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Is FBC: Firebreak meant to be a commentary on the monotony of labor below late-stage capitalism? It is the one conceivable cause why a developer as esteemed and gifted as Treatment Leisure would create one thing that is so basically depressing to play.
Evaluate information
Platform reviewed: PS5
Accessible on: PS5, Xbox Collection X and Collection S, PC
Launch date: June 17, 2025
A co-op shooter spin-off set within the extraordinary universe of the smash hit Control, FBC: Firebreak looks like it was designed from the bottom as much as be as irritating as attainable. From its artificially padded development and small number of ranges to the tasteless forged of characters and poorly designed participant talents, there’s little or no to love right here.
Certain, the whole lot technically features and appears to work as meant with minimal bugs, however that’s damning with faint reward when stacked up in opposition to the studio’s previous line-up of ground-breaking experiences like Alan Wake 2.
Uncontrolled
I booted up FBC: Firebreak feeling optimistic, as its core idea is actually intriguing.
You play as a Firebreaker, specialised brokers within the fictional Federal Bureau of Management (FBC) tasked with venturing into deserted districts of the bureau’s HQ to comprise rogue supernatural forces, in a workforce with as much as two different gamers.
I completely adore the portrayal of the FBC in different Treatment video games and was excited to be taught extra about its internal workings and discover new components of the Oldest Home (the mysterious, shifting brutalist skyscraper the place the occasions of this sport and Management happen).
Sadly, there’s no story content material in FBC: Firebreak. You’re launched to Hank, the chief of Firebreak, and his assistant Jerry, who trade quick quips as you navigate by way of the principle menus, however that, on high of Hank’s occasional steerage throughout missions, is all you get.
Worse nonetheless, the dialogue isn’t significantly amusing, and the slapstick tone of those interactions feels a tad misplaced. Management was not a massively critical sport, however FBC: Firebreak actually leans into its comedy to its detriment. It’s a sport that appears extra prefer it’s attempting to ape Borderlands than truly develop on what made the supply materials so fascinating.
It’s additionally a disgrace that the playable characters are all generic, masked goons. You possibly can decide from a handful of distinct participant voices, however it’s not possible to develop into invested in protagonists with no different identifiable traits.
Even the sport’s unlockable beauty gadgets fail to assist them stand out. There’s nothing interesting concerning the prospect of grinding for hours with a purpose to unlock a pink helmet that no person is realistically going to note in an internet foyer.
It’s just like the builders knew this too, as unlocking cosmetics is commonly obligatory with a purpose to reveal new store pages with extra helpful gadgets.
Lifeless finish job
That is certainly one of many selections seemingly made to pad out the sport’s runtime, which might in any other case be extremely quick.
There are a complete of solely 5 missions, or Jobs as they’re known as in-game, with every cut up into three phases. The primary two phases are all the time very fundamental, usually taking simply 5 or so minutes to clear.
They each really feel like pointless filler in comparison with the third, which presents comparable however extra substantial aims and generally an enormous boss battle to high all of it off. The primary two phases are, in fact, obligatory as there can be virtually no cause to endure them in any other case.
The missions themselves are not less than conceptually fascinating, however fail to capitalize on their most original parts in gratifying methods. Paper Chase, for instance, looks like a slam dunk with the novel thought of workplaces which have been taken over by swarms of supernatural sticky notes.
Sadly, the mission simply boils all the way down to mindlessly taking pictures surfaces lined in sticky notes as an on-screen quantity displaying the remaining notes ticks down for round fifteen minutes.
Finest bit
The hub space is residence to your residing quarters, a couple of rooms that may be extensively personalized by spending a forex obtained in your travels. Inserting objects to make the area your individual is kind of satisfying. Most will also be interacted with to see distinctive animations.
Throughout each mission, waves of Hiss, people possessed by a malevolent entity, beam in round you. I can depend the variety of distinctive enemies on one hand, with the identical few enemy fashions popping up endlessly with no variation.
Even with the problem cranked all the way in which up, the pacing of those waves feels off-kilter, too, as there are frequent awkward stretches the place there aren’t any enemies on display screen.
I might be capable to forgive most of this if the weapons had been truly satisfying to make use of. They aren’t. Generic appearances and sound results apart, there are simply six to select from.
Poor balancing implies that one, the bolt motion rifle, is so horrible that you simply wouldn’t ever need it in your loadout. The pump motion shotgun and revolver, in distinction, are by far the simplest of the bunch so there’s no actual cause to ever use the rest.
In disaster
A lot of the sport’s advertising has targeted on the Disaster Kits – the three units of talents you can select in your mission.
There’s the Splash Equipment, granting a water cannon that may wash off annoying environmental results (of which there are a number of) or put out fires, the Soar Equipment with {an electrical} gadget for rapidly charging turbines, and the Repair Equipment which helps you to rapidly restore damaged gadgets by swinging an enormous wrench round.
You possibly can nonetheless accomplish all these duties with out the respective kits, however the interactions take the type of extremely repetitive button-mashing that will get previous rapidly. Each mission has some part that may profit from a selected equipment, so there’s no technique through which one you decide. Every match has three gamers, so clearly you simply want certainly one of every. There aren’t any actual benefits or disadvantages of any of the person kits, both, so it actually is so simple as that.
Every equipment might be upgraded as much as 3 times to unlock new secondary and particular talents, together with a robust assault that gives a welcome break from the limitless taking pictures.
Nonetheless, this solely feeds into the most important difficulty with FBC: Firebreak: the truth that the primary hour is unremittingly terrible.
For some cause, you begin out with damaged gear that’s woefully ineffective. The water cannon, for instance, can solely blast a couple of drops of water at a time. Equally, your firearms deal diminished harm. You must grind by way of a sport after sport on this state till you could have the forex required to get the whole lot again in working order, to not point out decide up a few of these talents and a few perks to spice up your stats.
I don’t perceive this determination in any respect, because it simply makes for a horrendous first impression. It’s simple to think about most gamers downloading the sport, experiencing one or two slogging matches with their artificially weakened gear and talents, after which simply uninstalling it to play one thing extra rewarding.
This, sadly, makes it very troublesome to advocate FBC: Firebreak in its present state. If you happen to may merely go online and mess around with the whole lot instantly, it would be capable to present a few hours of co-op leisure earlier than the boredom units in.
Because it stands, you’ll be sick of what is there earlier than even attending to expertise its flagship options.
Ought to I play FBC: Firebreak?
Play it if…
Don’t play it if…
Accessibility
There’s, sadly, no devoted accessibility menu in FBC: Firebreak. The controls might be totally personalized on console, although, and there are a selection of choices that assist you to toggle actions like aiming down sights. The sport options subtitles all through.
How I reviewed FBC: Firebreak
I performed nearly ten hours of FBC: Firebreak on PS5 and DualSense Wireless Controller within the build-up to launch utilizing a duplicate supplied by Treatment Leisure.
I skilled each mission that the sport has to supply not less than as soon as, attempting out a number of weapons and every of the Disaster Kits. I performed each solo and multiplayer, utilizing the sport’s built-in on-line matchmaking to play with random gamers, and took part in a couple of matches with different reviewers.
All through my time with the sport, I in contrast my expertise with my time in different on-line first-person shooter video games of an identical scope, together with Wolfenstein: Youngblood, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Extraction, and Helldivers 2.
First reviewed June 2025