FBC: Firebreak is a humorous form of recreation, particularly from Treatment Leisure. In an odd first, Treatment — the group behind single participant video games like Alan Wake 2 — has pivoted to multiplayer with its newest mission.
FBC: Firebreak is a first-person co-op shooter set inside the Treatment Verse. And whereas there’s a lot to love about this large swing from the developer, it actually ought to have simply caught to what it is aware of.
The title’s set simply weeks after the occasions of Managementthe place The Oldest Home is run rampant with the Hiss. Protecting issues from collapsing are group Firebreak, an initiative of FBC brokers who should perform upkeep repairs.
That’s about as a lot lore as you’re going to get, as the sport haphazardly tosses you right into a menu and sends you packing in your first “job”. We wouldn’t count on full-on cutscenes from a multiplayer-first co-op shooter like this, however a wee wink or a nod to the collection that made this world so interesting within the first place would not have gone amiss.
That being stated, FBC has a severe leg up aesthetically as a consequence of that hyperlink, with the twisted melding of mundane places of work, brutalist constructions, and a sticky be aware or two. Even the white font title playing cards crop up originally of every run. It’s all fairly beautiful to take a look at.
However what precisely are you doing in The Oldest Home? Brokers are tasked with enjoying out numerous menial jobs comparable to repairing air flow programs, storing radiated spheres, or clearing out rooms of sticky be aware infestations.
To hold out the roles, gamers have a alternative of three package courses. The Repair Equipment is an engineers class, the place you possibly can make things better with a few swings of a giant previous wrench. The Soar Equipment is {an electrical} cost which might energy up numerous stations, and doubles as a solution to bounce as much as greater ledges or evade enemies. Then there’s the Splash Equipment, a water-spouting cannon used to place out fires and douse teammates to scrub off infections.
A participant with a Repair Equipment can nonetheless put out fires, simply as a Splash Equipment person can nonetheless restore lighting programs. Nevertheless, to take action you’ll should work by means of a collection of L1 and R1 inputs, form of like calling in stratagems in Helldivers 2. Sounds easy, however this stuff take longer, and might put you in danger as hordes of Hiss rain down upon you. Actually, you need a participant with the appropriate package doing the appropriate job.
These are the basics, and sadly these alone depart Firebreak feeling fairly uninteresting. The start ranges and loadouts lack any type of spice, with missions enjoying out with out a lot fanfare — much more so should you play the sport in solo.
Every little thing is technically sound, at the least. Actually, all of it runs brilliantly on each PS5 and PS5 Professional. The body charge is a steady 60 frames-per-second most of the time, and haptic suggestions on the DualSense controller is first-party ranges of fine. It really feels surprisingly nice from a studio that primarily works on third-person video games.
However regardless of this, these opening ranges, which each participant should grind by means of, really feel lifeless, and it actually takes some time earlier than the appearance of a spark is present in Firebreak.
The 5 missions inside the recreation have three clearance ranges, every including a brand new room to the run and a boss or boss-like problem. There are additionally issue tiers so as to add to the carnage, after which corruptions that are mainly modifiers that may make your life hell.
As you come again from every run, you’ll earn XP and Misplaced Elements, that are used to unlock new weapons, gear, and perks. More durable runs can earn distinctive currencies used to improve perks even additional. With loads of perks and as much as simply 9 slots per package, loadouts can actually begin to evolve.
As soon as all of this stuff are thrown into the combination, FBC’s programs and gameplay begin to click on much more. The roles introduced on by your package develop into key parts to success, group coordination is extra mandatory, and maintaining a tally of ammunition, well being, and most significantly standing results like hearth, frost, or radiation develop into paramount.
And as you’d count on, there’s that Treatment quirkiness in there. Every package finally unlocks an final weapon just like the lava-spewing teapot gun, or the piggy financial institution coin storm. What’s extra, every degree additionally has some form of mechanic like a bubblegum-pink gunk that expands and blocks corridors, or sticky-note males that dash in the direction of you. And all of that is with pretty spectacular Hiss numbers on display, with hordes sprinting in the direction of you with manic velocity.
Whereas that is the place efficiency is at its choppiest, that good storm of mechanics, enemies, kits, and loadouts brings a little bit of the spark that we have been hoping for when the developer first introduced this recreation. It has a zany and manic vitality about it that we suspect lots of people will actually like.
Nevertheless, for us, these moments of mania and Treatment seasoning are too few and much between, and actually, the sport doesn’t have sufficient of a hook to maintain us coming again for extra.
The group’s been upfront in saying it doesn’t need to go the dwell service route of demanding your time and continuous dedication to the sport — though publish launch content material is coming. It’s a refreshing stance that was additionally taken with FromSoftware’s ELDEN RING NIGHTREG.
Nevertheless, the place Nightreign is enjoyable from the beginning and solely received higher as you bought nearer to the top of its journey, Firebreak is simply okay for essentially the most half, lastly beginning to get good as you attain the later stuff — after which it simply fizzles out. It doesn’t have that another spherical vitality, and profitable extractions at all times really feel like a little bit of an anticlimax.
Conclusion
FBC: Firebreak stings just a little, as a result of it has a lot of what we’re on the lookout for in a co-op shooter. It’s received the killer world and aesthetic, it’s received quirky powers and position based mostly kits, it’s received tight first-person gameplay, and doesn’t require you to grind issues out for dozens of hours. Nevertheless, regardless of all of that, Firebreak’s simply high qualityand satirically lacks the fireplace that we count on from Treatment’s output. It’s a enjoyable, informal time, however you’ll play it, you’ll end it, and earlier than lengthy you’ll overlook about it and want you had been enjoying Management 2 as a substitute.
