June 16 (UPI) -- Remedy Entertainment continues its innovation in video games in its latest supernatural romp, a three-player cooperative first-person shooter titled FBC: Firebreak that releases Tuesday.
The FBC stands for the Federal Bureau of Control, the clandestine government agency tasked with studying and containing paranormal threats that players will recognize from Remedy's critically-acclaimed games Control and Alan Wake II. Think of the FBC as similar to the Men in Black if it was created by David Lynch and dealt with the occult as opposed to aliens.
Players take on the role of the Firebreak team, a blue-collar unit tasked with eliminating threats and cleaning up the FBC's ever-changing headquarters known as the Oldest House.
The Firebreak team has access to three distinct kits that give each player a role to take on in every mission.
The Splash kit offers a large, crank-operated water gun that can put out fires and get rid of harmful status effects on teammates, while the Fix kit contains a wrench that can repair helpful machinery and stagger enemies. The Jump kit has access to an electric rod that can add power to devices, along with a jump ability to reach higher places.
FBC: Firebreak will have five missions at launch that are meant to be replayed at longer lengths and higher difficulty levels in order to unlock perks and new weapons. Players will use a variety of firearms to fight off the supernatural, including machine guns, pistols, shotguns and rifles.
Releasing a multiplayer-focused shooter in the current gaming climate feels risky, with how packed the genre is and how many games have failed. Remedy, however, is offering a new experience centered around performing repair jobs while fighting off hordes of enemies that makes the game truly feel unique.
Every stage in FBC: Firebreak is filled with ammo stations for reloading, showers for healing, electric panels that can add light to dark areas, and more. Success is determined by how well teams can maintain ammo stations and showers by using the game's three kits effectively. Every helpful device needs power that the Jump kit can provide and repairs that the Fix kit handles. The player with the Splash kit, meanwhile, oversees the other two as a sort of healer, ready to spray down teammates with water when needed.
There are also multiple environmental hazards at play in each stage that players must strategize around. Moving around radioactive rocks to power a small mine cart will force players to get cleaned up in the shower or cover themselves with mud that can be obtained by shooting a certain stone.
Standout moments include the Paper Chase mission, where players must dispose of a large amount of sticky notes that are plastered all over the FBC offices. Players can use the Splash kit to wet a collection of notes, thus allowing the player with the Jump kit to send an electric shock to effectively destroy them. The stage also features enemies made entirely of sticky notes that can engulf players in deadly paper.
The game truly comes alive at the end of each stage when the Firebreak team must eliminate a boss and escape through an elevator that arrives on a timer. The moment-to-moment gameplay here can be both frantic and rewarding as teams combine all of their unique abilities and weapons at once. Friendly-fire is always on as well, forcing players to shoot and use their abilities carefully.
FBC: Firebreak offers a whole suite of upgrades for each class, including special moves known as parautilities. The player with the Splash kit can turn their water gun into a fire gun, while the Jump kit earns a powerful, possessed garden gnome that can destroy enemies, as seen in Control. The Fix kit is granted a piggy bank that attaches to the wrench. Hitting enemies with the piggy bank causes a tornado of destruction and coins. All three parautilities can also kill teammates quickly, leading to both tense and funny moments as a deadly gnome calmly makes its way towards players.
Other upgrades include a mini water station that can heal, a boombox that attracts enemies and an automated turret.
FBC's approach to gameplay goes well beyond just shooting enemies, but it can feel like a grind to unlock the extra items and perks that make the whole experience shine. It takes too long to unlock the parautilities and with only five stages, things can feel repetitive rather quickly.
Remedy does not consider FBC: Firebreak as a live-service title but has promised future free updates that will include new missions, new equipment, new enemies and more. The game is also being sold for $39.99, a budgeted price that sets expectations for the amount of content available.
Remedy, based in Finland, is best known for their hit titles such as Control, the Alan Wake series and the Max Payne series.
What is most disappointing about FBC: Firebreak is how it ditches the studio's signature storytelling aspects. Control and Alan Wake II feel like cinematic movies that you experience and play, while FBC: Firebreak, despite being so tied to Control, offers nothing in terms of plot. There is nothing here to add lore to their meticulously crafted, connected universe that is featured prominently in their other games.
The lack of storytelling feels like a huge missed opportunity. Players familiar with Remedy's other games will surely know about the FBC, but it's disappointing that you only get to experience this previously fleshed out government agency only through gameplay.
For those who haven't played any of Remedy's more recent games, they will surely be lost as to what the FBC is and what they do as the game offers nothing to ground the experience or explain why the Firebreak team must clean up these supernatural messes.
FBC: Firebreak is ultimately a fun and unique multiplayer shooter that offers new, cooperative gameplay elements and ways to slay hordes of enemies. It does not, however, offer any new plot elements in Remedy's paranormal universe.
FBC: Firebreak comes to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S and PC on Tuesday for $39.99. The game will also be available to download for Xbox Game Pass subscribers and PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium members.
FBC: Firebreak was reviewed on PlayStation 5. Review copy provided by Remedy Entertainment
