Remedy’sgames have always represented the highest quality. Ever since 2001’sMax Payne, the studio has produced a flurry of hits, includingAlan WakeandAlan Wake 2,Control, and evenQuantum Break.
Its latest game,FBC: Firebreak, deviated from the company’s tried-and-true single-player formula, though, and the reception from players online has almost certainly not been as Remedy would have hoped. The game launched to “Mixed” reviews on Steam and faced a barrage of other complaints in online forums like Reddit.
FBC: Firebreak Gets Off To A Difficult Start
FBC: Firebreak is Remedy Entertainment’s take on Left 4 Dead. It’s a multiplayer co-op FPS in which players revisit Control’s Oldest House, fighting off waves of enemies under the control of The Hiss. Conceptually, it sounds like a winner.Control’s world and setting were lauded upon the game’s 2019 release, and with the Remedy seal of quality, it should have been a winner, but with less than 24 hours under its belt, many don’t feel like that’s the case.
The game currently has 60 percent positive reviewson Steam, leaving it with the platform’s “Mixed” indicator. Its detractors cited a lack of content, including “only five maps, three weapons, three classes, and six enemies,” as its biggest downfall, but complaints also arose around its rushed feel and high price point. Even some of the positive reviews on the Valve-owned platform are mixed in tone, with one stating the game “could use some more time cooking,” and another adding that it’s “probably overpriced”.
Firebreak does NOT explain its mechanics and objectives properly at all.
The complaints continued over on theFBC: Firebreak subreddit. This time, many opted to focus on the game’s confusing opening hours. One comment said, “The very first match I played, all three of us were wandering around trying to figure out what to do. We were dropped into a level with no context or knowledge of anything, and suddenly we were burning to death while completely lost. Firebreak does NOT explain its mechanics and objectives properly at all.”
This comment was part of alarger threadin which many players urged Remedy to include an “intro mission that gives players context for the story, instructions for carrying out objectives, and practice with fully upgraded weapons and kits.”
Inour official FBC: Firebreak review, we echoed many of the concerns shared by the game’s audience, scoring it a 3.5/5. We said, “Firebreak is neat, but it will only take a night or two to see everything it has to offer. There’s not quite enough here to justify the cost, especially when my other games have limited-time events, and I’d just so hate to miss out.” It currently sits at a 65 onMetacriticand 67 onOpenCritic.
On launch day, FBC: Firebreak also struggled to gain traction on Steam. According toSteamDB, the game peaked at under 2,000 players on the platform. This is likely to be less of a concern for Remedy, though, as it launched onXbox Game Passand as part of PlayStation Plus' free games.
It’s early days for Remedy’s latest title, and the company clearly plans to support it for a while,releasing a roadmap for the game just last week, but it has a little way to go to turn around this initial player sentiment.
