It's like we never left. Oh, wait.
With just over a month to go before the release of Control spin-off FBC Firebreak, Remedy invited Stevivor to take part in a remote hands-on preview. Despite playing over a very late night as compared to the other European-based outlets that took part, I jumped at the chance.
Before I go any further, please allow me to shortcut here and draw your attention to my March 2025 hands-off preview of FBC Firebreak, which explains just what the game is, and what Remedy is aiming for. The TL;DR here is that Firebreak is set six years after the events of Control; the unfortunate souls who found themselves trapped in the Oldest House as part of a lockdown to contain the Hiss are still there.
With numbers dwindling, volunteers of every background — janitor, ranger, middle manager — have been recruited to form the titular Firebreak. Their job? Resist the Hiss and, ultimately, survive.
While you won’t see a lot of cutscenes and — as far as we know — encounter the likes of Federal Bureau of Control Director Jesse Faden, there’s still a ton of Control found within Firebreak. Presented as a first-person shooter and best engaged with a pair of friends, you’re going to be wandering extremely familiar hallways, leveraging Objects of Power and fighting the same baddies that Jesse did.
For our hands-on session, I was paired with two Italian-based journalists and able to complete three different jobs. The first was Paper Chase, a job that’s featured quite heavily within Firebreak‘s marketing campaign. We also were able to play through Hot Fix, a job set within the Oldest House’s furnace area (if you know, you know), and a third called Ground Control, which takes place in the Black Rock Quarry.
Fittingly, each job was quite different from the other. In Paper Chase, we were tasked to eliminate an infestation of post-it notes that was taking over office areas. In Hot Fix, we needed to restart the furnace and feed it kills. Finally, Ground Control tasked us to mine and deposit radioactive samples into a MacGuffin-style device. Settings in each mean jobs can become more complex, chaining more tasks upon another, or made more difficult through traditional difficulty settings.
Now, I’m very prepared to blame some of our team’s troubles on the fact that I was halfway around the world using preview servers, but Firebreak kicked our ass on moderate difficulty. Action is extremely fast-paced, and without proper communication our team found ourselves isolated and swarmed by the Hiss more often than not.
Working together, your team can avoid hits and regain both health and shields in the process, though you’re also able to help each other recover when downed. That’s incredibly important, as you’ve got a set amount of “volunteers” — aka bureau members throwing their lives away — in each job before you’ll hit a fail state.
While Remedy’s never developed a first-person shooter, you’d never know it as things felt fluid and polished. As part of your loadout, you’ll have a main weapon, a secondary tool, and a grenade. Alongside a melee, these are all bolstered by perks and augments. I foolishly spend my in-game currency (earned through gameplay) quite stupidly and never got to check out an augment, but I fell in love with secondary tools.
Remedy recommended each member of our trio equip a different tool, and they weren’t kidding. The electric tool is useful for staggering Hiss, but more importantly for starting up ammo and shower shelters, integral to keep shooting and cleanse yourself of debuffs. If you don’t have one — and our team didn’t the first round — you’ll instead have to approach these devices and go through a long and laborious manual start sequence while Hiss hammer at you. Speaking of hammering, the Fix Kit does exactly that, and adds a boost to that player’s melee itself.
I preferred the all-rounder of a water-based tool, which proved useful in putting out fires inside all jobs. It also was very helpful within Paper Chase as it helped destroy post-its… and scarier post-it note monsters. As Remedy says, “only in Control“.
By our fifth or six job, things started to lock into place and our team of three started to succeed — despite it being past 1 am AEST and keeping my own contribution to the voice chat at a minimum. We stuck together, we paired tools, and we overcame the Hiss.
After a couple hours under my belt, I can certainly say that I’m excited for FBC Firebreak… and equally, the chance to play at a decent time and with a couple good friends. At lower difficulty with a handful of zones to clear, or even tackling one at higher difficulties, this’ll be a good time. Engage as you see fit.
FBC Firebreak is planned for a 17 July 2025 release on Windows PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, and PS5. It’s also part of Xbox Game Pass, PC Game Pass, and PlayStation Plus Deluxe, Extra, and Premium.
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FBC Firebreak17 June 2025PC PS5 Xbox Series S & X
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