Remedy Entertainment’s first multiplayer game is called FBC: Firebreak and it takes player back to the world of Control, the critically-acclaimed 2019 paranormal metroidvania. The co-op PVE shooter looks like a horror-filled funhouse, but the Alan Wake 2 studio is keeping its underlying story and deeper mysteries close to the vest for now.
Revealed during the latest Xbox Partner Showcase, FBC: Firebreak swaps Control’s third-person action for first-person shooting with three-player squads navigating familiar levels from a new viewpoint and with a much bigger, and weirder arsenal of weapons this time around. The big contamination suits, chunky guns, and welding mask give it a light but undeniable BioShock-vibe in my opinion. There’s no release date just yet, however.
Take a look:
Players spent Control’s story campaign navigating the Oldest House, a serpentine homage to brutalist architecture and bureaucracy-infused horror. FBC: Firebreak will bring them back, taking place after the events of the original game, to play what seems to be a clean up crew who need to purge the Hiss—otherworldly evils—from its various office cubicles and underground labyrinths. Players will also get to harness powerful artifacts on their missions.
“What I can say is that the Firebreak crew has been cleared to carry ‘paranatural augments,’ which are Altered Items engineered into tool attachments,” Remedy communications director Thoma Puha said in an announcement on the Xbox Wire blog. “Like the Garden Gnome you saw in the trailer. These are more or less our take on ‘ultimates’ and are not to be taken lightly. I like to think of them as a jaguar in a box [laughs]. You carry the box, you point it at something, you open the box, and you just kind of hope the jaguar doesn’t turn around and eat you or your friends instead.”
Remedy confirmed that FBC: Firebreak will get post-launch updates but didn’t want to call it a full-fledged live-service game. The goal is to make it easy to hop in and experience new stuff without making it feel like a second job. “It’s a pick-up-and-play experience [about] having fun with your friends when you have the time,” Puha said. “That’s not to say that FBC: Firebreak doesn’t have deep player progression and things to unlock, it does, but this isn’t about logging in every day for some loot or fear of missing out on materials.
If the spin-off can leverage the haunting environments and beautifully creepy vibes of Control to deliver some fun co-op action, that might be enough. This is Remedy we’re talking about though, so I’d still be shocked if there weren’t plenty of Easter eggs and clues for fans of the original game to geek out about, or even weave into the larger “Remedy-verse” the company has been building across all of its games.
