FBC: Firebreak Review (PC) – Fast-Paced Fun That Maintains Control

If you know me, you’ll know that Remedy Entertainment is one of my favorite developers in the industry—Alan Wake 2 is easily one of the best games ever made. Of course, Alan Wake is part of the Remedy Connected Universe (RCU), along with Control, a game focused on the Federal Bureau of Control, a top-secret agency tasked with containing supernatural threats. Both titles are deeply rooted in single-player storytelling, which is what Remedy is known for. But now, with FBC: Firebreak, they’re venturing into co-op territory for the first time. Can the masters of single-player narrative deliver a satisfying multiplayer experience? Let’s find out.

Game Name: FBC: Firebreak
Platform(s): PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC (Reviewed)
Publisher(s): Remedy Entertainment
Developer(s): Remedy Entertainment
Release Date: 17th June 2025

Remedy’s Take on Co-Op Shooters, With a Story Twist

What exactly is FBC: Firebreak? While the quickest comparison point would obviously be the beloved Left 4 Dead, that’s because the focus of FBC: Firebreak is three-player co-op through a series of missions of increasing difficulty and larger threats (literally). Although the focus is on three-player co-op, you do have the option to start missions as a duo, allowing random players to drop in if and when available. Alongside this, you can also play through the entire game solo should you wish to—though I wouldn’t recommend it.

In truth, saying that FBC: Firebreak is just another Left 4 Dead clone would be doing the game a huge disservice.

FBC: Firebreak actually incorporates existing lore of Control, even expanding on it through dialogue and environmental storytelling. Being set six years after the events of Control and two years after the events of Alan Wake 2, FBC: Firebreak could yet prove to play a pivotal role in whatever comes next for the RCU. This element of additional lore is sure to capture the imagination of existing fans of Remedy’s Connected Universe. Having more lore and potentially playing a role in an overarching narrative immediately makes FBC: Firebreak more interesting than similar games.

First-Person Shooter With A Unique Feel

When it comes to gameplay, FBC: Firebreak is familiar with first-person shooter mechanics but puts a signature Remedy twist on things. Firstly, you choose from one of three kits to equip before missions. These kits function as FBC: Firebreak’s classes, with each setup giving you access to a unique tool to help complete your objective. For example, the Fixer kit gives you a wrench that can be used to repair showers, which act as the healing station in each level. One of the developers joked about taking a shower with your crew during Summer Game Fest; he was really hoping that people would get a kick out of that way of healing up. The wrench will also allow you to fix circuit boards and bring lights back on for improved visibility.

Meanwhile, the Splash kit gives you a water cannon which can be used to put out fires, including the fires on your teammates. That isn’t the only thing the water cannon is good for. It can also be fired at enemies to slow them down or provide additional damage. In one mission, you can even use it to help achieve your objective more efficiently, but I won’t reveal exactly how you do that.

We then have the Charge kit, which gives you a bizarre contraption allowing you to power different objects throughout the levels—from showers and ammo stations to heaters, lights, and more.

Combat and Enemy Variety

The main gameplay loop includes a lot of combat against the Hiss—those freaky supernatural enemies from Control. That’s right, they’re still terrorizing the Oldest House, and there seem to be more of them than ever. Enemy variety is a real highlight of FBC: Firebreak, with everything from melee or firearm-equipped grunts to big, hulking brutes who can only be damaged from behind. We even get named enemies that act like mini-bosses; they’re stronger, meaner versions of the enemies you’ve already fought.

Of course, the way you deal with these enemies is with guns and grenades. Each class starts with a different weapon, but you can adjust the loadout at any time. The three main firearms at your disposal are a submachine gun, a bolt-action rifle, and a handgun. I’ve personally been using the handgun since it’s a one-shot kill for most enemies, but each gun has its advantages.

Progressing Through FBC: Firebreak 

You can improve weapons and tools by completing missions and finding files or briefcases. Doing this will earn you “Samples”—a currency used via the game’s requisition menu to unlock higher-tier weapons, upgraded tools, and even cosmetics for your character. However, this system is one of the small issues I have with FBC: Firebreak. That’s because, just like Fortnite, the progression system is structured like a catalog, requiring you to unlock a certain number of items on each page before you can access the next set of upgrades.

In practice, this results in you needing to unlock items you never intend to use just to get to the ones you actually want. It adds a level of grind that’s more annoying than anything else, especially when playing on higher difficulties, which are chaotic, fun, and challenging, requiring stronger weapons you can’t get until much later.

Bigger Challenge Means Bigger Reward

Speaking of being challenged, there are two ways to increase the difficulty of FBC: Firebreak’s handful of missions. Firstly, you have the obvious difficulty settings: Easy, Normal, Hard, and Extreme. Then, you have the clearance levels. Once you’ve completed a mission the first time, you can turn up the clearance level, which adds extra objectives and areas to clear, boosting the difficulty without even touching the difficulty setting.

Let me tell you—Tier 3 clearance on Extreme difficulty gets wild… we weren’t ready for it.

These difficulty and clearance levels impact how many “Samples” you receive for completing missions, which directly affects how quickly you progress. This becomes extra important when you realize there’s also a research section acting as a full perk system, which also uses Samples to unlock character perks. As you level up, you’ll gain the ability to research more perks, and the more you play with your chosen kit—Splash, Fix, or Charge—the more perks you’ll be able to equip to your character.

Overall, there’s a lot to FBC: Firebreak’s progression systems that will keep players entertained for many hours. I just wish the requisition system were less Fortnite-like and more level-based like the research system for perks.

Familiar Look And Tone

In terms of presentation, FBC: Firebreak is a very nice-looking game that feels right at home in Remedy’s Connected Universe. Seeing the Oldest House from Control in a first-person perspective felt wonderfully familiar, but new at the same time.

When it comes to audio, the guns sound exactly how you’d expect and have the weight to match, but more impressive are the enemy sounds. Hearing the Hiss whispering in the distance, followed by spotting a glowing red light, instantly brought back that uneasy feeling I had while playing Control.

How Well Does It Run? Surprisingly Damn Well

Given Remedy’s track record with strong PC performance, especially with Alan Wake 2, I expected FBC: Firebreak to follow suit. Thankfully, that assumption was dead-on. The game runs beautifully across a range of systems, as long as you’ve got a modern GPU. It fully supports upscaling tech like NVIDIA DLSS and AMD FSR, and it makes good use of both.

That said, Remedy went all-in on visual settings. Honestly, maybe too in, if you catch my drift. Jumping into the fire (pun intended), I couldn’t help myself. I cranked everything up: DLAA, ray tracing, Ultra settings—the whole shebang. My rig (AMD Ryzen 9 9800X3D and RTX 4090) handled it like a champ… mostly. I eventually scaled back a few things and found a sweet spot at over 100 FPS in 4K, and even higher at 1440p. Beyond playing it on a super duper gaming PC, I tested this on a mid-range desktop that was rocking an AMD Ryzen 5 8600G and RTX 3070 Ti, and while it required me to drop the settings down a bit, the game still performed like a champ.

On the handheld side, Remedy included a dedicated visual preset, which is a nice touch. It let my ROG Ally X run the game surprisingly well without much tweaking. I seriously didn’t expect the game to run as well as it did, but again, I shouldn’t be surprised given Remedy’s pedigree for optimization. Sadly, I don’t have my Steam Deck on hand to see how it plays on that.

So once again, it feels like Remedy pulled off some space magic. Firebreak’s performance is top-tier. Just don’t get greedy with the settings. We PC gamers tend to think we’re invincible—and sometimes that FPS counter reminds us otherwise.

Smart Combat, Slick Tools, and That Remedy Vibe

In the end, FBC: Firebreak is tons of fun with fast-paced combat, clever tool implementation, and Remedy’s signature lore and world-building. It only has a handful of missions at launch, which might make it less attractive to some, but the clearance level and difficulty systems combine in a way that makes replaying missions more interesting and engaging. However, there will be several new Jobs that will arrive after launch, and Remedy has assured that there will be all sorts of updated Jobs to be released well into 2026, all free of charge.

I’m not sure how long of a tail FBC: Firebreak will have, but I’ll definitely be back for the two expansions that have already been announced. If you’re a fan of Remedy or co-op shooters, FBC: Firebreak is an easy recommend—especially if you have Game Pass Ultimate or PS Plus (Extra/Premium), since it launches on both services day one.

Review Disclosure Statement: A copy of FBC: Firebreak was provided to us for review purposes by Remedy Entertainment. For more information on how we review video games and other media/technology, please review our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy for more info.

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