FBC: Fireproof is the weirdest shooter you will play all year round
Blog Andrew Joseph 15 May , 2025 0
Stick to me, here. Just a few hours after playing FBC for the first time: Burst, I found myself using delicious butter cakes to drinks. Unfortunately, because I was a clumsy asshole and couldn’t be trusted by anything good, that cream fell straight into my blood orange cocktail and melted. I stared at the vortex for a moment and found myself being brought back to the Federal Control Office’s lobby, when I fired a white hot liquid into the glowing red enemies tangled around the corridor. It's a logical twisted leap, it's a journey to the brain on the remedy headquarters.
Remedy is a studio with an eclectic game library – some are horrible, some are science fiction or new Neuer detective novels. But, I've always liked the developers of Alan Wake and Max Payne, which is stupid. The studio’s latest project, Firebreak, is also its first foray into first-person shooting and collaborative multiplayer action, is Very Stupid. During the two-hour race I found the time, both of which permeated everyone around me with homicide garden gnomes and wage wars, and against the 30-foot-tall viscous banknote behemoth. All of this is enough to convince me that if someone can stand out in a crowded, often very serious online shooting space, it is a remedy, and its unique desire to inject weirdness into everything.
In the case of Remedy's 2019 single-player hit, Control, Firebreak's set of the oldest house, it's been a six-year familiarity in the story of Jesse Faden. Whether it is the savage pillars and the severity of the walls or the Finnish folk music overflowing from the bathroom speakers, it can make people feel comfortable and return even if they are a little uneasy. The groundbreaking mission squad re-entered the X-Files-like government building to cope with the local outbreak of Hiss, and the Control's cross-two-dimensional threat embodies both life and non-living entities. You and up to two teammates are essentially the Ghostbusters of this universe, just wrapped in a double-tube shotgun instead of a proton. But here, the twist across the stream is greatly encouraged.
Let me explain. Outside the arsenal of standard pistols and rifles, you can pick from three different “kits”. Essentially, Firebreak’s courses, each suite is helpful to the team in a different way and defense. For example, the repair kit allows you to quickly repair machines like ammo radio stations and recuperation showers (FBC staff soaked HP through water to enhance HP – I do say it's very stupid). Meanwhile, the Splash Kit arms you with hydropower cannons, both to restore teammates’ health sticks and douse enemies in the water. Finally, the jump kit comes with a short range electric charge influencer that can shock enemies and prevent them from entering orbit. Each kit has its own personal purpose, but after merge, they think of devastating results – you may already imagine what the possibility of sending high voltage electrical bolts into the soaked wet gas may be achieved.
So teamwork and communication are key to fire prevention, because while the whole game is playable, it is obvious that the purpose is to get three players together, especially when things really start to get busy. FBC: FireBreak's tasks (called work) all end up using the same structure: enter, achieve your goals, and then return to the elevator you enter the level. My first mission was simple: my team had to secure three defective hot fans in the building's stove, while quickly retreating to the enemy's waves and then recovering to the safety of the elevator.
But as I said before, things get busy. Next comes “Chasing Paper,” a mission involving the destruction of thousands of scattered sticky notes, which is completely different from our relaxed fan maintenance efforts. Only after we remove the target notes from the office floor can we exit the area and claim victory. The problem is that hordes of hissing will appear regularly to stop us from progressing, and the notes themselves may rely on us and cause damage. There has never been a more appropriate word for “death on a thousand sheets of paper”. Evil notes can be destroyed by simple melee attacks, but they can collapse much more with quick soaking and sparks, another wise use of Firebreak’s Elemental suite system. This multiplayer synergy is backed by a solid gunfight, so you can always do something without relying on other players. I quickly honed the machine gun as a tool of destruction – I like to cut off the glowing red ghoul, which bursts out satisfactorily, which is the same as the oily synonym for Control.
The third mission takes place in the Black Rock Quarry of the oldest house and requires the most teamwork. Shooting soft water ech from spongy walls, you need to include lethal radioactive pearls in your shuttle bus. Securely locked, then move along the track to a deeper area of the quarry. This is the most challenging task in the scenario and does emphasize the need for good communication. We need regular shower rest to flush the radiation, enemy struggles and Instakill star spike entities are all hindering our progress. Even though it gets very busy sometimes, I'm still very happy.
While I was very satisfied with the mission goals, I did find myself tearing apart when it comes to Firebreak’s approach to map design. In control, the oldest houses are the transformed corridors and the secret demonic maze, but the map layout here is not that complicated. This is probably for getting better, tighter, tighter linear spaces that allow the more friendly fields to be navigated in a first-person way (even without Minimap me, my teammates are still lost occasionally, even though they are small). But I do feel that the Federal Control Headquarters lost some unpredictable charm as a result. For example, you don't have to go here to expect something as wonderful as an ashtray maze. Instead, you will find a simpler, more grounded environment.
These tasks may sound simple, but once they are finished you can unlock each task, which increases clearance, thus increasing the target and leading to longer tours. These maps open in subsequent revisits, adding extra activity to the activity as well as more complex targets and enemies. Just like in control, the boss’s progress in certain areas boards your progress, thus effectively locking it. These range from bullet sponges with larger health sticks to more interesting beasts like giant sticky monsters that slammed my team with its huge yellow fists. I find the latter more exciting because putting it down requires elements of communication and teamwork that I like in co-shooters. Part of the puzzle boss, part of the damage deal, reminds me of the last part of Space Marine 2's expedition, where your bravery and shooter skills occasionally have to make room for the pockets of your brain.
These monsters made from everyday objects are my favorite control elements, so I was happy to see some weird places here. This is further explored by damaged items that are randomly spawning, which I haven't seen during the game, but they're still an attractive prospect (the rubber duck can redirect all enemies to all your enemies, so others can focus on the goal does spawn, but no one has found it due to our small scale – unfortunately, the unfortunate instance of the development team can get us started before launching). Another item I'm going to detail is a large number of traffic lights, caught in red sight, which can cause a lot of damage, which will actually bring a small amount of squid game colors to the otherwise grey barbarism environment.
It is these illusory remedies that thrived, giving Firebreak a chance to stand out from the crowd. They are also explored further in your load; completing tasks grant you unlock tokens that can be used to acquire the appropriate new tools. These include ultimate abilities such as the splash kit teapots that burn any unfortunate enemy enough to collide with its overheated ball. Then there is the unstable garden gnome of the Jump Kit, which reminiscent of a destructive electric storm that hits anyone in the area. This ability in particular ensured that chaos ruled frequently during my time with Firebreak. In most cases, it's fun, with numerous enemies destroyed by chaotic scrambling and juggling abilities. But sometimes, there are so many things happening on the screen that it all becomes difficult to understand.
There is a strong foundation here, but my small amount of concerns boil down to readability. Sometimes it's unclear that you should move forward on the map. At other times, it is figuring out how to avoid getting stuck with a friendly fire injury or pick out who is the boss in the hordes. There is a lot going on here, with a bunch of colors popping up everywhere, and you can be a little overwhelmed when trying to play the game tactically and precisely. I'm sure it's a worrying thing, but Firebreak Devs is clear that they plan to actively improve overall readability for shooters before the June 17 release.
Firebreak will have five jobs at the time of release and two will be available by the end of 2025. It doesn't seem to be much, but game director Mike Kayatta told me that the remedy thinks they are “more like game mode” than missions. I can see that each product has repeatability and depth due to multiple clearance rates and evolving goals. Plus it's priced at $39.99/€39.99/£32.99 (and included on Game Pass and PlayStation Plus), I think there's enough value here to keep control of veterans and new fans looking for a fun shooting game to find fun shooting games.
Always collaborating shooters online is a daunting one, and for any developer, you can now choose to walk. However, after the ignition, I believe there is a solid foundation here, and when injected with Remedy's unique quirky character, I think it can carve its own niche in the field. Much like that pink cream carved its own space in my cocktail. I still drank it all.
Simon Cardy is a senior editor at IGN who can mostly find feeling desperate in the Open World Olympics, indulging in Korean cinemas, or in Tottenham and the New York Jets. Follow him in Bluesky @cardy.bsky.social.