Remedy's first multiplayer game, FBC: Firebreak, has a release date
Remedy hosted a nearly two-hour livestream today to showcase their co-op FPS, FBC: Firebreak. We got a long look at gameplay, plus a release date.
Today, Remedy Entertainment hosted FBC: Firebreak. The stream showed live gameplay of the Paper Chase mission, where sticky notes are multiplying all over the office and need to be dealt with. The Game Director, Mike Kayatta, spoke about the features and mechanics of the game as Julius Fondem, the Community Manager, played with a few other Remedy team . Near the end of the stream, Remedy announced a release date for FBC: Firebreak, June 17th.
FBC: Firebreak announces a release date for June via first gameplay livestream
Remedy Entertainment is best known for their single-player experiences. Control’s protagonist Jesse Faden even appearing in the Night Springs DLC, which was a series of episodic missions. FBC: Firebreak continues this legacy but introduces the multiplayer twist.
As you might be able to guess, the FBC in the title stands for Federal Bureau of Control. In this game, three players will work together to take on supernatural oddities as they try to tear down the FBC offices. A recent trailer highlighted one of these missions, in which sticky notes threaten to cover everything. Players will have to destroy as many stick notes as they can, all while fighting the zombie-like humanoids chasing them down. The gameplay looks fresh, creative, and weird in just the way I expect from a Remedy game, multiplayer or not.
Today’s stream gave a closer look at some of the optional player loadouts. The Jump Kit was inspired by what happens if you combine a defibrillator with a pogo stick. The primary weapon uses electricity to apply shock to enemies and provide power to electronics, even turning on the lights in the office if they go out. Meanwhile the Splash Kit uses a sort of snowball launcher to put out fires, soak enemies, and wash away sticky notes.
My favorite moment from that sticky note trailer, was when a player gets covered in sticky notes and goes down, they will return as a humanoid enemy made entirely of sticky notes, called “shufflers.” During today’s stream, we learned that this does happen to players but also happens to other corpses as well. Shufflers are unique in that they will also multiply, just like the regular sticky notes. So instead of mindlessly charging towards the players, as some enemies will do, shufflers will hide from players to try to grow their numbers. This forces players to change how they interact with enemies, turning a cautious defensive playstyle into more of an offensive hunt.
FBC: Firebreak looks like a very fun and fresh take on the co-op shooter genre. Not only will the gameplay be unlike anything we’ve seen before, but the level of creativity players have is also exciting. Remedy’s approach to the game’s systems is also encouraging. You can change the difficulty, adjust the session length, and tone down the randomness accordingly, but also any player with high level perks is able to share those with their teammates, so it won’t be a situation where a new player feels left out if their friend has been playing for much longer.
FBC: Firebreak launches on June 17th for Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and PC, and will be available via Xbox Game and PlayStation Plus as well. Via a press release, the game is planned to go on sale for $39.99, with a deluxe edition available as well.
