Latest news with #RemedyEntertainment
The Verge
25-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Verge
Remedy is in control
In the quiet suburb of Espoo, a short drive west from Helsinki in Finland, is an unassuming building that's home to one of the most confounding studios in games. Remedy Entertainment is known for getting weird. It started with the meta horror of Alan Wake, and has since expanded with Control, a game that turns a bureaucratic government office into a sinister and unsettling battleground. Their worlds merge the surreal and the mundane — which is not a bad description of Remedy itself. On the day I visited, the studio's energy was relaxed and subdued — in true Finnish style, there are even multiple onsite saunas — and frankly a little boring, especially for a creative team known for the likes of the mind-bending Ashtray Maze or 'Old Gods of Asgard' musical. But that contrast is also one of the keys to Remedy's recent success. In the wake of the covid-19 pandemic, the video game industry has experienced studio closures, persistent layoffs, corporate meddling, and ill-fated games that were canceled soon after launch. Exceptions like Remedy have been rare. Over the past decade, the studio has been implementing a plan to help it compete with bigger, better-funded developers and publishers, steadily inching its way from a work-for-hire studio to one in charge of its own destiny. As the industry has shifted toward live-service hits like Fortnite and blockbusters like Grand Theft Auto, Remedy has taken big swings with ambitious and delightfully strange narrative titles. Now it's trying to expand even further with its first multiplayer — and self-published — game in FBC: Firebreak. The stakes are high: it's the perfect example of Remedy's new way of working and a proof of concept for its larger, more expansive future. It's also a strange experience, marrying the surreal tone of Control with co-op play that bucks the latest online gaming trends. But to hear it from the Finnish developer, it only gets to take swings like Firebreak because it nailed all of the boring stuff first. 'We are this building,' explains creative director Mikael Kasurinen. 'This is it; this is us. We aren't owned by anybody else, and I think that realization brings that culture of taking more responsibility. There is nothing above us that will save the day if things go wrong. It's all on us.' This wasn't the case for much of the studio's existence. Founded in 1995, Remedy's first release was a combat racing game called Death Rally. A few years later, the studio garnered widespread acclaim with 2001's Max Payne, a hard-boiled noir with action ripped out of a John Woo movie. After a sequel, Remedy expanded in new directions with the survival horror game Alan Wake and sci-fi game / TV show hybrid Quantum Break. Despite its modest success, though, the studio found itself stuck in a cycle of working from game to game. It didn't own any of its creations — instead, they were the property of publishers like Rockstar and Microsoft — and, with the exception of the rapid 18-month development of Max Payne 2, Remedy was only putting out new games every five years or so. That half-decade cycle meant that if any game failed, so did the company. This put Remedy in a precarious position, and it's something Tero Virtala realized right away when he took over as CEO in 2016. 'At that point Remedy had been around for 20 years, and succeeded in relation to many criteria,' Virtala says. That included releasing several hit games and steadily growing in headcount. But Virtala says that 'it didn't feel like enough' to have such a talented team and only release one game every four or five years. While it's typical for games to take years to build, only having one project at a time left the studio vulnerable in case any of them flopped. Virtala helped spearhead a new path for Remedy's future built on two pillars: One was becoming a multi-project studio, so that it was less dependent on any single game. Second, Remedy also wanted ownership of its original creations and to eventually become its own publisher. 'It's important to understand enough of the business, even though I don't love it.' A major part of making this work was ensuring that everyone in the studio bought in and understood the plan, not just management. It sounds like a controversial idea and runs counter to the way the industry typically works: whereas most studios operate with clear lines dividing creative and business, Virtala believed that empowering developers to understand the business side meant they'd be better able to make the right decisions on the creative end. 'People are smart,' Virtala says of his employees, 'and they are mature enough to understand that if you want to make creative, ambitious games, it's not possible unless you have the financial basis, unless you are aligned with the technology, unless you have the people and the production plans are in order. We try to provide the teams with as much information as possible. And then the teams are in the best place to try to figure out what is the best creative path within these constraints.' And it seems that the creative side has bought in. Sam Lake has been with Remedy for nearly its entire 30-year existence, starting out as a writer on Death Rally. (He's also the face of the original Max Payne — literally.) He now serves as creative director and is the lead writer behind all of Remedy's major franchises. 'It's important to understand enough of the business, even though I don't love it,' Lake says. 'When you're creating a game concept, there are a lot of decisions being made, and the more you understand about what these decisions affect, the better you are prepared to choose wisely.' The real turning point came with the launch of Control in 2019, the first game released under Virtala's leadership. While the idea for the story and world had been kicking around in Lake's head for some time, the actual development happened as Virtala was implementing broader studio changes. He pushed for more efficient processes and timelines, hoping to make games faster without sacrificing the quality level Remedy had become known for. 'Those three years were transformative for Remedy,' Kasurinen says. He notes that this new development style meant planning much more in advance on Control, and viewing limitations around budgets and timelines as creative challenges 'that forced us to reinvent many things in a good way.' When it came out, Control exemplified exactly what the studio wanted to be: it was developed in a comparatively brisk three years, was a brand-new property that the studio would (eventually) own outright, and was in development alongside another project in collaboration with Korean publisher Smilegate. Creatively, it also allowed the team to attempt a new kind of open-ended action game and it opened up new directions for the future. Control's success allowed this plan to continue. Since then, Remedy has steadily expanded. Control was followed by a long-awaited sequel to Alan Wake, and the studio has grown to 380 people. It currently has four projects in development: a sequel to Control, remakes of the Max Payne games, an unannounced title, and its first multiplayer game, the recently launched Control spinoff FBC: Firebreak. With the exception of Max Payne, which is being published by Rockstar, all of its in-development games are self-published. Remedy now also holds the publishing rights for Alan Wake (the sequel was originally published by Epic Games), and has created its own connected universe, which unites the worlds of Alan Wake and Control. In 2024 it partnered with Annapurna Pictures to potentially expand this even further through film and TV adaptations. Branching out into new genres and mediums is a further attempt to grow Remedy's capabilities — and to better insulate itself from the volatile whims of the games industry. Getting to this moment required some structural changes. Remedy now has multiple development teams, with staff shifting between them as needed, and it also has a unique setup with two creative directors in Lake and Kasurinen. Lake says that both of them want to be hands-on when they're leading a new game, and so having two people in the role allows the creative side to always be involved in larger studio decisions, even in the midst of an intense development process. 'When I was deep into Alan Wake 2, I wasn't a part of attending weekly management meetings,' Lake says. 'I just needed to focus on [the game]. But it's really important that we have the creative side represented on the company level. So this arrangement gives us flexibility. We can represent each other.' Even still, the transition wasn't always smooth. As Remedy attempted to grow into a multi-project studio, not all of its expansion attempts worked out. First, the studio partnered with Smilegate on a new iteration of the popular military shooter Crossfire. The idea was that Smilegate would make the multiplayer portion of the game, while Remedy would craft a single-player story mode, giving the studio a chance to make its first first-person shooter. But CrossfireX was poorly received upon release in 2022 — campaign mode included — and shut down a year later. Remedy also attempted to get into the world of free-to-play games through a partnership with Tencent, but the title — known as Project Vanguard — eventually shifted to a premium release, before finally being canceled before it was ever shown to the public. Virtala says that these setbacks were largely a result of pushing too far too fast. And in the case of Vanguard, the failure helped the studio realize that four games at a time was the sweet spot for what the company could manage. 'We started to feel that we had a bit too many projects for our size of organization,' he explains. 'We saw that if we had a bit more focus, it would help our other projects to succeed.' But those failures don't mean Remedy is done trying new things. In fact, the studio's first fully self-published game, FBC: Firebreak, is also one of its most surprising releases. It's a multiplayer shooter, which might sound like an odd release from a studio known for single-player narratives. But as the studio looked to expand, multiplayer was one of the key areas the team wanted to explore. 'We want to explore ways of building new types of experiences.' Firebreak is a relative baby step in that direction. It's connected to a popular game the studio owns, and it was built by a small internal team. While regular updates are planned — including 'major' releases in the fall and winter — Firebreak isn't a live-service game on par with Fortnite or Call of Duty, designed to keep players coming back with ongoing events and daily activities. It's a paid game meant explicitly to 'respect the player's time.' It's also a way for the studio to expand its capabilities without stretching the team too far. 'We want to explore ways of building new types of experiences,' says Mike Kayatta, game director on Firebreak. 'I like to think that we know what we're doing when it comes to these large, single-player story-driven games. This is how the studio built its reputation and what it's good at. When you're faced with saying, 'Hey, we need to diversify the types of experiences we're making,' do you really just want to just make five more of these linear, story-driven games?' So far, Firebreak's release hasn't gone exactly to plan. It was greeted with mixed reviews from critics and players, many of whom complained that, while it maintains some of the weird and unsettling tone as Control, it's held back by repetitive gameplay and a lack of Remedy-style narrative flourishes. But the studio seems intent on fixing things, recently posting an extensive list of patch notes and other upcoming changes that cover everything from the onboarding experience to the UI. 'Several things have gone well,' the studio wrote. 'Clearly, not everything has.' The success of a game like Firebreak is still critical for Remedy even under its multi-project structure. It's a complex plan that has kept Virtala very busy over the last 10 years. In fact, when I spoke to him in an empty conference room at Remedy's office, he was delayed because he had to prepare for the studio's most recent financial report the next day. 'Every single game is highly important for us,' Virtala says. 'There is no question that we are not fully insulated. But we are less dependent on any single game than we used to be.' This feeling is only strengthened by the current realities of the gaming industry. It's a space where even a well-funded EA studio can't get a Black Panther game made, a Sony-backed multiplayer shooter in development for eight years, Concord, is quickly shuttered, and the likes of Netflix and Amazon are struggling to make headway despite huge investments. Remedy is currently in a good place, with a growing back catalog and multiple games in development, and while it has grown, it's still a fraction of the size of most other studios making big-budget games, which often have headcounts in the thousands. While the last decade has been a big shift at Remedy, Lake describes his time at the studio as being filled with constant change, as the company steadily grew in terms of both staff and the scale of its projects. Even still, he believes that the current incarnation of the studio might be ideal for this multi-project structure, and says that he 'would be surprised' if Remedy continued to grow significantly over the next few years. While many large studios are seemingly focused on perpetual growth, the team at Remedy is happy to be sustainable. 'There were a couple of false starts trying to get there, but now it feels very much like we're settled,' says Lake. 'This is what Remedy is now.'
Daily Mirror
25-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
PS Plus Essential July 2025 games revealed – Diablo 4 comes to the service
The PS Plus free games for July 2025 have been announced, with the likes of Diablo 4 and Jusant arriving on PS5 and PS4 in the next few weeks for Essential subscribers. PS Plus has prematurely unveiled its new Essential games, announcing the addition of titles such as Diablo 4 and Jusant. PS Plus has had a somewhat inconsistent year, despite recently surprising fans with a major drop during Days of Play and revealing that Remedy Entertainment's FBC: Firebreak would be part of its Extra and Premium June 2025 drop. However, there have been enough disappointments to make players slightly wary. It can be frustrating for players to pay for online services, so the free games certainly help to sweeten the deal, particularly for Essential subscribers. This month, however, those subscribers are in for a pleasant surprise. Our PS Plus Essential July 2025 predictions suggested we might see some exciting new indie titles, and we weren't far off. But it was unexpected that Sony would deliver a AAA title with dark themes this month. The latest games have been announced, and they're a real treat for players. Here's what you need to know about the PS Plus Essential July 2025 games. PS Plus Essential July 2025 games The PS Plus Essential July 2025 games have been unveiled a tad early today, marking the 15th anniversary of PlayStation Plus. Sony has announced in a blog post that the new titles will be available to players from Tuesday, 1st July. Those games are: Diablo 4 This means that the previous line-up of games is set to vanish. So, make sure you download Destiny 2: The Final Shape, NBA 2K25, Alone in the Dark 2024 and Bomb Rush Cyberfunk before they leave the service permanently and become paid titles. It's an impressive array of games, particularly with Diablo 4 nearing its Season 8 end date, and Jusant offering a fantastic climbing experience that fully immerses players in its world. It's a lot of fun and will keep players thoroughly engaged. Dive in, and we'll see you at the summit.
Digital Trends
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Digital Trends
FBC: Firebreak review: co-op Control spinoff is a a lot of work for little payoff
FBC: Firebreak MSRP $40.00 Score Details 'FBC: Firebreak hides a fine co-op shooter behind a tedious grind.' Pros Clever premise Creative mission structure Good use of Control universe Cons Matchmaking woes Thin teamwork Demanding grind 'Why you can trust Digital Trends – We have a 20-year history of testing, reviewing, and rating products, services and apps to help you make a sound buying decision. Find out more about how we test and score products.' You start a new job. It's nothing special; you're just a low rung paper pusher. The starting pay is meager, but it's enough to pay the bills. Your boss says that he sees a bright future for you in this company. Work hard and you'll get a promotion. More money. More perks. More power. You bust your butt to hit every milestone you can, occasionally getting a small holiday bonus or a few extra vacation days. Your day to day only improves in small increments, but you keep reaching for the next rung of the corporate ladder in hopes that the view from the top will be worth it one day. Recommended Videos That experience isn't so dissimilar to how I've felt playing FBC: Firebreak, a shooter that feels like a second job. Remedy Entertainment's foray into co-op action, a spinoff of its 2019 hit Control, brings a playful pitch to the board room. It imagined what the average Joes of its interconnected universe do while Jesse Fayden is living out a superhero fantasy. It's a celebration of the mundane that hands out Employee of the Week plaques to any player willing to clock in for a dead end job with a smile on their face. Though the idea of FBC: Firebreak has some potential that may reveal itself with later updates, shallow teamwork and repetitive missions fail to impress in its probationary period. It's a gig built on incentives, promising players that things will get better the harder they work. Maybe they will for the most dedicated company men, but I imagine many workers will hand in their two weeks before getting to that point. A job's a job FBC: Firebreak makes a strong case for itself on day one. The idea is that players embody the Federal Bureau of Control's most underappreciated workers. These are the cleaners who are tasked with keeping the office in order and cleaning the fans. Of course, mundane is a relative term in The Oldest House. The halls are filled with Hiss monsters that need to be exterminated – even the sticky notes are evil. It's a supernatural send up of The Office where squads of three work together to tackle odd jobs while fighting back waves of Hiss and snatching bonuses that will unlock more upgrades later on. To execute that clever idea, Remedy invents a clever gameplay loop rather than copying its multiplayer peers. Rather than dropping players into a singular playlist, there are a smattering of jobs to complete (with five available at launch and two coming by the end of 2025). In one mission, my team and I need to clean pink goop off of some machinery. In another, we need to fix some broken fans to keep The Oldest House from overheating. It's a funny idea, though there's only one mission currently that really feels like it fully nails the joke. The standout job has my team cleaning millions of sticky notes up, by shooting at thick patches of them scattered around an office. They can get stuck to my character's body, obscuring their first-person vision and eventually swallowing them whole. It's a zany workplace premise that simply isn't matched by blander missions that simply have me collecting orbs and dropping them in a minecart. Discovering the punchline of each job is the real draw early on. Missions always start with a simple janitorial joke, but build out in complexity the more players dial up the difficulty. Each job has three phases, each of which is more involved than the last and the final one culminating in some final test. In Hot Fix, the first phase simply tasks me with fixing up broken fans by pressing my controller's bumpers in the pattern shown on screen. The second phase opens up a second zone, where I need to watch out as fans occasionally blast out heat rays that can set me on fire while I'm working. The third phase does all of that, but then culminates with my squad having to fill up barrels of water and zipline them into a giant furnace that's about to blow. Discovering the punchline of each job – especially the excellent end gag of Paper Chase – is the real draw early on. That mission structure does wear thin fast, though, even with four difficulty levels and optional Corruption modifiers that raise the danger and rewards. Each job is a one-trick pony that loses its luster after the first full go around. It feels a bit like playing one interstitial puzzle in a Destiny raid blown out into a full mission. It would be a little easier to swallow if there was some exploration to be done during missions, but there's very little potential for that. The small maps only contain a smattering of upgrade materials to find, whether hidden in locked safe rooms or just lying around on tables, but any side areas are largely empty. The customizable mission structure doesn't shake things up enough to make it feel worthwhile, but it does come with one side effect: a matchmaking headache. When you jump into a multiplayer game, you usually have a few playlists to choose from. Those focused options make sure players can easily get into a round because there are only so many places for players to queue up. Consider how much more complicated that becomes when each mission has three possible phases, four difficulties, and multiple corruption options. You're talking hundreds of playlist permeations that not even the world's most popular games could hope to fill consistently. I'm not sure how Remedy is accounting for that, but judging by the fact that I have never successfully matched into a specific job setting yet, the situation is a bit dire. I've mostly had to spend my time in Quick Play, where I wind up just doing the basic first phase of jobs over and over again. That issue has been worsened by some unreliable connectivity at launch. I have been booted from jobs mid-game several times so far. That included one time while playing with a friend, after which I had to struggle to get back in with a room code that didn't appear to work for a few minutes. I imagine that these issues will be smoothed out over time (Remedy has already pushed some matchmaking improvements post-launch), but all of it leaves a bad first impression out the gate. Thin teamwork While jobs can be tackled solo, FBC: Firebreak is meant to be played with a squad of three coordinated friends. That's because the selectable character classes all have abilities that are meant to synergize with others, or cover their weaknesses. There are three selectable 'kits' at launch, each of which can be customized with different perks, weapons, and throwable grenades. The Fix kit's deal is that they have a wrench, which means that they can repair electronics by smacking them rather than carrying out a button pressing minigame. The Splash kit has a water cannon that can put out fires and soak enemies. The Jump kit (the total dud of the three) has an electric tool, the best application of which is firing it at wet enemies to electrocute them. There's some clever interplay born from that trio, as each class has a specific role to fill in a mission. Being 'better with friends' is such a low bar that I hesitate to give FBC: Firebreak credit for limboing under it. The problem, though, is that Remedy still wants the entire experience to work for solo players. That design philosophy means that every class' specific skill isn't actually necessary at all. If I see a fire on the ground, I can simply pat it out with that same bumper pressing minigame that I use to repair objects. If I don't want to do that, there might be a sprinkler above it that I can shoot to put it out. More often than not, I can just walk around it since fires rarely block my path. I don't need a Splash kit to deal with that, nor do I need a Fix kit to power up healing showers and ammo-giving workbenches. I can do that job with any character, and almost as fast. I understand the instinct here, but there's some missed potential here to make players solve for missing kits in more creative, puzzling ways. When I'm not cleaning turbines or putting out fires, I'm shooting waves of frequently spawning Hiss monsters. They're essentially zombies, but Remedy's inventive worldbuilding pays off here with an array of bizarre creatures, from flying chair demons to illusory orbs. It's a perfectly fine way to add some action between the run-of-the-mill tasks, but the shooting is as thin as the kit powers. Each player can only equip one gun, more or less just choosing between a handgun, machine gun, or shotgun. None of those feel like they have much impact when they fire, nor do grenades that hardly do damage to even the weakest degs. All of this is a little more fun with friends, of course. There are a few systems that encourage coordination, such as the fact that players' shields will only regenerate when they stick by one another. But frankly, being 'better with friends' is such a low bar that I hesitate to give FBC: Firebreak credit for limboing under it. Everything is better with friends! I would have a nice time painting over the Sistine Chapel if I was chatting with two close pals during the process. The most fun I've had so far is when I logged in to play with another reviewer. The mission itself was just background noise as we chatted about our issues with the game. As is the case with even the most boring desk job, it's the people gathered around the water cooler that can make it all worthwhile. But nothing's stopping you from hanging out with those coworkers outside of the office. Incentive structure FBC: Firebreak does get better the more time you put into it, but that's my biggest issue with it currently. It's almost a game that's designed to be boring from mission one. I don't have a grenade, my starting weapons feel weak, and my kits have no depth. Those issues change as I play and pick up upgrade currencies during jobs. Gradually, I'm able to unlock better weapons and new utilities for each kit's primary tool. The big hook is a long-tailed perk unlock system, which allows me to stack up more buffs as I level up characters and totally change how they feel. Put enough hours in and the early hour woes will clear up. That design decision is one built on hubris. Remedy seems to be banking on the idea that players will simply grind their way through a boring game by dangling the promise of a fun one in front of them. Play long enough and the Fix kit will a turret and an ultimate ability that involves a piggy bank. To get there, though, you'll have to play the same few missions over and over again to grab more upgrade materials. And when you finally get the tools you want, you'll be returning to those exact same missions again. It's an arbitrary grind, one that Remedy has already toned down in post-launch updates. As I wasted testing FBC: Firebreak, I was juggling two other online multiplayer games, Mario Kart World and Rematch. Both games have something in common that FBC: Firebreak lacks: They hooked me from the very first round. Mario Kart's racing is fast and fun from the jump and I never need to be convinced to queue up for another round of Knockout Tour. Rematch is similarly elegant, introducing me to satisfying soccer gameplay that's both casual and leaves a lot of room for personal growth as I pick up its nuances. The extra incentives for playing both are thin. Mario Kart World has some unlockable characters and stickers, but none of those things change the fundamentals of racing. Rematch only rewards me with some cosmetics in typical battle pass fashion, but I'm not thinking about that at all when I go for another round. They're like the surprise Christmas bonuses that you're not expecting. I just can't imagine signing off from my real 9 to 5 to clock into another one. FBC: Firebreak, on the other hand, is all carrot and stick. You're starting a contract job with low pay and no benefits, and then asked to get excited to work for the chance to get health insurance in a year. Sure, everything will feel more worthwhile once you get there, but you're probably not going to stop job hunting while you wait. There are other jobs to apply to out there, just as there are countless co-op games that don't lock the good parts away. In some high concept way, it all makes FBC: Firebreak more thematically functional. It treats players like the lowly employees they control. You have to imagine that their dream isn't to fight demonic sticky notes every day. Surely they hope to run the FBC one day, becoming one of those powerful people that gets to redact documents. That's the dream, but it's one hidden behind a gauntlet of hoops. The grind here feels true to life, perhaps making FBC: Firebreak the most accurate representation of what it's like to climb the corporate ladder. I just can't imagine signing off from my real 9 to 5 to clock into another one. FBC: Firebreak was tested on PS5 Pro.
Daily Mirror
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
PS Plus Essential July 2025 predictions and announcement date
PS Plus subscribers are excited to see what new games will be added to the service for free in July 2025 – and we won't have long to wait before we find out PS Plus is a major draw for gamers, who are eagerly anticipating another month of complimentary games to dive into. Despite facing stiff competition from Xbox Game Pass and an anticipated subscription price increase following the debut of CoD: WW2 on the service, PS Plus remains a solid deal for players when considered independently. The most recent release featured FBC: Firebreak from Remedy Entertainment, with the PS Plus Extra and Premium June 2025 games also giving players the opportunity to revisit Battlefield 2042, a game that initially stumbled at launch but has since rebuilt itself into a top-tier shooter. The service provides a welcome distraction for those disgruntled by having to pay for online services, offering a vast library to Extra and Premium subscribers, and a selection of games to Essential subscribers each month, provided they maintain their subscription. It's a beneficial arrangement for many, and it appears that a new batch of games is on the horizon. Fortunately, we have reliable ways to predict what's coming before the games are officially announced. The most effective method to anticipate the upcoming PS Plus offerings is to examine the games that were released exactly a year prior, scrutinise their original PlayStation release dates, and then add a year to those dates to identify what games were launched around the same time. In this instance, we're focusing on the Essential games for July 2024, which included Among Us, NHL 24 and Borderlands 3. The standout game here is Among Us, so adding a year to its December 2021 PS5 and PS4 release date, we can expect games like Hello Neighbor 2, Neon White, and Metal: Hellsinger, which debuted on the PlayStation platform in December 2022. If these games are indeed part of the line-up, it would make for an exceptional month, particularly for fans of high-quality indie games and viral sensations – but we won't know for certain until they officially appear on the service. So, when will we find out? Here's the PS Plus Essential July 2025 reveal time. PS Plus Essential July 2025 reveal time The PS Plus Essential July 2025 reveal time is scheduled for 8.30am PDT / 11.30am EDT / 4.30pm BST on Wednesday, June 25. This is because the announcement of PS Plus Essential games always occurs on the last Wednesday of any given month, with the games set to be released on the following Tuesday, which in this case is Tuesday, July 1. It's always a thrill to look forward to new games arriving for PS Plus subscribers at no additional charge, and even though our prediction strategy doesn't foresee any major AAA titles, we're certainly keen on welcoming more players for Neon White. It truly merits it, after all.
The Verge
19-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Verge
FBC: Firebreak is missing Control's weird charm
With FBC: Firebreak, Remedy Entertainment has entered the world of the first-person co-op shooter. Set in its Control universe — specifically the site of the first game, the brutalist nightmare office called the Oldest House — players control a member of the titular three-person team of the Federal Bureau of Control (FBC), tasked with addressing various containment breaches. Unfortunately, all the aspects that make Remedy's worlds so intriguing are completely absent in this bare-bones co-op shooter, which offers nothing for either longtime fans or those invested in existing shooters. Players in Firebreak are like firefighters or disaster responders, with each member occupying a different role: mechanic, water carrier, electrician. Across five recurring levels, teams must work to stop the spread of corruption, called the Hiss (a mysterious red entity that turns people into raging zombies and other types of creatures). Objectives vary from destroying Post-it notes to fixing fans, all while being assailed by swarms of various nightmare monsters. Control, the central foundation of Remedy's wider connected universe that also includes Alan Wake, is at its core weird. It's how Remedy developers have described it — to me and others — allowing for fluctuations between the terrifying, the quirky, the odd, and the hilarious. The Bureau itself is a government agency tasked with containing bizarre items and reacting to huge and strange world events: for example, a traffic light that, when it flashes red, sends people to different locations, or a fridge that eats people if you stop looking at it. In Remedy's universe, FBC workers document, monitor, and research these sorts of items with the gray-faced enthusiasm of every bored researcher. The number of times the toy duck teleports needs to be logged as much as how many coffee filters need to be replaced in the break room. That stone-faced reaction to the weird is only mildly present in Firebreak, with brief interactions with mission provider Hank Wilder, the security chief, detailing bizarre tasks in a slight monotone. Even player character barks demonstrate this. One of the player voice options is called 'Pencil Pusher,' who, when receiving friendly fire, screams that such actions 'violate office policy.' Health restoration involves characters huddling in a shower together; you can fix equipment by hitting it with a wrench. As someone obsessed with Control, I was eagerly anticipating a return — particularly in the shoes of ordinary personnel, rather than the almost godlike head of the agency, Jesse Faden (who you play in Control). But that sense of unease that plays off the quirkiness is not here. The Oldest House and its enemies feel like little more than an aesthetic, or even a kind of mod, for a generic co-op shooter. There is no sense of progression, no overarching goal to which you are working. Levels and tasks repeat. There aren't even creepy big-level bosses, like the terrors in Control, except in one area. You will have seen all the game has to offer within a few hours, since each level has only three or four stages (with each successive stage in the same level taking you further in), and some stages can be completed within three to four minutes. As an example, one stage involves destroying replicating Post-it notes. Once you have destroyed a sufficient number, you rush back to the elevator as a horde descends. The second stage requires the same objective, only this time you gain access to a second area to destroy more notes. The third stage repeats this, only you go further in and face a boss. All end with rushing back. While the game offers modifiers — such as harder enemies and corrupting anomalies that can slightly keep you on your toes — the core aspect wears out quickly. I do not feel I am making any headway in clearing out an entire level, since once cleared, there's no indicator our team made any difference. The only incentive is to obtain better gear. At least the game doesn't push microtransactions and is quite generous in its rewards, especially on harder difficulties. You also level up various roles independently: playing mainly as the mechanic, you will have to start from scratch if you switch to, for example, the electrician role. These roles do feel distinct, as you are given different gear and abilities. The mechanic can almost instantly repair broken equipment, a very useful skill given how many broken machines there are. But the game is filled with various hazards, such as fire and gunk, which the water soaker character — with their water cannon — can negate. Shooting feels good, but guns are standard: shotguns, machine guns, pistols. Don't expect weird weapons like the Service Weapon from Control. This is meat-and-potatoes destruction. That's precisely what disappointed me: ordinary workers in a world where fridges eat people is what made me love Control, and the idea of being able to play one of the lowly workers was exciting. Yet that charm is largely absent. I barely felt part of the FBC and it didn't seem like I was containing anything. In Control, you would clear rooms and see the game world change permanently. Obviously a co-op shooter can't do things in the exact same way. But why not tie something like this to the host player? If I have to see the same level three times, progressing further each level, why not show some permanent change from a previous run? There's no indication the world is reacting to the Firebreak team's efforts. In reality, Firebreak feels like one of the multiplayer modes that used to be tacked on to big-budget single-player games (think Mass Effect 3, for example). If players don't feel like they're making a difference as part of a team trying to stop an outbreak, why should we bother? The levels are akin to hero-shooter arenas, devoid of the deep lore of a Remedy game. At least with hero shooters, playing against other people keeps play constantly fresh. This felt like it was stale within a few hours, an avocado of a game. I genuinely don't know who Firebreak is for. Longtime fans of Control won't find collectibles, environmental storytelling, or anything to even read. And those looking for meaningful multiplayer shooters have plenty of options already. This is a strange dim light for a studio that usually produces brilliance. FBC: Firebreak is available now on the PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X / S. It's also available for Game Pass and PlayStation Plus subscribers.
