FBC: Firebreak is a tedious co-op shooter, lacking in moment-to-moment fun gameplay and rewarding progression. The mission objectives, while unique, are deeply boring to actually engage with, and the shooting itself doesn’t meet the standard set by other games in the genre. The story connections to Control are easter eggs at best, making FBC: Firebreak an experience not worthy of your time.
FBC: Firebreak
Developer: Remedy Entertainment
Price: $40
Platforms: Xbox Series X|S (reviewed), PlayStation 5, and PC
An Xbox code was provided by the publisher for review
FBC: Firebreak is a co-op first-person shooter set in the Control universe, where you play as the clean up crew in the Federal Bureau of Control, dealing with the paranormal chaos of the artifacts stored there. Reading the setup of FBC: Firebreak is the most fun you’re going to have with it, as the sluggish gameplay, tedious tasks, and slow progression make it a deeply uninteresting experience, with or without friends.
Each mission takes place in a different section of the FBC building, but these mission areas are static. Regardless of the difficulty you are on, the layout of the level is the same, and while the objectives are slightly moved around, those also remain the same. The bigger issue here is the tasks themselves, all of which are varying levels of tedious. One of the earliest missions asks you to destroy thousands of sticky notes, which involves walking around and shooting them. If you have the water kit and the electrical kit, you can combine those to clear them faster, but there isn’t any depth beyond that.
The rest of the tasks are all just as drawn out and uninteresting. Another is repairing the furnace fans, which requires you to either use your kit’s tool or to do the minigame, which involves hitting the bumpers in a particular order. That minigame is the most engaging part of FBC: Firebreak, but it’s used for any repair or activity that you don’t have the appropriate tool kit for, wearing out its welcome quickly. Another example is the frost anomalies, where you have to activate portable flamethrowers and set them on the frost and wait a few minutes for them to be destroyed. It’s as boring as it sounds.
On tier 3, each mission does have a final boss fight, but these don’t offer much variety after you beat them once. The sticky notes mission ends with a fight against a sticky note monster, which asks you to hit two switches before shooting it a bunch. It’s the most fun you can have in each mission, but it also requires such a slog to reach that it just isn’t worth pursuing.
During each mission, enemies will spawn in randomly, but sometimes you can go for a pretty extended period without having more spawn in. There is some enemy variety, but most of them are weak runners or tanky guys with machine guns. It’s never particularly exciting, since the gunplay feels pretty stiff and imprecise, but the amount of time it takes to get better weapons exacerbates this issue. Most enemies also run (or float) at you in a straight line, so even if the shooting felt smoother, there still wouldn’t be much excitement.
The progression is based on some XP gained from completing missions and earning requisition points. Those points can be used to unlock either new weapons and equipment or cosmetics. These were all together in a single battle pass style unlock system, but a post-launch update separated them so you can focus on actual gameplay unlocks. That said, though, FBC: Firebreak isn’t a fun enough experience to make the grind, whether it’s 40 hours or 5, worth doing.
Matchmaking has been a buggy mess since launch, with most of my matches getting cut short by connection issues. Even playing with two friends in a more stable environment, we still didn’t find much enjoyment outside of chatting to each other. It was so uninteresting, we started reminiscing about other co-op games that were a better experience. FBC: Firebreak being set in the Control universe does provide a nice, enjoyable art direction and some fun designs, like the cursed objects found in harder runs. For example, I encountered a floating stoplight, which would restrict my movement when it switched to a red light. In a more enjoyable shooter, this creativity would go a long way.
The Final Word
FBC: Firebreak is a tedious and downright boring co-op shooter that starts sluggish and uninteresting. The progression here feels like a grind, an issue made worse by the lack of engaging moments. The objectives in each mission feel like a chore, down there with some of the worst checklist content in video games. The best parts of FBC: Firebreak take time to reach, something most people, myself included, won’t want to put in the effort to see.
MonsterVine Rating: 2 out of 5 – Poor
