La Quimera was initially slated for release in late April by new developer Reburn, which was founded by some ex-devs from the Metro series, but was abruptly delayed on its planned release date. After playing through an early build (which only took me a couple of hours to complete), I can see why. Visual bugs, lack of content, off-putting characters and what can only be described as an incomprehensible plot make La Quimera one of the more baffling games I’ve played in recent years.
A Beautiful Disaster
When I first loaded up La Quimera, I was pleasantly surprised by the visuals. This game can look very pretty at times, and the world does seem realized artistically. In screenshots, you would think this is a seriously good-looking game. However, after spending some time with it, you start to see the cracks, and they are glaring.
Character models would move bizarrely and get stuck on geometry. I would pick up a voice memo, and the pop-up window would be stuck on my screen. In one egregious moment, I had to reload my save after I was unable to interact with any objects in the environment anymore, and my character refused to open a door to proceed. On multiple occasions, I would run into a room only for assets to load in while I was heading for cover from enemy fire, and prevent me from proceeding, causing me to die.
And when you die? The game fades to black while still showing that you are in critical health for about ten to fifteen seconds before throwing you into a loading screen where you will have to wait even longer in order to load back up at your last checkpoint. On top of this, I had a bug where the items I picked up before dying failed to respawn in the environment and only made the next encounter unnecessarily difficult. Personally, I don’t know how this game was originally planned for an April release if this was the state it was in.
A Confounding Plot
In the 2060s, you start the game as a new recruit to a private military company (PMC) in Latin America. This unnamed recruit will narrate sections of the story or talk to himself on occasion throughout your playthrough. He is completely void of a backstory or personality, but goes beyond just being a stand-in for the player as the game tries to humanize him as his own character. He’ll comment about how he hates a certain other person or on the situations happening around him in a monotone, droning voice that mainly annoyed me whenever he would start talking.
The first real mission (which there are only three of) of the game has your PMC being hired to rescue a complete shit-head daughter, Helena, of a wealthy businessman in the futuristic ruins of the jungle surrounding a newer city state called Neuvo Caracas. Unfortunately, I found Helena to be one of the worst characters I’ve ever experienced in a video game. Every line of her dialogue is laced with profanity and crass insults. It comes across as if it were written by a twelve-year-old who has just discovered swearing.
After saving Helena, you are tasked with retrieving her backpack, which ends up having some top-secret tech in it. Upon finding her backpack and returning to your base, you are then ambushed by some guards and a woman who insists you stole her tech. She promises not to punish your mercenary crew as long as you agree to be her guinea pigs in an experiment involving new exosuits her company is developing.
From there, the story muddles itself and teases plot thread after plot thread with literally none of them being resolved by the time I was done playing the game. The literal last line of the game is your milquetoast main character mumbling about how he feels he is going to have more questions than answers by the time this is over, and then the game just cuts to black. The game didn’t even have credits when I completed it. I finished the third mission and was unceremoniously kicked back to the main menu. I’m just completely flabbergasted at what was even happening throughout the game and what the motivations of any characters were.
Passable Gunplay
If there is one small bright spot in the time I spent with Reburn’s debut title, it is that the gunplay actually doesn’t feel that bad. Guns have a nice kick to them, and once you unlock your exosuit in the second mission, you gain some abilities that give you more options in combat. I especially enjoyed using the scan ability that allowed me to see enemies through walls, allowing me to just shoot through and kill them on the other side.
In between your missions, you can also purchase upgrades with money you earn by completing missions or finding collectibles hidden in the environment. These upgrades can either be new weapons to take into missions or upgrades to your exosuit. You can play through the game co-op with up to two friends and replay the three missions after completing them if you want to grind for extra cash to spend on these upgrades, as well. This system seems like it could be fun to mess around with, but the extremely short length of the game and the lack of replayability make it practically irrelevant.
Where Does Reburn Go From Here?
I can’t remember the last time I was left so confused and angry from a game. I don’t know if Reburn bit off more than it could chew for its first title, or something happened behind the scenes to cause La Quimera to be such a mess, but I can’t wrap my head around how this game is in this state so close to its original planned release date.
I do hope that Reburn can salvage something from La Quimera, as these developers have proven with their previous studio that they are capable of making some compelling stories and fascinating worlds to explore. There is a decent foundation for what could be a fun game, but as it stands, there just isn’t enough here to warrant the $30 price tag.
Disclaimer: Reburn provided Final Weapon with a PC (Steam) copy of Reburn for review purposes.
