With FBC: Firebreak, Treatment Leisure has entered the world of the first-person co-op shooter. Set in its Management universe — particularly the location of the primary sport, the brutalist nightmare workplace referred to as the Oldest Home — gamers management a member of the titular three-person workforce of the Federal Bureau of Management (FBC), tasked with addressing varied containment breaches. Sadly, all of the elements that make Treatment’s worlds so intriguing are fully absent on this bare-bones co-op shooter, which provides nothing for both longtime followers or these invested in current shooters.
Gamers in Firebreak are like firefighters or catastrophe responders, with every member occupying a special position: mechanic, water provider, electrician. Throughout 5 recurring ranges, groups should work to cease the unfold of corruption, referred to as the Hiss (a mysterious crimson entity that turns folks into raging zombies and different sorts of creatures). Goals range from destroying Publish-it notes to fixing followers, all whereas being assailed by swarms of assorted nightmare monsters.
Management, the central basis of Treatment’s wider related universe that additionally contains Alan Wake, is at its core bizarre. It’s how Treatment builders have described it — to me and others — permitting for fluctuations between the terrifying, the quirky, the odd, and the hilarious. The Bureau itself is a authorities company tasked with containing weird objects and reacting to large and unusual world occasions: for instance, a site visitors mild that, when it flashes crimson, sends folks to totally different areas, or a fridge that eats folks for those who cease taking a look at it.
In Treatment’s universe, FBC employees doc, monitor, and analysis these kinds of things with the gray-faced enthusiasm of each bored researcher. The variety of occasions the toy duck teleports must be logged as a lot as what number of espresso filters must be changed within the break room.
That stone-faced response to the bizarre is just mildly current in Firebreak, with transient interactions with mission supplier Hank Wilder, the safety chief, detailing weird duties in a slight monotone. Even participant character barks show this. One of many participant voice choices is known as “Pencil Pusher,” who, when receiving pleasant hearth, screams that such actions “violate workplace coverage.” Well being restoration includes characters huddling in a bathe collectively; you possibly can repair tools by hitting it with a wrench.
As somebody obsessive about Management, I used to be eagerly anticipating a return — significantly within the footwear of strange personnel, reasonably than the just about godlike head of the company, Jesse Faden (who you play in Management). However that sense of unease that performs off the quirkiness will not be right here. The Oldest Home and its enemies really feel like little greater than an aesthetic, or perhaps a form of mod, for a generic co-op shooter. There is no such thing as a sense of development, no overarching aim to which you might be working. Ranges and duties repeat. There aren’t even creepy big-level bosses, just like the terrors in Management, besides in a single space.
You’ll have seen all the sport has to supply inside just a few hours, since every degree has solely three or 4 phases (with every successive stage in the identical degree taking you additional in), and a few phases might be accomplished inside three to 4 minutes. For instance, one stage includes destroying replicating Publish-it notes. Upon getting destroyed a enough quantity, you rush again to the elevator as a horde descends. The second stage requires the identical goal, solely this time you achieve entry to a second space to destroy extra notes. The third stage repeats this, solely you go additional in and face a boss. All finish with dashing again.
Whereas the sport provides modifiers — akin to tougher enemies and corrupting anomalies that may barely hold you in your toes — the core side wears out shortly. I don’t really feel I’m making any headway in clearing out a whole degree, since as soon as cleared, there’s no indicator our workforce made any distinction. The one incentive is to acquire higher gear. No less than the sport doesn’t push microtransactions and is sort of beneficiant in its rewards, particularly on tougher difficulties.
You additionally degree up varied roles independently: taking part in primarily because the mechanic, you’ll have to begin from scratch for those who change to, for instance, the electrician position. These roles do really feel distinct, as you might be given totally different gear and skills. The mechanic can virtually immediately restore damaged tools, a really helpful talent given what number of damaged machines there are. However the sport is stuffed with varied hazards, akin to hearth and gunk, which the water soaker character — with their water cannon — can negate.
Capturing feels good, however weapons are commonplace: shotguns, machine weapons, pistols. Don’t anticipate bizarre weapons just like the Service Weapon from Management. That is meat-and-potatoes destruction.
That’s exactly what disenchanted me: strange employees in a world the place fridges eat folks is what made me love Management, and the thought of with the ability to play one of many lowly employees was thrilling. But that attraction is essentially absent. I barely felt a part of the FBC and it didn’t appear to be I used to be containing something.
In Management, you’ll clear rooms and see the sport world change completely. Clearly a co-op shooter can’t do issues in the very same method. However why not tie one thing like this to the host participant? If I’ve to see the identical degree 3 times, progressing additional every degree, why not present some everlasting change from a earlier run? There’s no indication the world is reacting to the Firebreak workforce’s efforts.
In actuality, Firebreak appears like one of many multiplayer modes that was tacked on to big-budget single-player video games (suppose Mass Impact 3, for instance). If gamers don’t really feel like they’re making a distinction as a part of a workforce attempting to cease an outbreak, why ought to we hassle? The degrees are akin to hero-shooter arenas, devoid of the deep lore of a Treatment sport. No less than with hero shooters, taking part in in opposition to different folks retains play consistently recent. This felt prefer it was stale inside just a few hours, an avocado of a sport.
I genuinely don’t know who Firebreak is for. Longtime followers of Management gained’t discover collectibles, environmental storytelling, or something to even learn. And people in search of significant multiplayer shooters have loads of choices already. This can be a unusual dim mild for a studio that normally produces brilliance.
FBC: Firebreak is out there now on the PC, PS5, and Xbox Collection X / S. It’s additionally obtainable for Sport Go and PlayStation Plus subscribers.