As we suffered an premature demise on the enterprise finish of roughly two billion sticky notes, me and my two FBC: Firebreak squad members felt greater than slightly humbled. In our hubris, we’d determined to start our time in a current preview occasion on the toughest attainable problem – a really enjoyable, however very ridiculous alternative. Fortuitously for us, FBC: Firebreak’s mix of approachable fight, fast-paced rounds, and slapstick mechanics makes for a incredible time, irrespective of how lengthy (or little) you wish to spend in its weird, fascinating world. We can have our revenge, sticky notes.
FBC: Firebreak is Treatment’s upcoming entry into the first-person shooter style – an approachable multiplayer expertise delivered with all of the fashion and deadpan humour we’ve come to understand from the Remedyverse. Serving as a spin-off to the occasions of Management, FBC: Firebreak sees gamers tasked with the clean-up of weird, supernatural occasions going down inside the sport’s ever-shifting setting, The Oldest Home, which you’ll additionally recognise from Management.
In the course of the hands-on occasion, we got entry to a few completely different Jobs accessible within the sport, all with various ranges of problem on supply. In ‘Scorching Repair’, our ragtag workforce of Firebreak volunteers took on repairing followers in a sweltering setting, earlier than coping with a paranatural furnace. In ‘Floor Management’ our crew got down to accumulate leech pearls from the stays of horrendous, human sized leeches. My private favorite, ‘Paper Chase’ noticed the group disposing of a large variety of sticky notes, alongside violent, sentient sticky word enemies, earlier than taking up ‘Sticky Ricky’, a colossal, tanked-up boss made up of actually tens of millions of sticky notes that requires a real workforce effort to take down successfully.
All three of those jobs additionally function Management’s enemy faction, The Hiss as a constant, looming menace – a horde of them can seem at any second and so they’ll want coping with as you progress with the first goals. Coping with The Hiss is normally an easy affair – your weapon will make brief work of most enemy varieties. Now and again, a named miniboss might seem; some require extra finesse to defeat – and the most suitable choice for taking them down will come from a fastidiously curated loadout.
The hands-on confirmed us three distinctive Disaster Kits that each volunteer can take out on a mission. Geared up alongside your extra standard weapons, these are all clumsily lashed collectively to suit the scrappy vibe of FBC: Firebreak’s setting – you aren’t enjoying as seasoned troopers, only a volunteers positioned into these absurd, harmful conditions. With three individuals within the social gathering, every of us naturally gravitated to at least one loadout every. I carried a shotgun for giant, close-range injury, and the Splash Equipment, successfully an enormous water gun which got here in clutch for hosing down the sticky monsters, and my overheated colleagues. The entire kits accessible could be upgraded in a number of methods too, to actually customise your construct for these extra punishing problem ranges.
However customization extends past your loadout. Every mission asks you to choose a Clearance Stage, which dictates what number of zones it’s essential to clear so as to win. Which means some runs can take 5 or ten minutes, and so they’re a breezy affair that require minimal workforce coordination. Others can take upwards of 45 minutes, dramatically extra vicious affairs the place each piece of substances you are taking is of paramount significance. FBC: Firebreak offers all of the instruments to tailor your expertise right here – it’s not attempting to make you grind unnecessarily – you possibly can go as arduous or as informal as you need at any given time.
Nevertheless it was the in-mission mechanics that basically made FBC: Firebreak really feel like one thing distinctive. Elemental results could make or break your day in case you don’t have the fitting instruments at hand. If a room is simply too scorching, you’ll have to discover a swift technique to calm down. If it’s unnaturally chilly, you’ll transfer slower till you regain some warmth. Your chosen Disaster Equipment could also be a shortcut right here, however there are different methods to take care of these points positioned within the ranges themselves.
Fortuitously, this is applicable to The Hiss too – if an enemy is slowed by an icy debuff, they’ll comically ‘dash’ in direction of you in sluggish movement, supplying you with loads of time to react. At decrease tiers, these results are a light hindrance – nothing deadly in case you simply wish to soar into a fast sport with out navigating the complexities of how every part works. In these larger problem runs, it’s hellish – good for people who to dig deep into the sport’s programs and tackle its most brutal challenges.
All of this enjoyable is wrapped up in a blanket of narrative excellence; Treatment’s signature model of weird, occult nightmares with lashings of hilarity as your characters banter and bicker amongst themselves. Followers of the studio’s earlier entries will discover numerous recognisable names and areas, however that feels extra like an enhancement for these already concerned – you don’t have to know what’s happening within the wider story, however it definitely provides to the expertise in case you do.
There’s tons to find and loads of steering for these which are much less versed in Treatment’s universe. That, paired with the flexibility to actually finetune the way you wish to play, means FBC: Firebreak is an unexpectedlywelcoming introduction into The Oldest Home, and we will’t wait to increase our keep (and, you recognize, burn a lot of sticky notes).
FBC: Firebreak launches June 17, 2025 – play on Xbox Sequence X|S, Home windows PC, and by way of Sport Cross.
FBC: Firebreak
Treatment Leisure
FBC: Firebreak is a cooperative first-person shooter set inside a mysterious federal company beneath assault by otherworldly forces. As a years-long siege on the company’s headquarters reaches its boiling level, solely Firebreak—the Bureau’s most versatile unit—has the gear and the center to plunge into the constructing’s strangest crises, restore order, and blast their manner again from the brink.
