FBC: Firebreak - The Year's Weirdest Shooter Experience

Stick with me, here. Mere hours after first playing FBC: Firebreak, I found myself savoring a delicious cream cake. Unfortunately, due to my notorious clumsiness, a dollop of cream landed directly into my blood orange cocktail and melted into it. As I stared at the swirling mixture, I was transported back into the halls of the Federal Bureau of Control, firing white-hot bursts of liquid at the glowing red enemies that stalk its corridors. It's this sort of twisted leap of logic that a visit to Remedy's headquarters can induce.

Remedy Entertainment is renowned for its eclectic mix of game genres, ranging from horror to sci-fi and neo-noir detective fiction. What I've always admired about the developers behind Alan Wake and Max Payne is their fearless embrace of silliness. Firebreak, their latest venture into first-person shooting and co-op multiplayer action, is a testament to this. During a two-hour play session, I not only obliterated opponents with a murderous garden gnome but also engaged in a battle against a colossal sticky note behemoth. This experience convinced me that Remedy, with its unique blend of the weird and wonderful, can indeed stand out in the often overly serious online shooter genre.

FBC: Firebreak - Gameplay Screenshots

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Set six years after the events of Remedy's 2019 hit Control, Firebreak takes place in The Oldest House, a setting familiar to those who followed Jesse Faden's journey. The game retains both the grand scale and the intricate details of the original, from the stark brutalist architecture to the Finnish folk music echoing from bathroom speakers, offering a comforting yet slightly eerie return. In Firebreak, squads re-enter this X-Files-like government building to tackle localized outbreaks of the Hiss, the inter-dimensional threat from Control that can possess both living and non-living entities. You and up to two teammates become this universe's equivalent of Ghostbusters, equipped with double-barreled shotguns instead of proton packs. The twist? Here, crossing the streams is not just allowed—it's encouraged.

Let me explain. Beyond the standard arsenal of pistols and rifles, you can choose from three different "kits," which are essentially Firebreak’s classes, each enhancing team dynamics in unique ways. The Fix Kit, for instance, enables quick repairs of machines like ammo stations and healing showers—yes, FBC employees replenish their health by getting drenched in water, a nod to the game's whimsical nature. The Splash Kit equips you with a hydro cannon that can both heal teammates and drench enemies in water. Lastly, the Jump Kit features a short-range Electro-Kinetic Charge Impactor that can stun foes. When combined, these kits unleash devastating effects—imagine what happens when you send a high-voltage bolt into a soaking wet enemy.

While Firebreak is playable solo, it's designed with teamwork and communication in mind, especially when the action intensifies. All missions, or "jobs," follow a similar structure: enter, complete objectives, and return to the elevator. My first task was straightforward: my team had to repair three faulty heat fans in the building's furnace while fending off enemy waves before retreating to the safety of the elevator.

But things can get chaotic. The mission "Paper Chase" involved destroying thousands of scattered sticky notes, a stark contrast to our initial fan maintenance task. We needed to remove a specific number of notes from the office floors and walls to exit and claim victory. However, waves of Hiss regularly interrupted our progress, and the notes themselves could attach to us, causing damage. The phrase "death by a thousand paper cuts" never felt more fitting. These malevolent notes could be destroyed with a simple melee attack, but they disintegrated more efficiently when soaked and zapped—a clever use of Firebreak’s elemental kit systems. This multiplayer synergy is bolstered by solid gunplay, ensuring you can always contribute, even without relying on others. I quickly found my favorite weapon, the machine gun, and enjoyed mowing down the glowing red ghouls, which satisfyingly burst into the oily haze reminiscent of Control.

The third mission, set in The Oldest House's Black Rock Quarry, demanded the most teamwork. We had to shoot squelchy leeches from the cavernous walls to obtain lethal radioactive pearls, which needed to be contained in a shuttle and moved along a track to deeper areas of the quarry. It was the most challenging mission, highlighting the importance of communication, especially with the need for regular showers to rinse off radiation, alongside swarms of enemies and instakill astral spike entities. Despite the chaos, I found it fun and engaging.

While I'm generally satisfied with the mission objectives, I have mixed feelings about Firebreak's approach to map design. In Control, The Oldest House was a devilish labyrinth of morphing corridors and secrets, but the maps in Firebreak are less complex. This simplification is likely beneficial for first-person navigation, even without a minimap, though my team and I still got lost occasionally despite the smaller map size. However, this change means the Federal Bureau of Control's headquarters has lost some of its unpredictable charm. Don't expect anything as intricate as the Ashtray Maze; instead, you'll find more straightforward and grounded environments.

These missions may seem simple at first, but completing them unlocks higher clearance levels, introducing more complex objectives and foes, extending playtime significantly. The maps expand on subsequent visits, adding new chambers and challenges. Like in Control, bosses can lock down certain areas, ranging from bullet sponges to more intriguing creatures like the giant sticky note monstrosity that pummeled my team with its massive yellow fists. I found these encounters particularly thrilling, as they required both communication and teamwork, reminiscent of the final stretches of some expeditions in Space Marine 2, where raw firepower occasionally gives way to strategic thinking.

The transformation of everyday objects into monstrous entities is one of my favorite aspects of Control, and I'm pleased to see this quirkiness carry over to Firebreak. This is further explored through randomly spawning corrupted items, which I unfortunately didn't encounter during my playtime. However, the prospect of items like a rubber duck that can redirect enemies away from you, allowing teammates to focus on objectives, is tantalizing. Another intriguing item mentioned was a set of traffic lights; being caught in its red gaze can inflict heavy damage, adding a dash of Squid Game flair to the otherwise gray brutalist setting.

There are strong foundations in Firebreak, but my primary concern revolves around readability. Remedy's signature flourishes give Firebreak a distinctive edge, which is further enhanced by your loadouts. Completing missions earns you unlock tokens to acquire new, quirky tools, such as the Splash Kit's Teapot, which burns enemies with superheated globules, and the Jump Kit's garden gnome, which unleashes a destructive electrical storm. While this chaos is often fun, with swarms of enemies decimated through frenzied ability juggling, there are times when the screen becomes too cluttered, making it challenging to play tactically and precisely.

Navigating the maps can sometimes be unclear, and avoiding friendly fire or distinguishing the boss amidst a horde can be tricky with bursts of color popping off everywhere. I'm assured that the Firebreak developers are aware of these issues and plan to enhance the game's readability before its June 17 launch.

Firebreak will launch with five jobs, with two more promised before the end of 2025. Though this might seem limited, game director Mike Kayatta emphasized that these jobs are more akin to game modes, offering replayability and depth through multiple clearance levels and evolving objectives. Priced at $39.99 / €39.99 / £32.99 and available on both Game Pass and PlayStation Plus, Firebreak offers substantial value, likely to keep both Control veterans and newcomers engaged for many hours.

Navigating the always-online co-op shooter landscape is challenging, but after playing Firebreak, I'm confident in its strong foundation. Combined with Remedy's unique quirky personality, Firebreak has the potential to carve out its own niche. Much like that dollop of cream carved its own space in my cocktail—and yes, I still drank it all.