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FBC: Firebreak Review

FBC: Firebreak Review

What could be better than enjoying a shower with one of your best friends / co-workers? That’s right, sharing a shower with TWO of your best friends… This is an oddly common occurrence within FBC: Firebreak, and one that sets the tone of this bizarre title well. FBC is a three-player co-op horde shooter, set within the Remedy universe (Alan Wake and Control). More specifically, you play as a member of Firebreak, an elite crew formed to handle the bizarre and supernatural events that take place within The Oldest House.

There’s not particularly an overarching story (beyond what was previously mentioned), but each Job, the game's level structure, has its own small stories which tie directly into your goals. These consist of you having to handle one of many bizarre supernatural happenings within different parts of The Oldest House, from culling an outbreak of explosive pink goo to stopping the mass replication of evil sticky notes. It’s weird — incredibly weird — but it makes for a really unique atmosphere, and despite having very little experience with Remedy’s other titles, it matches what I know of their world design. 

This bizarre atmosphere is carried even further by the fantastic writing. Despite the story not being the most integral part, the writing manages to be incredibly charming. Both the playable characters, who’ll make silly quips as you do different things within the Jobs to Hank and Jerry, higher-ups within the FBC who’ll guide you through certain missions. Each character feels like they’re just enjoying another day at the office, which makes for a very entertaining contrast to the actual events of the game.

The core gameplay loop is where FBC: Firebreak really shines brightest. There are three different Kits that you can equip, and these function essentially as classes. They don’t alter any core aspect of your character, though; they simply give you access to a unique tool, utility, and parautility. The tools are arguably the most important part of your kit, all three of which have specialised uses for objectives, and have quite good utility in combat too. Each Kit’s utility item can also be found around the maps randomly too, and repaired using their Kit’s dedicated tool. 

The Fix Kit functions like an engineer; their main tool is the Wrench, which is incredibly effective at repairing things around the map, such as Showers (used for healing), ammo stations, and other core objectives. Once upgraded, they gain access to a Swivel Cannon and the Piggy Bank utility; the former is an automatic turret whilst the latter is a melee weapon that shatters upon impact, creating a damaging cloud of coins and shards of porcelain.

I primarily used the Jump Kit, which has the Electro-Kinetic Charge Impactor as its primary tool. This can be used to electrify foes, charge certain machines requiring power, and once upgraded, you’ll gain the ability to charge up a kinetic blast that staggers nearby enemies. This can even be used to propel yourself into the air, which allows for some efficient movement around some of the more vertical areas. Its utility is a Boombox, a large speaker that, once charged, emits loud music which distracts all nearby enemies, and explodes upon being damaged enough. The Jump Kit’s parautility is arguably the most insane of the bunch: the AI19 Garden Gnome. This can be fired out of the end of the Impactor, and once landed, the Gnome summons a huge paranormal storm, which then follows the nearest living creature (which can include yourself… and your own team).

Finally, there’s the Splash Kit. This gives you access to the Crank-Operated Fluidic Ejector, which shoots out large orbs of water, giving it a variety of uses. They can put out fires on the environment, remove the negative fire status effect from players, and give the wet status effect to certain enemies. I believe this makes them more prone to electricity, making it pair incredibly well with the Jump Kit’s tool. They also gain access to a humidifier, which creates an area of water, triggering the same effects as the tool. The parautility here is the Teapot, which superheats the fluid projectiles, practically turning it into a flamethrower for a short period. 

The Kits synergise really welland have fantastic value for the team which makes for some really interesting and fun gameplay opportunities. Each Kit isn’t the only way many of these objectives can be completed, though. A Jump Kit user can repair things, but instead of it being a very simple case of hitting it with the Wrench, you need to complete a basic quick-time event, which adds some tension in the heat of a Job. The other parts of progression consist of different Weapons, Grenades, and Perks. Weapons and Grenades are unlocked as you progress through the Requisitions page; as you complete Jobs, you’ll find Lost Assets, which can be spent on the Requisitions page not only to unlock what I previously mentioned, but also cosmetics, and upgrades to your Kit’s unique options. It’s a simple system, but it’s one I found works well. You’re rarely going to be toiling over what to unlock next, but you always have at least a couple of options. 

Perks are a little more complicated. As your Kit levels up, you’ll obtain up to nine perk slots, and levelling up your account unlocks more Perk options in the Research tab. Each of these cost a small amount of Lost Assets to unlock initially and are then upgraded with another set of resources, which I’ll cover in more depth a little later. There are a total of 48 Perks to unlock, and having the potential to equip up to nine is fantastic as far as character building is concerned.

Beyond the progression systems of the game, each Job has a few interesting systems. There are three clearance levels, and as this increases the length of the Job increases alongside it, giving you more rewards and objectives, and clearance level three includes the true culmination of them. Once you reach and complete level three on a Job, you’ll gain access to Corruption, which has up to three levels. With this turned on, you’ll begin to run into anomalies around the area, which provide weird effects on gameplay while they’re active, such as lower gravity. These can be destroyed with a Black Rock Neutraliser which are hidden around each jobsite, and once destroyed, drop a jobsite-specific material. These materials are used to upgrade your perks up to twice, with the second upgrade sharing some of its effects with the team. which is necessary if you want to have a decent time surviving on the higher difficulties. 

My main issue with the game itself is the Job objectives themselves, which vary in quality a fair amount, and often lack in variety, too. For example, the first Job on clearance level three requires you to repair a set of fans for the first two objectives, and then for the third, you need to feed a giant furnace barrels of Black Rock to neutralise it, while avoidit’s incredibly deadly flares which practically set the entire room ablaze, and once completed, you need to escape back to the elevator you came in (which is the same for each other Job).  It’s relatively simple, but for the first Job, it’s also solid: it introduces you to the general gameplay loop perfectly. 

The second Job (Paper Chase) was my favourite as its complexity increased nicely over the three main objectives, despite them all being relatively the same. You need to destroy a massive amount of replicating sticky notes. This is made easier by getting them wet with either the Splash Kit’s tool or shooting sprinklers on the ceiling, which then makes them easy to destroy with normal weaponsand even makes them incredibly susceptible to the Jump Kit’s electricity. This wouldn’t be too bad if they were entirely docile; however, as you walk through piles of them, you’ll slowly accumulate sticky notes, and once fully covered, you’ll instantly be killed and spawn a Shuffler: a humanoid pile of sticky notes that’ll attack anyone nearby. These are introduced more commonly at the second section, which increases the threat level, and makes things more interesting than just repeating the same cycle. Once you proceed to the final section, you’ll need to handle the source of the notes: Sticky Ricky. Sticky Ricky is a gigantic pile of notes that needs to be soaked in water and electrocuted via levers around the map, and then, once stunned, is susceptible to normal damage. You have to juggle his attacks, along with other enemies, while also making sure you repair the water and electricity systems. It’s not unbelievably complicated, but it’s enough to keep you on your toes, and it’s very easy for things to fall apart if you aren’t careful.

The other Jobs don’t elevate the complexity as much as Paper Chase does throughout their runtime, which made them a little more tedious to run through each time. It’s absolutely not game-breaking, since the core loop is so fun, but there is definitely more tedium in sections than I would have liked. 

I really loved the presentation of FBC: Firebreak, too. Visually, it’s stunning, with very nice lighting effects, and the enemies and environments are interesting to look at. The weapons all look good, and they feel fantastic to use thanks to the great sound design. This goes for the rest of the game too, the music is really good, especially during the escape sequences at the end of each Job, and the ambient noise makes the whole place feel just as bizarre as it looks.

As a whole, there’s a lot to like about FBC: Firebreak. The progression is deep, the core gameplay loop is outstanding, and the world and writing are unbelievably charming. While there is something to be desired as far as the core mission design goes, it doesn’t ruin the game for me at all, but I can see how the tedium could get a little much for someone. Hopefully, the post-launch content can help with this, as there are two free updates coming in 2025, with new Jobs and features. But either way, I can absolutely see myself sinking a lot more time into mastering the higher difficulties, and developing my builds and character options much more!

9

FBC: Firebreak (Reviewed on Windows)

Excellent. Look out for this one.

An incredibly fun and engaging Horde Shooter, it isn’t perfect, but it’s an absolute blast to play!

This game was supplied by the publisher or relevant PR company for the purposes of review
Jacob Sanderson

Jacob Sanderson

Staff Writer

It's not an obsession if it counts as work...

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