With FBC: Firebreak, Treatment Leisure has entered the world of the first-person co-op shooter. Set in its Management universe — particularly the positioning of the primary recreation, 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 numerous containment breaches. Sadly, all of the features that make Treatment’s worlds so intriguing are fully absent on this bare-bones co-op shooter, which gives nothing for both longtime followers or these invested in present shooters.
Gamers in Firebreak are like firefighters or catastrophe responders, with every member occupying a special function: mechanic, water provider, electrician. Throughout 5 recurring ranges, groups should work to cease the unfold of corruption, referred to as the Hiss (a mysterious purple entity that turns individuals into raging zombies and different kinds of creatures). Goals differ from destroying Put up-it notes to fixing followers, all whereas being assailed by swarms of varied 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 visitors gentle that, when it flashes purple, sends individuals to totally different areas, or a fridge that eats individuals when you cease taking a look at it.
In Treatment’s universe, FBC staff doc, monitor, and analysis these types 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 should be changed within the break room.
That stone-faced response to the bizarre is simply 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 named “Pencil Pusher,” who, when receiving pleasant hearth, screams that such actions “violate workplace coverage.” Well being restoration entails 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 sneakers of bizarre personnel, reasonably than the virtually 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 objective 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 stage has solely three or 4 levels (with every successive stage in the identical stage taking you additional in), and a few levels may be accomplished inside three to 4 minutes. For instance, one stage entails destroying replicating Put up-it notes. Upon getting destroyed a adequate quantity, you rush again to the elevator as a horde descends. The second stage requires the identical goal, solely this time you acquire 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 speeding again.
Whereas the sport gives modifiers — comparable to tougher enemies and corrupting anomalies that may barely hold you in your toes — the core facet wears out rapidly. I don’t really feel I’m making any headway in clearing out a complete stage, 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 kind of beneficiant in its rewards, particularly on tougher difficulties.
Picture: Treatment Leisure
You additionally stage up numerous roles independently: enjoying primarily because the mechanic, you’ll have to begin from scratch when you swap to, for instance, the electrician function. 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 recreation is full of numerous hazards, comparable to hearth and gunk, which the water soaker character — with their water cannon — can negate.
Taking pictures feels good, however weapons are normal: shotguns, machine weapons, pistols. Don’t count on bizarre weapons just like the Service Weapon from Management. That is meat-and-potatoes destruction.
That’s exactly what dissatisfied me: bizarre staff in a world the place fridges eat individuals is what made me love Management, and the concept of with the ability to play one of many lowly staff was thrilling. But that attraction is essentially absent. I barely felt a part of the FBC and it didn’t look like 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 manner. However why not tie one thing like this to the host participant? If I’ve to see the identical stage 3 times, progressing additional every stage, 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 (assume 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 recreation. No less than with hero shooters, enjoying towards different individuals retains play continually recent. This felt prefer it was stale inside just a few hours, an avocado of a recreation.
I genuinely don’t know who Firebreak is for. Longtime followers of Management received’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 gentle for a studio that often produces brilliance.
FBC: Firebreak is obtainable now on the PC, PS5, and Xbox Sequence X / S. It’s additionally accessible for Recreation Go and PlayStation Plus subscribers.
