Control’s launch in 2019 was a pivotal moment for Remedy Entertainment. After the Alan Wake hit cult-classic status among survival horror fans and Twin Peaks enthusiasts, they struggled to find their footing in following projects. Between a strange follow up to Alan Wake, the divisive Quantum Break, and a couple of mobile projects, it felt like the Finnish studio was unsure where to go next.
Control was their answer. A suitably kooky and weird third-person shooter heavily inspired by the SCP Foundation that fits like a glove in terms of the experiences Remedy tends to create. It was another smash hit for them, with a full sequel on the way and more imminently, a cooperative first-person shooter called FBC: Firebreak.
After a lengthy hands-off preview and some insight from key members of the development team, FBC: Firebreak wears its inspirations on its sleeve. Combining the hallmarks of Left 4 Dead with immersive sim like elements to create a modular and experimental sandbox to play in. With a double A price tag and free post-launch content, FBC: Firebreak is ticking a lot of the right boxes for a live service offering, but it remains to be seen if it’s able to find its footing when it launches later this year.
Returning to the Oldest House
The setup for FBC: Firebreak is a simple one. Six years after the events of Control, the FBC has locked up The Oldest House to keep the Hiss from escaping, but this lockdown also traps FBC agents inside the building with the Hiss outbreak. People from all kinds of roles within the FBC are forced to kit-up and hunt for supplies to stay alive against the growing threat of the Hiss. It’s all about what happens when the FBC loses control over the Hiss.
It’s within this narrative framework that you’ll step into the shoes of FBC staff to embark on Jobs, fighting back against the Hiss with friends using makeshift weaponry and extract for maximum rewards. Each Job is built with replay value in mind, with plenty of nobs and dials to play around with as you see fit to tune the difficulty to your desired level. Game director Mike Kayatta expressed that the most important thing about FBC: Firebreak is that it’s an experience players can enjoy on their terms.
Remedy is aware of the many downfalls we see with other live service titles. They want to ditch the FOMO and engagement stress that comes with implementing systems like timed season passes, daily missions, and other regular check ins. They want to remove as many barriers as possible so you can boot and shoot with friends without worrying about content packs, progression, or skill levels.
Cooperative Crisis Management
While many may gawk at the idea of Remedy Entertainment working on a multiplayer only title, FBC: Firebreak has been developed with cooperative design in mind. Regardless of whether you play with friends or use matchmaking to find like-minded players, most things you do inside of the game organically help the team – even when you aren’t actively coordinating for it. Kayatta expresses that the cooperative nature of FBC: Firebreak is an important aspect of the game, but didn’t want to force players into needing others to get the most of it.
When you do actively coordinate with other players, you’ll get more kills, get through Jobs more efficiently and consistently, and perhaps earn extra rewards along the way. If this is sounding like the kind of experience Valve created with Left 4 Dead, that isn’t a coincidence. FBC: Firebreak seems to be built around the same core tenants, focusing on Jobs that create unique situations that can only come from the coalescence of these systems.
Kayatta says the team is focused on taking the different crises you’ll face in the Oldest House and mixing them with the unpredictable behaviours of you and other players to create emergent moments exclusive to that Job. Each time you embark on a Job you can tweak the Threat Level and Clearance Levels. The former relates to combat difficulty – how many enemies you’ll face, what enemy types and in what volumes, with higher Threat Levels yielding more rewards. Clearance Levels determine the number of zones you can play through in any given Job and add other modifiers like Corrupted Items, which Remedy were tight-lipped about in our preview.
The other wrinkle that adds replay value are the Crisis Kits. These are most akin to character classes, they dictate what equipment and gear you bring with you into a Job. While they have a lot of custom components, they all revolve around a generalised playstyle. Where the Fix Kit is a heavy-hitting kit built around meaty melee attacks, the Splash Kit fills more of a support role, using water to manipulate the battlefield and inflict enemies with elemental de-buffs.
These Crisis Kits can also be swapped mid-job for you to choose something different if a particular one isn’t working out. Currency you earn in runs can also be spent on Research Perks that change how you pay the game. From a perk that can return missed shots to your magazine and another that extinguishes fire through you jumping up and down, it seems there’s plenty to work for as you ratchet up the difficulty on different Jobs.
Only In Control
To retain the identity of Control, it was important to the team to make sure FBC: Firebreak features moments and ideas that are only possible within the weird and unpredictable world of Control and the Oldest House. There’s an underpinning question in Job design that asks if gameplay moments and ideas are things that can only happen in Control’s universe. If the answer is no, Remedy went back to the drawing board to work out what fits.
No where is this better evident than in the Job that they showed off during the preview session. Adequately named Paper Chase, a team of FBC agents are dispatched to deal with sentient sticky notes that multiply and attach to living beings. As the team pushes through the Executive Sector of the Oldest House, they’re destroying the sticky notes littering the walls and floors. These sticky notes can also latch onto players, enveloping them in a blur of yellow as the Hiss attack from al angles.
The Job culminates in a boss fight with a giant sticky note monster that channels big Sandman energy – only in paper form. It’s a ludicrous concept but feels right at home in Control. This job also shows off the punchy melee combat and shooting. It’s also easy to see how you can get quickly overrun by the Hiss, especially on higher Threat Levels. There’s also a neat risk reward mechanic built into every Job where staying longer increases your reward yield, but enemy spawns climb as well.
An Evolving Oldest House
While Remedy were shy to disclose the total number of Jobs at launch, if each is as inspired as Paper Chase is, there’ll be plenty of crazy situations to explore and tackle in FBC: Firebreak. My only concern is the launch offering of Jobs might land on the skinny side. Regardless of their replay value and quality, you can only spend so much time replaying each Job. This will only be exacerbated by what seems to be a slim selection of Crisis Kits on launch, but the full extent of how customisable they are is yet to be seen.
Remedy have put focus on the fact that they’re in it for the long haul if the game has a successful launch, with a concrete roadmap of free post-launch content to support FBC: Firebreak for sometime to come. Monetisation will only be in the form of cosmetics, and the game is built to be playable for as many players as possible.
That might come as something of a shock given Remedy’s tendency to show off the newest tech. The team is aiming for it to be able to run on all kinds of hardware – even including the Steam Deck! For those who love Remedy’s penchant for high level tech, FBC: Firebreak will still have full ray-tracing at launch with NVIDIA DLSS 4 and Multi-frame generation.
While the full scope of FBC: Firebreak’s launch offerings are unknown, it seems like Remedy Entertainment’s first foray into multiplayer is shaping up to be a good time. It looks like it’s going to fill the hole previously occupied by Left 4 Dead that was unable to be plugged by Back 4 Blood. If there’s one thing I’ve learnt about Remedy over the last decade, it’s to trust the process and let them cook.
FBC: Firebreak launches this year for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
