I played FBC: With a fire, dark missions in the game aren’t fun

FBC: Before Firebreak makes sense, it’s the hours of the second match. I have two other players on my team. Each has a different kit of equipment and weapons as we fight horde of enemies while we do some odd job around our ghost office buildings. After some missions, I learned the game’s atypical approach to team combat and how to back up each other. But one thing is clear. If you don’t want to cooperate, this game is not for you.

The latest games from lake Studio Remedy Entertainment, FBC: Firebreak is a highly praised 2019 single-player game control cooperative spin-off. It is set in the same X-Files-like federal station, where players assume the role of office workers, clean buildings, and dying to invaders from otherworldly. As the studio’s debut multiplayer game, it comes with the expected warts and the wonders of initial efforts. But it’s how FBC: Firebreak was able to blend the unpredictability of online cooperative play with the unique experience of the game with the unique experience of the game.

Remedy is clear about what FBC: Firebreak is. Like the 2023 Alan Wake II, it’s an AA scope game that’s not as big or flashy as the flagship AAA title. FBC: Firebreak is only $40, half price Mario Kart WorldOuter World 2 and other upcoming AAA games. The studio has at least one year of free content planned for all FBCs. Fire owners with future playable additions. Cosmetic extras such as costumes and gun skin can be purchased.

FBC: Firebreak offers solid value. This is a multiplayer game where you can dive in with two friends, from a relaxed 10-minute mission to a 30-minute multiphase expedition. There are a considerable amount of perks and weapons to unlock, allowing players to advance within weeks of release. Players will continue to acquire new content such as additional missions, enemies, equipment, and more for at least a year.

Set six years after control, players will take on the role of the Federal Administration grunt and field rangers who survived the invasion of the very dimension of the Hiss of the original game. FBC Director Jesse Faden (the main character in Control of Control) does an important job, but falls into a gamer and finishes the job she started, making the oldest home safe again, the station’s mysterious and vast office building.

Firebreak walks through fine lines and deliberately strips many of the preambles to get players into the match from the title screen as quickly as possible, reusing many familiar elements from controls. When chatting with game director Mike Kayatta at Summer Game Fest shortly before its release, he confirmed that the game did not contain any important story content that fans need to play before Control 2.

Best Fire Advice: Adjust or Die

After multiple Previewmy Firebreak gameplay take remains the same. A first-person cooperative shooter that blends the remaining four deaths with the Ghostbusters and the remaining four deaths, and a remedy obstacle enough to make you feel unique. Horde of enemies regularly plague your squads of bed-ragged mechanisms. They have to challenge the dimly lit hindrances of office buildings to mix desperate combat with escalating tasks.

What changed in this review – A short four-day media has had to play the final version before launch, and then see how the player’s team fits past the mission after the mission.

What Firebreak works is to give a trio of friends a solid background activity for chat and hanging out over voice chat. This can be expanded to make it difficult to satisfy players who like the challenge. Its collaboration mechanics are interesting and singular – the other shooters are mostly dipping their enemies into the enemy, so squadmates can follow up with electric shocks to zap them all at once. Gunplay is tight, unlockable perks bevy hanging out for good reason to keep playing matches.

However, multiplayer requires a lot of tweaks. This can be difficult when you rely on strangers and the random skill level and cooperation that online play brings. Player common sense is the most reliable path to success in a fire, but things are much easier if you can communicate with your squad.

This makes it difficult to recommend playing without voice chat. And the lack of built-in voice support when partying significantly hinders the teamwork required for a solid run. The pinging system is not enough and it’s very quiet to match without the squadmate chatter.

When coordinating the lack of communication with the game’s premise, all fire members who meet you and your team are rank and file office drones suitable for makeshift armor, struggling to clear the cubicles of otherworldly invaders. When I jumped into a match with people who don’t have voice chat or who rarely communicate using game Ping mechanics, I think I was paired with a Bob from Accounting who has exchanged emails. (Or, we are in the world of technical limitation control, so inter-office notes.)

But aside the headcannon, it’s still frustrating if there’s no way to communicate with a squadmate (not even text chat) but to give hints if it’s new mechanic (not even text chat). FBC’s first weeks: Firebreak release may be just as confusing Eldenling Night Leg‘S, players learn on the spot and understand unclear best practices while playing.

Fire is a novel, but first multiplayer attempts are limited

Some people have told me this is Remedy’s first multiplayer game. Most notably, the lack of in-game communication. It also has uneven difficulty and strange junk. It’s like being trapped by the fans you’re trying to fix. The bones of experience lie there, with a flow from one purpose to the next, and a clever way to raise the tempo.

It is the humor and style of the remedy that sets the game apart from the crowd, but it is not as quirky as the other games in the studio and there is not much depth to the lore. At best there are references to elements from control, as well as references to the legendary Ahti’s abandoned dialogue. Like Elden Ring Nightrign, fires are set in the world. Players are used to explore at their own pace, but leave no time for those seeking a greater connection to the treatment verse (and honestly, they rarely excavate).

The gameplay style is also limited. There are three kits, each with equipment that defines their own playstyle to choose from, six different weapons (which only bring one to the field) and three different rena bullets. At launch, there are five missions to choose from (called “jobs”). However, Remedy has confirmed that the 2025 fall and winter updates will add one each, bringing a total of seven each year.

Compared to games with similar cooperative appeals like Helldivers 2, FBC: Firebreak, Firebreak is less diverse and lacks procedurally generated territory, allowing players to master that fewer missions very quickly. Similarly, there are no randomization events or bosses for Elden Ring Nightrign that make all playthroughs somewhat unpredictable. To get similarly randomized elements in a fire, you will need to do the work multiple times to turn on corruption (drop modified items that shake up gameplay).

However, each of these three games has a very different tone and gameplay. FBC: Firebreak fulfills the fantasy of using cobblestone experimental tools and findable guns to rub the supernatural from the workplace, playing an office secretary or middle manager. It’s also worth pointing out that while Xbox owners continue to be locked out of Helldivers 2, Firebreak has full cross-play.

As Remedy’s first multiplayer game, there’s curiosity-working alchemy, but there are no iconic moments from the studio’s games (such as the Ashtray Maze of Control and We Sing Sequence in Alan Wake II). I love these moments and the heights they reach, but I also cherish them for the unique oddity that makes me feel like I’m playing something that only remedies can create. These are not suitable for multiplayer experiences, Kayatta He told me in MarchI understand that. Instead, the game is designed to organically produce emergency and unplanned moments for players.

And yes, I will definitely come across them in my short preview period. After a strong reinforcement of the difficulties, this is recommended as a baseline for a full squad of veterans in the treatment game, but the squadmate fell (and resurrected), and the final section of the job felt appropriately climatic. One mission, Hot Fix, challenges a recognised, familiar furnace to control the fans, filling in thin goo barrels that connect to the zip line.

One teammate filled the barrel and sent it into the staging area, while another team dodged the occasional horde of Hiss. I found the rhythm that made me accomplished the job. After shuttering the furnace and defeating a powerful mini boss, the heavy guitar kicks. Order via the radio and return to the elevator. Looking at each other’s backs as they jump up and down towards the stage exit, the music explosion, I understand what the remedies are aiming for – these dark missions are not intended to be played on their own. Increase the difficulty, grab a couple’s companions and bring the waves together.

FBC: Fires will be announced for $40 on PS5, Xbox Series X, Series S, PC Steam and the Epic Games store on June 17th.