FBC: Firebreak Review: Work and Tons of Play (PS5)

Going away from the overpowered director of Control and the Champion of Light, that is, Alan Wake. Remedy has delivered us its first multiplayer game in years. Spinning off from Control, FBC: Firebreak is a first-person shooter that throws three players into the ongoing battle with the Hiss. Playing similar to games like Left 4 Dead and GTFO, Remedy has delivered a pretty fun experience that holds a lot of potential to be a long-lasting experience. As a fan of Remedy’s games, I was quite skeptical of what they could bring to the table, but after spending hours fighting Hiss and paranatural phenomena, I’m hooked. 

FBC: Firebreak is available on PC (Steam & Epic Games Store), PS5, and Xbox Series X|S for $39.99/£32.99/€39.99. FBC: Firebreak is also available day one on PS Plus Extra and Xbox Game Pass. 

If you’re interested in our other reviews, here are a few recommendations:

1. Deck of Haunts Review: The House of Torment
2. Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon Review – A Satisfying RPG (PS5)
3. Blades of Fire Review: Forged In Blood and Steel (PS5)

Story – Welcome to Firebreak

Unlike Remedy’s other story-focused games, FBC: Firebreak concentrates on the multiplayer experience. With this focus in mind, there’s not much of a story to discover. The general plot has you play as members of the Federal Bureau of Control’s Firebreak unit. Set six years after the events of Control, The Oldest House remains in lockdown and is under siege by the Hiss. With no help from the outside, the FBC tasks Firebreak with reclaiming control and containing the chaos caused by the Hiss and other supernatural phenomena. 

Enjoy five different experiences with more on the way

There are five jobs to play through, each providing unique challenges in different parts of the Oldest House. You are given objectives to complete, with some levels featuring callbacks to Control, like feeding the Furnace. There’s not much else story-wise in the levels since there are no hidden collectables providing any lore to collect. There are also small pieces of lore in the loading screens. These come in the form of the files that you would collect in Control, containing information about certain levels, Altered Items, and any weird office politics and routines. 

Every loading screen will have snippets of lore, blink and you’ll miss them

Overall, I wasn’t expecting to see a fully fleshed-out story and was aware that FBC: Firebreak is meant to solely be a fun cooperative shooter. However, I still feel that more pieces of lore could be introduced, especially with us all hungry for the Control sequel. One wish I would make is for a small hub world to be added, similar to what we got in The Outlast Trials. We could explore possibly the Firebreak offices and interact with members of staff, socialise and play fun minigames with other players, and most importantly, feel immersed as a new recruit for Firebreak. 

Characters – Not Many On Tonight

Outside of the missions, you are greeted by FBC: Firebreak‘s two characters, Hank and Jerry. Jerry is your typical FBC office employee, while Hank seems to be the head of Firebreak; he’s also in some sort of containment sphere. Hank will be the voice you’ll hear the most since he does speak to players during missions, giving you advice and warning you when a specific event will occur. He also drops little bits of lore regarding certain areas, the history of Firebreak, and current events. Sometimes this dialogue can only be found in the menus while Hank and Jerry make small talk. 

Hank is the most vocal of the two characters

I hope in future updates we could get more characters added in whether we get some returning ones from other departments or brand new. Heck, I’d just be happy to hear another voice over the radio, maybe from Jerry. 

Gameplay – Let’s Clean House!!!

Like I’ve stated previously, FBC: Firebreak is a first-person shooter taking three players through five different Jobs (levels). Each level has three areas to explore, where you’ll complete objectives while fighting off the Hiss. After all main objectives have been completed, you will then make a mad dash back to the elevator. You can customise your experience by how many areas you’d like to explore, which currently goes up to three. There are four difficulties to choose from, offering different levels of challenges and hordes of enemies you might recognise from Control. 

Hiss can spawn whenever they desire and in great numbers

General gameplay will have you run, jump, shoot, and melee through each job. Each member of the team will have unique gadgets and tools to use via the three Crisis Kits, more on those later. You’ll be armed with a range of different guns like shotguns, SMGs, Machine guns and more. I’m quite a fan of the bolt-action rifle since it’s pretty much one shot with most enemies. Alongside guns, you can use different grenades to thin the herd of Hiss, some with different effects like fire and shock.

When waiting for the elevator, the Hiss will try to overwhelm you, don’t let them

You can heal and remove harmful status effects via the shower stations located in random spots of each area. Ammo Stations are available to fill up your bullets, grenades, and special items. There are also numerous safe rooms to open containing ammunition, Lost Assets and more. They can also be used for respawning, removing harmful status effects, and healing. Most actions have you play a small minigame that has you tapping L1 & R1 in a sequence where wrong button presses can cause harm. 

Play a small minigame any time you perform repair actions

I found the gameplay familiar to a lot of FPS games, especially in the horde genre, like with Left 4 Dead. The tutorial is fine since you’ll get helpful prompts to guide you with basic gameplay mechanics. However, some do get missed and certain procedures aren’t fully explained, especially with Crisis Kits. Going back to my idea of having a hub world, a training room would be much appreciated for testing out all the weapons and tools we’ll be using. 

Levels – Exploring The Oldest House 

All of FBC: Firebreak‘s five playable Jobs are evenly unique, ranging from cleaning up sticky notes, feeding a furnace and more. My favourite was Paper Chase, which had us ridding the area of supernatural Post-its. Out of the five Jobs its the most unique challenge since it has its own boss, Sticky Ricky, a giant Post-it note monster. The other Jobs were enjoyable, but I always kept asking myself where the boss was. To unlock all Jobs, you must complete the first clearance level of each Job. By completing each clearance, you’ll unlock the next one, and when you’re on Level 3, you can experience the full jobsite.

Black Rock weapons can shred both Altered Items and Hiss

This is when the real fun begins, you now have access to corruptions which add Altered Items to the Job. Experience up to three Altered Items, adding different mutators to spice up gameplay. You could encounter a traffic light where if you move on red it’ll kill you, a snare drum that increases enemy speed, or a rubber duck that quacks nonstop (it does something, I just don’t know what). Some Altered Items can be bothersome; luckily, you can combat them with a special Black Rock weapon. Use the weapon on Altered Items and gain research samples for perk upgrades.

I’m looking forward to seeing what other levels will be added to the game in future updates. I’m hoping to see more changes to the formula to help boost replayability, whether it’s with new enemies or Altered Items. Hopefully, Remedy has a lot more crazy ideas left in the office. 

Don’t move on Red or it’ll take you away

Crisis Kits – The Right Tools for the Job

Alongside your primary weapon, you’ll have access to unique tools from the three Crisis Kits available: The Fix Kit, The Splash Kit, and The Jump Kit. The Fix Kit (my favourite) focuses on repairing things fast and is ideal for anyone playing solo. You can use the wrench to melee enemies and the charge move to push your way out of a jam. You can build swivel cannons that can devastate the Hiss…and yourself. It also comes with the Piggybank Altered Augment that can summon coin tornadoes when activated.

Each Crisis Kit contains three pieces of gear that’ll need unlocking in Requisitions

The Splash Kit focuses on putting out fires and harmful status effects on you and your team. It comes with a crank-operated Fluidic Ejector that is very fun to use and helpful in the Paper Chase Job. Comes with a humidifier that can heal anyone in the area, and a Teapot Altered Augment that overheats the Ejector’s ammo, cooking anyone caught in it. The Splash Kit is quite helpful when dealing with the latter parts of Hot Fix and most of Frequency Shift. 

Use the Splash Kit to put out fires wherever they may be

The Jump Kit’s focus is split between distraction and support. You’ll use the Electro Kinetic Charge Impactor to shock enemies, stopping them for a moment while causing some damage (especially if they’re wet). You can also use it for mobility when aiming at the floor like the rocket jumps of old. The Jump Kit comes with a Boombox that can attract Hiss and eventually explode. The Altered Augment this time is a Garden Gnome that can summon a storm that follows the nearest creature (including yourself). 

The Jump Kit can be used to power up generators with a few zaps

Enemies – A First Person Encounter of the Hiss Kind

Regarding enemies, most of the foes you’ll encounter are taken directly from Control. There are some new enemies like Shufflers, who are made of Post It notes and a Hiss Trooper armed with a melee weapon that has armour in the front and their weakness in the back. The Shufflers are fun to fight, but these new Hiss Troopers can be troublesome, especially in tight spaces. Though neither of them is as bad as the return of my Control nemesis, the Hiss Distorted. They can turn invisible, and no matter what weapon I use, they’ll absorb it like a sponge, and barely any health has dropped. They also jump scare you too which I do not appreciate when dealing with hordes of Hiss. 

Shufflers will try to infect you so that you’ll turn into another shuffler

Like I said above, there’s not really any bosses outside of Sticky Ricky. Instead, they designate a random enemy to be a sub-boss that you have to take out to leave the level. The level of difficulty depends on which enemy type is picked; if it’s a security guard, it can be beaten in seconds; if it’s the Hiss Distorted…might be a while. I hope in future updates, we’ll get some new enemies to join the hordes of Hiss, maybe the fungus creatures that were in Control or the Taken from Alan Wake. 

Sticky Ricky was one of my highlights from my time playing

Research & Requisitions – What to Spend Your Spoils On

Like most multiplayer games, there’s some form of progression as you level up. This is done in Research and Requisitions. In Research, you can spend Lost Assets (found in levels and earnable on completion) and Research Samples to purchase Perks. There are quite a few to purchase, and one interesting detail is that you can upgrade them. Once upgraded fully, you gain Resonance, which is used to recharge your shield but can offer special effects and bonuses related to the perk to other players nearby. You’re able to equip nine perks in total when your Crisis Kit is fully upgraded. 

Numerous perks to unlock and many combinations to discover

Now, Requisitions is where you’ll be getting the majority of your weapons, gear, and cosmetics. These are styled after battle passes but have no timer. There are currently two available, one paid and one free. In the free pass, you’ll unlock weapons, tools for Crisis Kits, cosmetics, and sprays. The paid pass, which is currently exclusive to the deluxe edition, provides weapon skins, new outfits, and sprays. They all use Lost Assets for currency. I find it interesting that you can unlock different levels of weapons and gadgets, further increasing their damage or allowing them to perform a new ability. I’m also a very big fan of no fomo with how I can unlock anything at any time I choose without having to worry about time.

Purchase weapons, tools, cosmetics and sprays with Lost Assets

Graphics & Audio – Paranatural Office Space

Ever since I played Control, I’ve been in awe of The Oldest House and the numerous offices and sectors within. Every area felt like I was visiting another world, and each one felt unique. Now, in FBC: Firebreak, we get to experience all of this in first person, and it still manages to give me this experience. From the space-like thresholds in Ground Control to the Post-It note-infested offices in Paper Chase, I loved exploring each level. I’m curious what we’ll get in future updates, hopefully something like the Altered Item Prison or some of the weird dimensions that we saw in Control. 

Regarding Audio, Remedy sadly hasn’t called upon the Old Gods of Asgard for a new track, but that doesn’t mean the music doesn’t slap. When returning to the elevator, the music can really feel thrilling, especially when tearing through the newly spawned hordes of Hiss. I did notice a fun reference with the Boomboxes, once activated, they begin playing an instrumental version of Yoton Yo featured in Remedy’s last game, Alan Wake 2. The voice acting is fine, whether it’s from Hank and Jerry or with your own character’s custom voice. I’m curious what future voice packs will be added in future updates, maybe Sam Lake wants to lend his vocals.

FBC: Firebreak was reviewed on PS5 with a code courtesy of Remedy Entertainment.