FBC: Firebreak (2025): The Review

Overview

FBC: Firebreak is a decent idea carried just far enough to be forgivable, the kind of thing you’d happily excuse if it launched as early access with a lower price attached. The problem is that it’s asking for a full $40 (and even more on PlayStation), yet it feels closer to a mid-roadmap early access build than a finished 1.0 release. The core gameplay, story beats, and overall presentation are solid, but there’s still plenty that needs fixing. Missing quality-of-life features, a lack of meaningful content, and noticeable optimization issues hold it back. Remedy will almost certainly smooth these out over time, but as it stands, Firebreak barely justifies the investment, whether that’s your time, focus, or wallet.

Score: 7 out of 10

The Positives ✅

Being set in the Control universe is both Firebreak’s biggest blessing and its most dangerous comparison point. No, it doesn’t touch Control’s narrative brilliance, but it does manage to tell its own story without feeling like DLC cosplay. The narrative is serviceable, atmospheric, and thematically on-brand, even if it’s not deeply woven into the gameplay. It exists mostly to set the mood, and honestly, that’s fine.

Visually, this thing gets Control. The brutalist Cold War architecture, the industrial decay, the Mad Max scraps duct-taped onto cosmic horror nonsense, it all works. The world tells a story even when the plot takes a backseat, and Remedy’s signature weirdness is alive and well. Voice acting is another win: Firebreakers might look emotionally vacant, but the performances give them enough charm and personality to carry the banter. Toss in a strong soundtrack and some absolutely chunky gun sounds, and yeah, it feels good to play.

The core gameplay loop is tight. Pick a Job, tweak the difficulty and modifiers, drop in, do objectives under pressure, escape, repeat. It’s familiar for a reason, and it works. Progression is especially well handled, rewarding you after each run with EXP and Requisition that actually feel meaningful. Unlocking perks, gear, and cosmetics through steady investment gives the grind purpose, and leveling Kits individually adds a nice layer of specialization.

Speaking of Kits, the Fix, Splash, and Jump roles are genuinely fun and well-designed. They don’t lock players into rigid roles, but they do meaningfully shape how your team handles chaos. Fix feels essential, Splash is endlessly useful, and Jump, while the least critical, still has clutch moments that can save a run. When everything clicks, Firebreak delivers that co-op magic where everyone’s yelling, multitasking, and barely holding things together… and that’s when it shines.

The Negatives ⚠️

Now for the fires that aren’t being put out. First up: content. Or rather, the lack of it. Firebreak launched with five Job types. That’s it. You can remix them with difficulty sliders and modifiers all you want, but at the end of the day, you’re still eating the same five meals with different seasoning. For a $40 game calling itself a 1.0 release, that’s rough.

Enemy variety doesn’t help either. On paper, the Hiss lineup is fine: runners, shooters, heavies, flyers; but visually? They blur together fast. In a horde shooter, quickly identifying threats is half the strategy, and Firebreak makes that harder than it needs to be. Health bars are oversized, bland, and not particularly helpful, and hit registration issues crop up far too often. Delayed hit markers and laggy animations make combat feel less responsive than it should.

Then there’s polish, or the lack thereof. Quality-of-life features are thin, optimization feels uneven, and the tutorial does a terrible job onboarding new players. The “figure it out as you go” approach fits the theme, sure, but mechanically it just feels messy. Firebreak is way more fun with friends, but going in solo at first can feel less like learning the game and more like surviving a containment breach.

And yes, the price. $40 already feels steep for what’s here, but console players having to pay for PlayStation Plus on top of that? Come on. That’s not Remedy’s fault, but it is the player’s problem. With more Jobs and Kits promised later, Firebreak currently feels like a mid-roadmap build wearing a full-release name tag.

The Experience 🎮

Playing Firebreak feels like jumping into a game that will be great… just not yet. Moment to moment, I had a blast. Fixing generators while enemies swarm, hauling ridiculous objects across rooms, coordinating under pressure, it all hits that sweet spot where teamwork matters without being suffocating. When the chaos ramps up, Firebreak is loud, frantic, and genuinely fun.

But after a few hours, the repetition starts creeping in. You notice the same objectives popping up, the same enemy silhouettes rushing you, the same Jobs cycling back around. The progression system kept me going longer than it otherwise would, because unlocking perks and gear actually feels rewarding, but it can only do so much heavy lifting.

The biggest frustration was knowing how close Firebreak is to greatness. The foundation is strong. The loop works. The universe is perfect for this kind of game. But every session ended with the same thought: that’s it? Five Jobs just aren’t enough to justify the asking price right now, especially when Remedy themselves are already promising fixes and additions down the line.

So yeah, my verdict is simple. Firebreak isn’t bad. In fact, it’s often really good. But it needed more time in the oven and fewer flames under its feet. If you’re patient, waiting for updates is the smart move. At launch, it feels less like a full meal and more like a very stylish appetizer. Check back later, this one might be worth it then.