FBC: Firebreak PS5 Review. Remedy Entertainment are usually known for their surrealist single player titles such as Alan Wake 2, and Control. FBC: Firebreak marks their first venture into the multiplayer scene, which is a curiosity unto itself. Admittedly, following the unimpeachable Alan Wake 2, this is not exactly what I was hoping for, but was my interest was certainly piqued.
The questions I had were: How does this fit into the incredible world they’ve created? And does Remedy get their patented style across in a game that isn’t primarily narrative focused?
FBC: Firebreak Review (PS5) – The Oldest House Needs Some New Tricks
It’s Under Control
FBC: Firebreak is a first person cooperative shooter, set in The Oldest House, which is the brilliant, incredibly atmospheric location from Control. Simply put, the game is broken up into five missions which can be altered through difficulty levels when it comes to both duration and content.
As a team of three, you and your fellow maintenance men, or reassigned FBC office workers, if you’d prefer; will work together to eliminate the extra dimensional hiss threat, contain the situation, and complete the necessary objectives and escape via an elevator at the end of each mission.
Oddly enough, FBC: Firebreak puts its worst foot forward first, which is compounded by the fact that there are no tutorials, and no in-game voice chat. The only way to know what you’re supposed to do is by learning from experience, and that ends up creating this cycle where new players are likely to experience frustration.
However, if you play it enough, the game becomes much more fluid and fun, but given that there’s not much replayability, it is likely that most players will not get to experience this.
The core mechanics are satisfying though. The weapons feel great and that core does make for a very good FPS game. I’m a sucker for a shotgun in almost any game, so I found myself using the double barrel shotgun most often, and it never really got old blasting the hiss back into the dimension they came from, because it really packs a punch.
Movement has a suitably weighted and grounded feeling, most of the time, unless there is a modifier in play in the form of an altered item, such as a globe, which will bring about a sort of zero-g effect. When it comes to FPS gameplay functionality, I really have no complaints.
The melee, particularly with the wrench, feels very underwhelming at first, but the more it’s upgraded the better it feels. Which is the story for most of this game, especially as it’s built into the progression, while simultaneously offering very little in the way of content.
Maintenance Men Assemble
Initially, you will have to pick a class, of which there are three, referred to as “Crisis Kits.” The Jump Kit, Fix Kit, and Splash Kit. Each kit specializes in a certain aspect of the game, be that melee, crowd control, or support. Eventually, anyway. Initially their differences are focused more around repairs and mitigating status effects.
For example, I play the Fix Kit most often which grants me a wrench to use as a melee weapon, however, it feels quite weak. I can see that eventually it’ll be a viable build with perks and upgrades, but I’ve already finished the 5 missions multiple times, so it feels a little pointless.
The Splash Kit comes equipped with a hydro cannon which allows you to put out fires, that includes the fire on your teammates. A fact I wish was widely known amongst the FBC: Firebreak player base. This kit has probably my favorite parautility in the aI44 teapot altered augment, which is an attachment that turns the water gun into a flamethrower.
The Jump Kit has electro kinetic charge impactor, which is essentially an electric based weapon that makes jump starting electronics extremely easy. Every task can be completed with every class, however it will require a button prompt mini game rather than the instant solution of a specialist.
Unfortunately, at first, these classes amount to very little, but once you get the upgrades they become a ton of fun. When my wrench melee build finally took shape and I equipped the AI16 piggy bank altered augment, which is essentially just an attachment that will cause big damage, it started to click.
As you delve deeper into Firebreak’s progression, you can equip perks, purchase upgrades, attach augments, etc, and the game really starts to come into its own, but you will have likely finished the content available, and have bounced off of it before you reach that point.
I really appreciate how the game is beatable with any combination of classes, but feels most kinetic when you have complete class synergy. It simultaneously allows you to play the class you want, but also offers incentive to play as different classes through its gameplay alone. It’s one of the better examples of balancing I’ve experienced in multiplayer games in quite some time.
Just The Remedy
Remedy are masters of narrative, world building, atmosphere, and style, so my biggest curiosity, naturally, was; how does this translate to a multiplayer title? And the answer is: by keeping the connective tissue to a bare minimum.
The game feels more like a zombie horde mode, which is fun in its own right, and having corrupted objects form in the middle of a round, makes things interesting. Having a traffic light appear in front of me, unmoving, its red light staring into my soul, and me: wondering what happens if I dare move, was an absolute highlight and I wish there was more of that overall.
Other aspects I really enjoyed were the yellow sticky note enemies, including the boss, and the furnace. However, these are all familiar notes that they’ve hit before. While I do really enjoy these moments, I feel like the game needed more originality, it needed new enemies, threats, and items of power that we haven’t seen before.
Undoubtedly FBC: Firebreak needed more boss fights like Threshold Entity 14-N. The yellow sticky note stage is the standout, and it’s definitely what I had in mind when I first saw this game announced.
I do really enjoy taking on the role of the FBC employees, who look like amalgamated distortions of blue collar workers. I enjoy the back and forth banter between them which sees them discuss menial office culture. In terms of aesthetic, I think they’ve nailed it. The overall lore is intentionally thin, but the premise is very cool.
Hot Fix
Remedy’s Northlight engine allows for great visuals as always, and really cool effects. Visually the game is very consistent with that of Control, which is to be expected as to maintain the aesthetic that we’ve come to expect from this atmospheric world they’ve created.
Unfortunately, hot fix is not just the name of a mission within the game itself, but something the game needs. On the first day I was attempting to review FBC: Firebreak, I could barely get into the game for 30 seconds before receiving an error code that stated I was no longer connected to the backend.
As frustrating as that was, I could overlook it as long as it played fluently when I was in any given match, but on more than one occasion, it has dropped me from the match, sometimes close to completion, and therefore losing progress I’ve made, which is just extremely frustrating and disappointing.
The recurring theme across FBC: Firebreak is that over time this game could be great. New and original content, slight adjustments to the progression system, and definitely some much needed fixes for the technical issues are all necessary, because the core of the game is great.
It’s just that right now, it feels like FBC: Firebreak is in early access, and for the price it makes it difficult to recommend. If you have access to it otherwise, it is definitely worth playing, especially for fans of Control, as like me, you will undoubtedly find things that you enjoy.
FBC: Firebreak is available right now on PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC.
Review code kindly provided by publisher.