I was both pleased and perplexed when it was originally revealed that Remedy, the company behind classic single-player epics like Alan Wake and Control, was developing a multiplayer shooter. Since this company is known for producing unique worlds, it seemed like an interesting experiment to return one differently. I feel about as perplexed and delighted as I did when FBC: Firebreak was first announced, having spent the last fifteen hours destroying the game’s striking levels, improving my loadout, and fending off numerous infected enemies. Although this creative outing finds it difficult to establish itself in a very competitive category, it has at least given me a wealth of combat stories to tell.
Six years after the events of Control, FBC transports you back to The Oldest House’s incredibly bizarre architecture in a whole different setting. You and up to two pals take control of three grossly unprepared first responders handling bizarre situations that would make even the most seasoned OSHA officer cringe, rather than saving the day as the hesitant director Jesse Faden. The call comes to you and your team if radioactive leeches have infested a quarry and must be thrown into a furnace on wheels that looks like Team Fortress 2’s Payload, or if a sentient sticky note infestation is transforming the employees into monsters. It’s a difficult job, but someone has to do it!
You believed that to be the case? Rethink your thought. In addition to finishing the current assignment, you will have to contend with the hordes of The Hiss, Control’s interdimensional adversary, who appears to have made The Oldest House its permanent home. Additionally, after your jobsite shift is over, your team will have to walk back to the elevator you came in and wait till it gets to your station. On paper, it sounds like too much to handle, and it would be if performed alone. However, if your office also has hot furnaces, safe rooms, and ominous floating helmets, these bizarre chores start to feel like just another day at the multiplayer office with the assistance of two other players.
Each player has their own “Crisis Kit” while playing as a full team, which seems to be the best configuration for FBC. This system is similar to the class systems in other cooperative shooters. Each of the three available Kits has a special ability that can speed up important job-related tasks. While someone with the Fix Kit can run around pounding the soggy slips with their handy wrench whenever they’re not using it to fix light boxes that illuminate contaminated areas, someone with the globule-hurling Splash Kit can use it to douse the yellow notes in the sticky note-filled Jobsite, Paper Chase, making them more vulnerable.
A good introduction to FBC’s friendly but constrained fighting is provided with the starter weaponry.
The fact that all three kits have identical gunplay is also partly to blame for that. Two weapons will be available to you at the beginning of your campaign: a double-barrel shotgun and a submachine gun. Both offer a respectable introduction to FBC’s comprehensible but constrained combat and more than enough firepower to defeat simple opponents in close-quarters combat. Naturally, as you advance through more difficult levels, you’ll be able to access more potent options like machine guns, pump-action shotguns, and—my personal favorite—the modest revolver. At times, the repetitive act of eliminating hordes of possessed office workers can seem monotonous.
Since you always have other ways to accomplish Kit-specific activities, there aren’t many restrictions on the makeup of your cohort. Repairs might be as easy as pressing a button with that wrench, but without it, they become a shockingly demanding rhythm game in which you have to tap Q and E (or L1 and R1) consecutively without making mistakes to advance a meter. The surprising thing about this is that you receive more damage if you make mistakes when button-mashing, which is similar to a lot of FBC.
The Easter Egg-filled worldbuilding that always captivated me in Remedy’s games is absent from it.
Each zone has ammo bays where you can relax and replenish supplies, as well as healing decontamination showers in case you are attacked. Despite being in line with FBC’s anarchic approach, these crucial areas occasionally malfunction and break, necessitating the use of kits or that button-pressing minigame to restore them to operation. You won’t be able to use your memory to locate safety because the bays also shift when you go through levels again. Even though I understand that not everyone enjoys chaos like this, I thought the unpredictable nature was really fun, especially when it resulted in heated discussions in our Discord chat.
Fortunately, depending on the difficulty setting you select, you will have some lives to use before the game is truly finished if—or, more likely, when—it all goes up in flames.
But maybe the biggest letdown is that, while being a Remedy game, FBC lacks the Easter Egg-filled worldbuilding that always drew me to the studio’s earlier titles. At least not in my experience thus far, you won’t discover Alan Wake cowering in a cell or a random letter about Mr. Door.
This is not to say that there isn’t anything intriguing to look at;, the sardonic posters and redacted notes scattered throughout these maps, as well as the occasional voice-over lore dumps while you’re waiting in the lobby, offer glimpses of the Remedy Connected Universe’s tonal genius. However, I returned unsatisfied after searching for deeper meaning beyond the activities at hand. Even though it may be the essence of the genre, I was disappointed to discover that exploring the hidden corners would never yield any secrets or lore—rather, they would just expose me to the dangers of being overrun by villains.
Verdict
Although it doesn’t feel entirely at home there yet, FBC: Firebreak’s accessible combat, mysterious objectives, and eye-catching visual effects contribute to making this multiplayer shooter feel reminiscent of Remedy’s enigmatic portfolio. Success frequently depends too much on the coordination of your group, which is enjoyable when you have a large group of pals but can be detrimental if you’re playing alone or in line with strangers online. I still find myself wanting to return to my job at the most dangerous company in the world, even with my party in tow and a world of dreadful mayhem ahead. However, with its current limited lineup of levels and upgrades, this may be more of a temporary position than a full-time profession.
