Metro series devs have a new name and a new game, La Quimera – Polygon

Reburn teams up with Nicolas Winding Refn for new sci-fi FPSby Michael McWhertorIf you buy something from a Polygon link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.Developers behind the Metro franchise — Metro 2033, Last Light, and Exodus — will no longer be known as 4A Games Ukraine. You can call them Reburn now, a rebranding that arrives alongside the reveal of the Ukrainian team’s new story-driven sci-fi shooter La Quimera. The developer’s new game is available to wishlist on Steam, but does not have release date.Reburn is trading the post-nuclear desolation of the Moscow metro system for a new location with La Quimera, which is set in a fictional Latin American megalopolis and its surrounding jungles. Players will experience Reburn’s new setting through the eyes of a “down-on-their-luck PMC outfit” which nonetheless has access to highly advanced weaponry and technology.La Quimera is an original property, which has been co-created by filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive, The Neon Demon), writer E.J.A. Warren, and Reburn. The game will be playable in single-player or with up to two friends in co-op, its creators say.“We’ve long wanted to create an adventure that players could experience both solo and with friends, allowing for a personal single-player journey as well as a co-operative playthrough,” Oleksandr “Sasha” Kostiuk told Polygon. “We also wanted to step away from the post-apocalyptic themes of the post-Soviet setting. Some team members have been working in that space for nearly 15 years — or even longer, dating back to the original STALKER.“Additionally, the world of our game, where technology has reached a high level of advancement, allows us to seamlessly integrate new gameplay elements, such as exoskeletons, player abilities, modern weaponry, and more— elements that significantly impact the gameplay.”Kostiuk says that La Quimera will stand apart from the studio’s past work by addressing variations of themes explored by the team before.“While working on the Metro series, we were focusing on questions such as: How does a post-apocalyptic catastrophe lead to a believable future world? How did all the elements of the game’s reality come to be?” Kostiuk explains. “In La Quimera, we approached the situation from a different angle: How could we end up in a dystopia built on the foundations of the modern world? Does technological progress alone guarantee societal progress?”Kostiuk says that exploring those ideas has been in the works for a long time, and that Refn and Warren helped the studio “shape a plausible future for our world, taking into account modern realities and sociopolitical trends.”“We are deeply invested in ensuring that the game has enough means to convey all the key ideas our writers have put into it,” Kostiuk says. “We believe players will find it thought-provoking to ask themselves: This game world feels so close to our present reality, yet it’s already something entirely different. Could just a few highly plausible divergences — ideological conflicts, climate change, the struggle to define humanity’s path forward — truly reshape everything we take for granted in just 15-20 years?”As far as Reburn’s rebranding goes, CEO Dmytro Lymar says that the reasoning behind his new studio’s name was to “avoid confusion of having two separately owned companies sharing the same brand 4A Games.” The 4A Games name was previously shared by a studio in Malta and a studio in Ukraine, the latter of which has adopted the name Reburn. 4A Malta exists as a separate entity under owner Embracer Group.“The idea was that it would be better to have the trademark remain with the Metro series, while for the new IP we would create a new brand,” Lymar says. “We came up with Reburn with the help of a cool creative agency here in Kyiv, who will announce their involvement a bit later. The name means ‘burning again,’ but for us it has the meaning similar to rebirth or reincarnation in a new form, for the creation of a new game with own IP. But we keep our original values of making great games that we would love to play ourselves and taking into account ideas from any member of the team.”Reburn employs more than 110 developers, including “many former Metro series designers, artists, animators, programmers, [and] QA,” according to a news release from the company. La Quimera is being self-published by Reburn, though Lymar says the studio is “open to the possibility of working with a publisher and are in discussions with a few companies.”The best of Polygon in your inbox, every Friday.© 2025 Vox Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved

Source: https://www.polygon.com/news/530420/4a-games-ukraine-metro-reburn-la-quimera