FBC: Firebreak is simply not Remedy’s best work. Moreover, FBC: Firebreak is a complexly put together game, because I’m not sure what is trying to achieve. Ultimately, it doesn’t do what Remedy is known for, and that’s having a strong narrative to support the gameplay. FBC: Firebreak is a perfunctory game that offers a paranormal co-operative experience set in a unique universe people may or may not know, and a game I can’t recommend you get to know.
Editor’s Note: This was reviewed before and after the release of Patch v1.2
FBC: Firebreak is a co-op multiplayer spin-off from Control, and aside from familiar locations, you’d be hard-pressed to tell. There’s no story, no thread, no pull, ho hook to get you invested in anything going on. The lack of a narrative feels very un-Remedy, and does nothing to please existing fans or try to interest new ones. Playing this feels more like walking through an interactive museum about Control rather than further immersing yourself in the Oldest House and the Federal Bureau of Control.
This game does have that Control flavor, with locations and enemies taken from its predecessor that offer a bit of nostalgia. But again, if you’re not familiar, these things and places do not explain themselves. You play as a member of the clean-up crew tasked to help stave off the artifacts, or more accurately altered items that are running rampant throughout various areas of the Oldest House. It’s up to you, or up to you and two friends to do this somewhat ad nauseum and maximum tedium.
Upon first launching the game, you’ll be asked to pick one of three kits: a Firefighter, an Engineer, or a Mechanic. Each of which has a tool that can do specific tasks the fastest. The firefighter shoots water to put out fires, the engineer uses a wrench, and the mechanic can fix things. With there being three roles, it’s best to evenly spread your team out with one of each to handle any task the game throws at you. Alternative, you can swap to any of them before or during a match. Having each person playing a specific role allows you to coordinate more effectively, ensuring victory. Sticking together is the name of the game, and if you’re in proximity of your teammates, you’ll all regenerate shields if they’ve been knocked out.
Surprisingly, there are only five jobs to embark on in FBC: Firebreak. On Normal difficulty at going through each of the three zones, takes about 25-30 minutes per job to complete. The first job, Hot Fix has you dodging scalding hot flames and disposing of materials in a confusing game of “what does the game want me to do?”. Paper Chase is my personal favorite, as it has you destroying thousands and thousands of nefarious yellow sticky notes. It provides levity and that Control flavor I mentioned earlier, and find the ways to dispose of them in massive quantities is key to its success. This job culminates in a boss battle with a massive sticky note monster that’s a chore to fight. Next is Ground Control, taking place in the Quarry, offers a respite from the brutalist architecture of the Oldest House. Here you’re tasked with collecting radioactive material and bringing them to a cart, and moving said cart like Overwatch or Team Fortress 2. Then there’s Frequency Shift, which has you battling too many hiss, and pink goo that grows back at too fast a rate to get through. It’s a frustrating level that slows you down to no enjoyment. Lastly, there’s Freezer Duty which has you battling the element of cold, and while I don’t dislike it, it isn’t memorable.
While this isn’t an extraction shooter, after a boss has been defeated, there is a mad dash all the way back to where you started to then call an elevator to take you out of the level. Not only that, but you have to wait for the elevator to arrive. If you’ve killed the boss, you can spam the call button to reduce the timer and finally escape. At the end, each of your team members is given a score, and anything you’ve collected will be converted to XP to level you up and give you opportunities to select new perks and weapons to be more effective. With the recent patch, progression is faster now, but it’s still rather slow, encouraging that you replay these levels. But because the levels and layouts are always the same, and only the objectives shift, there’s no reason or desire to actually revisit a level more than once.
Difficulty doesn’t do a lot towards making the game enjoyable. Playing on Normal felt like the default or standard difficulty. Raising the difficulty only increases the enemy count which is already too high to begin with, and no real challenge is added by doing so. The additional tier system is interesting, by default jobs are set to tier 3 which has you going through three zones, ending with a boss fight. It would be better if the game adjusted difficulty based on how you were performing to feel dynamic.
Your loadout will likely change as you play the game. You’ll get starter weapons, but as you play jobs, and earn precious currency, then you can purchase upgrades, cosmetics, and new and more exciting perks to augment your playstyle. In any given job you’ll fight all kinds of hiss from Control. But frankly there’s just too many of them, and while I get that the Federal Bureau of Control has lost * ahem * control of the building, but it’s never fun constantly running out of ammo or health, and needing to find the nearest station to replenish. I will say that the melee strike offers a stronger hit than you would think, and is an ideal way to push your way to an ammo station.
FBC: Firebreak has a requisitions system very similar to Helldivers 2. Completing jobs will net you currency and research samples that can be used to purchase and upgrade perks and better weapons. The free battle pass-like system included with the game now is a lightweight way to find something you want, and working towards that. These are likely short-term goals that won’t have last long-term.
While in jobs, you’ll find Control shelters where you restock ammo, maybe find a unique weapon (which seems extremely rare), or get a little bit of health back. What it doesn’t do, is give you a respite from the hiss. For some reason they will follow you right in, and not giving you even a moment to breathe.
There will be times you’ll have to perform tasks on things that you don’t have the kit for. There’s a useless mini-game that has you hitting two buttons in a specific sequence, but this can be spammed with no consequence in hitting the wrong key, which adds to the tedium. Even getting ammo from stations relies on this mini-game, for no real benefit. Currently there’s a bug that the glow of lost intel will remain even after a teammate has picked it up. For some reason, you can’t crawl to safety when downed, so there are often situations where you’re just engulfed in flames or swarmed by hiss and no way for your teammates to safely pick you up without going down themselves. There’s some odd decisions here, that clearly demarcate that this multiplayer endeavor was a new venture for Remedy.
I found the game has a rather clumsy UI, especially when it comes to customization. It’s also buggy as mentioned, but most of all, a lot of the game demands you be three inches from an object before you can interact with it. In terms of performance, it isn’t as finicky. Though I’ll say that the Ray Tracing tanked my performance, and this being an online game or something that does require a little bit of precision, I enjoyed it more with the ray tracing turned off. Otherwise the game runs at a solid 100fps with DLSS enabled.
My PC Specs:
– Microsoft Windows 11 Pro
– Intel Core i9 13900K @ 5.8GHz
– ASUS ROG RYUJIN II 360 ARGB AIO Liquid CPU Cooler
– G.SKILL TRIDENT Z5 6000MHZ 64GB (32×2) DDR5 RAM
– ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4080 16GB GDDR6X
– WD_BLACK SN850X M.2 (4 TB)
– LG UltraGear 34GP950B-G (21:9 Ultrawide @ 3440×1440)
I wanted to love FBC: Firebreak, but I’d settle to even just like it. The lack of dynamicism gives me no want to replay any of the jobs because you’ve seen and done it all after just the first time you’ve completed it. While this isn’t an Early Access game, the emaciated amount of content makes it feel like one. This is a big misfire from Remedy. FBC: Firebreak is stands out in the space only because of its genesis, and that’s just not enough when everything else here is so boring and underwhelming.
A Steam code was provided in advance by the publisher for review purposes
