Alright, listen up—big news for fans of the Metro series. The devs you’ve known as 4A Games Ukraine? They’re shaking things up with a rebrand to Reburn and dropping a fresh sci-fi FPS called La Quimera. Yeah, it’s already up on Steam to wishlist, though don’t hold your breath for a release date just yet. This isn’t some side project either—it’s a full-on original IP they’re crafting with filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn (you know, the Drive guy) and writer E.J.A. Warren. Pretty cool, right?
So, what’s the deal with La Quimera? Picture this: no more crawling through the grim, post-nuclear Moscow metro vibes. Instead, you’re thrown into a sprawling Latin American megalopolis—think concrete jungles bleeding into actual jungles. You’re playing as some scrappy PMC crew, down on their luck but strapped with cutting-edge tech and firepower. Exoskeletons, fancy weapons, slick abilities—it’s a whole new playground compared to Metro’s rusty pipes and mutant rats. Oh, and you can go solo or squad up with two buddies for co-op. Flexible, personal, and built for how you wanna roll.
I got the scoop from Oleksandr “Sasha” Kostiuk—he’s one of the brains behind it—and he told Polygon they’ve been itching to break free from the post-apocalypse mold. Some of these folks have been grinding that vibe since the OG STALKER days, like 15 years ago. “We wanted something fresh,” he said. “A dystopia that’s not just ‘nukes fell, everything’s screwed,’ but more ‘how’d we screw ourselves starting from today?’” It’s less about surviving the end and more about how tech and society could twist into something wild in, say, 20 years. Heavy stuff, but it sounds like it’s gonna hit different.
And the rebrand to Reburn? That’s Dmytro Lymar, the CEO, keeping things clean. There’s another 4A Games crew in Malta, and they didn’t want the names clashing. “Let Metro keep the 4A legacy,” he basically said. “We’re reborn—Reburn—for this new IP.” Worked with some Kyiv creative agency to cook up the name—means “burning again,” like a phoenix vibe, but it’s all about staying true to their roots: killer games they’d play themselves, ideas from the whole team, no gatekeeping.
Gameplay-wise, expect that Metro polish but with a twist. They’re leaning into big questions—does tech save us or doom us? How do ideological fights and climate shifts turn today into a dystopia tomorrow? Kostiuk’s hyped about making it “thought-provoking.” Like, you’ll be blasting through this slick cityscape, but also wondering, “Wait, could this actually happen?” Refn and Warren helped shape that vibe, grounding it in stuff that feels scarily close to now.
Reburn’s got over 110 devs on this—tons of Metro vets, from designers to animators—and they’re self-publishing La Quimera. Though Lymar’s keeping the door open for a publisher hookup; they’re chatting with a few already. No word on when it drops, but wishlist it and keep an eye out. This ain’t just a Metro reskin—it’s a bold step into something new, and I’m stoked to see where it lands.
