favourite primary and secondary weapons, but with no further missions to play, I don’t feel compelled to rinse the same missions just to purchase and try out new weapons, which is ultimately disappointing. I hope the developers can take some time to regroup, add more story content and re-release with a more positive experience.
This review utilised a key provided by Neohype and La Quimera remains under development on Steam.
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