I'm hours into my second night of matches before FBC: Firebreak starts to make sense. I've got two other players in my squad, each with a different kit of equipment and weapons, as we fight off hordes of enemies while doing odd jobs around our haunted office building. After several missions, we've finally learned the game's atypical approach to team combat and how to back each other up. But one thing is clear: If you don't want to cooperate, this game isn't for you.
The newest game from Alan Wake II studio Remedy Entertainment, FBC: Firebreak is a co-op spinoff of the lauded 2019 single-player game Control. It's set in the same X-Files-like federal bureau, with players taking on the role of office workers cleaning up their building -- and dying to otherworldly invaders. As the studio's debut multiplayer game, it comes with the expected warts and wonders of a first effort. But it's how Remedy was able to blend the game's unique experiences with the unpredictability of online co-op play that makes FBC: Firebreak the weird one-of-a-kind game it is.
Remedy has been clear about what FBC: Firebreak is -- a AA-scope game that isn't as big or flashy as its flagship AAA titles, like 2023's Alan Wake II. FBC: Firebreak is only $40, half the price of Mario Kart World, Outer Worlds 2 and other upcoming AAA games. The studio has at least a year of free content planned for all FBC: Firebreak owners, including future playable additions. Cosmetic extras like outfits and gun skins will be available for purchase.
FBC: Firebreak offers solid value -- a multiplayer game you can dive into with two friends for anything from a relaxed 10-minute mission to a 30-minute, multi-phase expedition into the game's darker corners. There's a good amount of extra perks and weapons to unlock, giving players progression to work toward in the weeks after launch. And players will keep getting new content, including added missions, enemies and equipment, for at least a year.
Set six years after Control, players take the role of Federal Bureau of Control office grunts and field rangers who survived the original game's extra-dimensional Hiss invasion. While the FBC's director, Jesse Faden (protagonist of Control), is off doing important work, it falls to gamers to finish off the work she started and make the bureau's mysterious and vast office building, the Oldest House, safe again.
Firebreak walks a fine line, reusing many familiar elements from Control while intentionally stripping out much of the preamble to get players from the title screen into a match as quickly as possible. When I chatted with the game's director, Mike Kayatta, at Summer Game Fest shortly before release, he confirmed that the game won't include essential story content that fans need to play ahead of Control 2. The result is a streamlined experience co-op shooter fans will enjoy, especially if they like weird settings and active collaboration.
Remedy Entertainment
The best Firebreak advice: Coordinate or die
After multiple previews, my take of Firebreak's gameplay remains the same: a first-person co-op shooter that blends Left 4 Dead and Ghostbusters, with just enough Remedy flair to feel unique. Hordes of enemies periodically plague your squad of bedraggled mechanics, who must venture into the dim nethers of an office building to make essential repairs -- mixing frantic combat with escalating tasks.
What's changed in this review -- after the brief four days media had to play the final version before launch -- is seeing how it all fits together with squads of players across mission after mission.
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