FBC Firebreak from Remedy Entertainment is a co-operative multiplayer first-person shooter set in the Control world. If you played Control 6 years ago (Yes, it’s already been almost six whole years! I’m just shocked as you are!) you’ll be familiar with a lot of the in-game terminology and even the enemies.
So does FBC Firebreak take the Control formula and adapt it well into a multiplayer game and is it worth checking out ?
FBC Firebreak
Diving into this game I honestly had no idea what to expect. And to my surprise, I actually had a blast playing it on and off over the past 3 weeks. The game in its current state is a tonne of fun and seeing as Remedy Entertainment seem committed to improving it, I only have high hopes that it will continue to enjoy the success it’s currently reaping.
So back to the topic at hand, is FBC Firebreak worth playing right now and what exactly is it about? FBC Firebreak is a game set in the Federal Bureau of Control or the titular FBC. Players will take on the role of a worker in the FBC who is tasked with managing different Crisis Jobs in the Oldest House.
What exactly is the Oldest House ? Well if you didn’t play Control, you wouldn’t actually know because the game does an absolutely terrible job of explaining anything at all to you. I suggest you go and play Control first before diving into FBC Firebreak. It will just lead to a far far better experience overall.
In FBC Firebreak as a crisis job responder, you will be tasked with performing a task in a specific sector of the Oldest House and mitigating various crises. For example, one of the first crisis you have to deal with is shutting down a furnace and preventing it from overheating. Easier said than done though because the entire area where the furnace is located is crawling with enemy creatures known as the Hiss.
This Hiss are the main antagonistic force in Control and in FBC Firebreak and they are relentless in both games. In FBC Firebreak, players will have to work with 2 other players to complete tasks together while fighting off the Hiss.
These tasks can include putting out fires, repairing valves and electronic equipment, delivering items to a specific location etc. It’s all fairly straightforward stuff and perfect for co-operative gameplay. It’s also incredibly fun when played with friends and not with randoms online but I’ll get to this point shortly. Let’s focus on the core gameplay for now. In each Crisis Job on the job’s board that you can pick from, you will go forth and try to complete tasks.
To contextualize this a bit better, there’s a job where you will have to destroy literally hundreds of thousands of sticky notes because an “entity” has taken control of them. Sounds easy enough right? And it is, until you have to finally face off against a gigantic mass of sticky notes that have taken on a human form.
This is where the teamplay comes in. Together with your two pals, you’ll have to work together to take down this boss enemy by activating valves that will pump out water onto the sticky notes, effectively destroying them. If you do this with friends, it’s quite easy. However, trying to do this with complete strangers online will obviously yield some very mixed results. In my time playing the game on both PS5 and PC, some matches have been fine while others have been a tad frustrating.
FBC Firebreak also suffers from a content drought at the moment with only a few different jobs available on the Crisis Job’s board. More are apparently planned but as it stands right now, the game is rather dry and you can complete everything in a few sittings or one long sitting if you just breeze through the missions.
A match will take roughly around 20 minutes or longer depending on your teammates and what you’re doing though I highly recommend not playing this game alone and diving into it with friends you can communicate with. The game offers an in-game sticker wheel and comms wheel where you can use basic commands but playing the game with friends on voice chat makes a world of a difference.
When it comes to the actual gameplay, this is a first-person shooter at its core and you will have access to multiple different weapons. You can also upgrade your weapons and your tools as you level up and it is rewarding albeit excruciatingly slow at the time of writing this review. The developers are however aware of this and will be tweaking things in the days, weeks and months to come.
Fighting off the Hiss in waves is very enjoyable but only in short bursts. If you plan to play this game for long periods of time, the fatigue will definitely set in and it will feel very repetitive. How Remedy Entertainment plans to address this remains to be seen but I hope they do because this game has a lot of potential if they stick with it.
Graphically, FBC Firebreak looks great and runs great too. It seems like a slightly spruced up version of Control which wasn’t a visual slouch at all. The sound effects are great and weapons and tools sound great to use as well.
Final Verdict
Overall, FBC Firebreak is the type of game that you’ll want to play with friends. Is it worth the $40 price tag on Steam ? Absolutely not right now in my opinion. If they priced it lower it would do exponentially better. Thankfully, the game also launched onto Xbox Gamepass and PlayStation Plus Extra so if you’re a subscribe to those services, you can give it a try without any real commitment and see for yourself what it’s like.
Bring a friend or two along for the ride and chances are you will have a blast, both literally and figuratively given the fact that this is an FPS title. This is a title that you should keep an eye on. Remedy Entertainment know what they are doing and they definitely seem committed to making this game into a multiplayer success story.
FBC Firebreak Trailer
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Game code was provided by the Publisher.
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