|
TRU Gamers Audio Article
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
FBC: Firebreak is a strange, stylish, and occasionally brilliant experiment from one of gaming’s most daring studios. It doesn’t always work—the gunplay is basic, and the mission structure can feel repetitive—but the world-building and co-op chaos are undeniably fun.
If you’re looking for a perfectly polished shooter, this won’t be it. But if you’re down to get weird, get lost, and maybe laugh a little while fighting interdimensional hazards with your besties, Firebreak is a trip worth taking.
The Good
- + Remedy Weirdness on Full Display
- + Dynamic Co-op Systems and Class Flexibility
- + Killer Visual Design and Mission Variety
The Bad
- – Repetitive Combat
- – Minor UX Annoyances (rhythm minigames)
- – Limited Weapon Feedback
-
8
A compelling co-op shooter that doesn’t have the depth to keep things interesting long-term.
When Remedy Entertainment—best known for genre-defining single-player titles like Control and Alan Wake—first revealed they were working on a multiplayer shooter, it felt like a narrative twist pulled straight from their own playbook. Confusion. Curiosity. A little excitement. This is a studio that specializes in building mind-bending worlds, not multiplayer lobbies. So what does it look like when one of gaming’s most distinctive single-player auteurs makes a co-op shooter?
After 15+ hours in FBC: Firebreak, the answer is a resounding: “I’m still not entirely sure—but I think I like it.”
Welcome Back to the Weird
Set six years after the events of Control, Firebreak invites players back into the eerie, shifting halls of The Oldest House. But you’re not playing as Jesse Faden, reluctant Director of the Federal Bureau of Control. Instead, you’re part of a three-person emergency response crew tasked with cleaning up paranormal messes too weird for local authorities and too messy for any sane person to volunteer for.
These “jobs” are less about heroics and more about damage control: Contain the outbreak. Incinerate the cursed objects. Fight back the Hiss. Evacuate… and do it all before your elevator ticket out of this nightmare arrives.
It’s frantic. It’s bizarre. It’s Remedy, with a multiplayer twist.
Absurd Emergencies, Straight-Faced Delivery
The premise of Firebreak feels like Control got drunk at a party with Left 4 Dead and Team Fortress 2 and made a weird little baby. And I say that with affection.
Each mission—called a Jobsite—throws you and your squad into paranormal clean-up scenarios that range from comically strange to existentially terrifying. Maybe it’s a plague of sentient sticky notes. Maybe it’s radioactive leeches. Maybe it’s literal haunted office furniture. Either way, you’ll need to improvise, adapt, and shoot your way to safety.
Every mission ends with a mad dash back to the elevator where your team must survive until the lift slowly crawls its way down to your floor. This extraction mechanic adds a welcome layer of tension and chaos, especially in higher-difficulty jobs.
Crisis Kits and Class-Based Carnage
Unlike some shooters that let players mash roles together, Firebreak leans heavily into its class system—called Crisis Kits. There are three:
- Fix Kit – Your engineer archetype. Good for repairing malfunctioning machines and smacking corrupted enemies with a wrench.
- Splash Kit – Think of this one as your cleaner/support class. It hurls globules that can neutralize contaminated zones or weaken supernatural threats.
- Jump Kit – A more agile, combat-focused role that can rocket-jump around maps and distract enemies.
Each Kit has unique tools, but Remedy was smart in giving players backup methods for completing tasks. Sure, it’s easier to put out a fire with a Splash Kit, but if you’re stuck without one, you can still get the job done—it’ll just be slower, harder, and probably funnier.
This flexibility makes experimenting with team compositions enjoyable. And trust me, you will miss your Splash Kit operator the moment you start catching fire mid-fight with no extinguisher in sight.
Gunplay: Functional but Forgettable
Combat in FBC: Firebreak is serviceable—but don’t expect Control‘s telekinetic flair or Alan Wake’s cinematic tension.
You start with two weapons: a rapid-fire SMG and a chunky double-barrel shotgun. As you progress, you’ll unlock beefier options like a revolver, machine gun, or pump-action shotgun. The arsenal feels solid, but it’s missing the kind of satisfying oomph or weapon variety that really makes shooters sing.
Most firefights boil down to crowd control, environmental awareness, and good coordination with your squad. It’s not bad—but Remedy’s greatest strength has always been in bending reality, not refining recoil patterns.
Presentation: Remedy’s Signature Style Still Shines
Where Firebreak really comes alive is in its atmosphere and environmental storytelling.
The Oldest House remains one of the coolest, creepiest settings in all of gaming—part labyrinthine government facility, part dream logic nightmare. Each mission is drenched in strange energy, made even weirder by floating corpses, whispering walls, and brutalist architecture that seems to shift around you.
Lighting is striking, particle effects dazzle, and even mundane office zones feel like they’re holding dark secrets. The Remedy DNA is all over this thing, even when it’s wrapped around what is essentially a co-op monster-mashing loop.
Accessibility vs. Complexity
One of Firebreak‘s unexpected strengths is how it gradually onboards players into its weirdness. The first few missions are relatively simple: patch a leak, burn a thing, kill the monsters. But over time, new mechanics, hazards, and environmental puzzles are layered in.
What starts as a fairly standard co-op shooter morphs into a team-based paranormal janitor simulator, with rhythm minigames (yes, for fixing broken machinery), time-sensitive emergencies, and maze-like traversal segments. It’s fun… until it isn’t.
The rhythm repair sequences in particular can feel like a chore, especially when repeated under pressure. And while the variety of objectives is appreciated, some jobs do start to blend together.
Live Service Without the Grind?
At launch, Firebreak avoids some of the worst traps of live-service shooters. There’s no aggressive monetization, no endless gear score treadmill, and no 100-level battle pass (yet). Instead, it feels more like a standalone co-op experience that happens to live online.
Still, questions remain. Will Remedy continue to support this? Are expansions or new kits coming? Will there be new enemy factions, locations, or story drops?
Right now, the core is solid but could definitely use more meat on its bones to compete with the heavy hitters in the genre.
