After a long and winding road, Remedy Entertainment has unveiled its multiplayer follow-up to Control. FBC: Firebreak is for teams of three, and the trios will face down waves of enemies with an intriguing arsenal of weapons. For instance, the trailer shows a gatling gun of gloopy poison and a gun with a launching piston attached to the front for aerial attacks.
Since FBC: Firebreak is set in the same world as Control (and Alan Wake II), there will be more for players to explore about this surreal place. The trailer showed off gunfights in the Federal Bureau of Control and the Oldest House, familiar settings to those who have played Control and its DLC. But with the different approach to gameplay, FBC: Firebreak isn’t intended to be a direct sequel to the psychological hit game. “I guess you could say that it’s a spin-off, but in the most positive sense of the word,” Game Director Mike Kayatta said. “It’s not designed to be some kind of lesser, bite-sized Control. FBC: Firebreak is its own, fully formed thing.”
A co-op project from the studio was first teased all the way back in 2021. Firebreak has clearly gone through some refinements from the original concept Remedy announced with 505 Games. At the time, it was also working on a free-to-play co-op shooter with the conglomerate Tencent, but the codenamed Project Vanguard was scrapped in 2023. The duo attempted to reenvision the game as a premium title, but that also fell by the wayside.
FBC: Firebreak is currently scheduled for release in 2025 and it will be on Game Pass at launch. It is expected to launch on Xbox Series X|S, PC and PlayStation 5.