La Quimera Review: Stunning Graphics Can’t Save This Bug-Ridden, Underwhelming Sci-Fi Shooter

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In 2025, the single-player, narrative-focused first-person shooter game titled La Quimera is among a few to be released, and it’s the debut project from the newly named studio, Reburn. Initially recognized as 4A Games Ukraine, one of the main developers behind the highly praised Metro FPS series, Reburn began working on La Quimera in 2020, with an initial planned release date of April 25, 2025. However, when the scheduled launch date arrived without the game’s release, Reburn offered some insight into the status of the game, which helped explain some reasons for the last-minute delay. After playing and nearly finishing everything La Quimera currently offers, it’s evident that postponing its release by an additional 25 hours was a wise decision, as it appears the game needed more time to be fully baked.

In a world dominated by modern first-person shooters that emphasize multiplayer experiences, live-service replayability, and subscriptions, La Quimera stands out as a charming throwback to an earlier era. Its single-player, story-driven format offers a delightful change of pace, echoing the style of PS2-era FPS games before the rise of online gaming, popularized by Xbox Live and Halo 2. However, La Quimera‘s loyalty to the genre’s roots is evident in its basic gameplay and mechanics, which could use improvement. These issues are exacerbated by the game’s inconsistent technical performance and persistent, often frustrating bugs.

As a gamer, I was hoping for a quick victory with La Quimera due to its supposed short length, but even that aspect feels incomplete. Interestingly, the developers are now planning to release La Quimera into Early Access once it’s finally ready – and yes, the exact date is still unknown. However, even as an Early Access game, La Quimera seems to lack substantial content, ending almost as soon as it begins. To make matters worse, the storyline is uninspiring, heavily borrowing from more successful FPS games like Crysis, the voice acting leaves much to be desired, and the writing isn’t up to par. Sadly, even top-notch arcade-style shooting can’t save a game with such issues.

La Quimera’s Story & Voice Acting Leave a Lot to Be Desired

In essence, the narrative and concept of La Quimera appear quite captivating on the surface. Forty years into the future, this story unfolds in the fictional Latin American state of Nuevo Caracas, although its exact location isn’t specified geographically. However, the fact that several characters communicate in Portuguese suggests it might be a forward-thinking principality within modern-day Brazil.

After an incident dubbed “Activation Day”, when rogue AI robots started annihilating mankind, Nuevo Caracas is divided between its gleaming metropolises and impoverished neighborhoods, with a barrier separating them from the robot-ridden Active Zone.

In this grim future cityscape known as Nuevo Caracas, the military is absent and peacekeeping duties are handled by private military companies (PMCs), each vying for dominance in a cutthroat competition. You assume the role of an ordinary individual, recently hired by one of these PMCs, Palomo, which holds a low position in power and prestige. An operation to rescue the chairman’s daughter takes a turn for the worse, leading you unintentionally into a top-secret program that aims to equip a selective PMC member with advanced neural-linked exoskeletons.

In essence, if the concept of La Quimera seems reminiscent of a fusion between Far Cry and Crysis, that’s because it is. Unfortunately, the development of this intriguing storyline in La Quimera falls dismally short due to poor writing and acting that veers towards exaggeration. To add insult to injury, the brief length of the current build of La Quimera leaves players hanging at a cliffhanger just as all key plot points are introduced. The ingredients for an engaging narrative in La Quimera were present, but instead, it feels like you’ve played through the opening episode of a series that never gets off the ground.

Gameplay and Progression in La Quimera Are Both Too Familiar and Paper-Thin

The standout advantage of the game La Quimera lies in its straightforward yet gratifying gunfights, creating an experience that seems akin to a sixth-generation shooter enhanced by Unreal Engine 5 graphics. In this game, players can choose missions from the Palomo PMC headquarters, where they can first customize their protagonist with weapons at the Armory before venturing out. The weapons in La Quimera are categorized into two types: ballistic weapons for human adversaries and energy weapons for shielded enemies and robots. While any weapon can be used against any target, the most efficient combat strategy involves carrying one of each type on a mission to ensure all possibilities are covered.

Players will be equipped with a typical arsenal consisting of pistols, rifles, and submachine guns, along with grenades and a restricted number of health kits. Health regeneration is capped, and ammunition is hard to come by, making it crucial to search the surroundings for supplies. However, once players reach a certain story milestone and obtain their exosuit reminiscent of Crysis, the gameplay expands significantly. Unlike Crysis, which provides all abilities at the start, La Quimera demands players to select from a variety of exosuit abilities. Initially, you’ll get the Scan ability that lets you spot and shoot enemies even through walls, with additional abilities like hacking, shields, assault drones, and others to unlock later on.

In my gaming journey with La Quimera, I discovered that to acquire those tantalizing upgrades for my exosuit and various armor pieces, I need some virtual cash, which I can collect by searching every nook and cranny of each level for data disks, hackable laptops, cash drops, and other goodies. These findings accumulate in a credit bank that’s spendable at the Armory before embarking on a mission. However, during my gameplay, there was an annoying bug where none of my pick-ups were registering because my credit bank was apparently “full”. This meant I had to rely solely on credits earned from completing missions. To make things worse, the game suggests that some level pick-ups can be sold for more credits, but there’s no apparent vendor within the game to do so. Thus, not only is La Quimera’s current progression system rather thin and basic, it also happens to be buggy in a way that undermines the gaming experience.

As a fan, I must admit that while La Quimera’s technical performance and stability can be somewhat unpredictable at times, its visual fidelity is nothing short of stunning. When the game functions as intended and technical hiccups don’t mar the experience, La Quimera consistently impresses with smooth frame rates and some truly remarkable art direction that really showcases Unreal Engine 5’s capabilities.

However, as an Early Access release, it’s understandable that bugs might rear their heads, but the extent to which they disrupt the gameplay in La Quimera’s current state is a bit hard to ignore. At times, La Quimera may refuse to let you aim down sights, suddenly remove crucial HUD elements, or glitch during the process of saving and loading, necessitating a restart of a previously completed section.

La Quimera Feels Like a Throwback to a Past Better Left There

In the case of “La Quimera”, context is crucial. Reburn Studios, divided between Kyiv, Ukraine, and Malta, have been impacted by the ongoing conflict in the region. Given enough time to polish out “La Quimera’s” rough spots and fix critical bugs that disrupt gameplay or progression, it could become a robust, if not straightforward, first-person shooter (FPS) reminiscent of the golden age of single-player, narrative-driven shooters. However, due to its current state, it might be challenging to advise spending money on what essentially offers a brief taste of gameplay.

In essence, I’ve clocked a total of 5.4 hours on ‘La Quimera’, as per Steam records. This tally includes playing through each of the game’s four missions – the tutorial and three main story missions – twice. During this time, I managed to unlock approximately 80% of the Steam achievements. This suggests that it could be feasible to completely achieve everything ‘La Quimera’ offers in a single extended play session.

In numerous instances, playing La Quimera resembles experiencing an older-generation shooter game on PlayStation 2, yet with the visual polish of Unreal Engine 5. However, the scarcity of content alongside a story that appears to be an unauthorized spin-off or low-budget sequel of a superior FPS title makes it challenging to endorse the game at this stage. To put it simply, La Quimera is analogous to junk food in video games — while it may offer initial enjoyment and brief satisfaction, it leaves you feeling unsatisfied and yearning for more substantial content.

The game titled “The Chimera” had initially planned to launch on PC on the 25th of April, 2025, however, it’s release date has now been pushed back indefinitely. For this review, we were provided with a PC code by Game Rant.

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2025-05-04 23:31