During COVID lockdowns, I recruited a friend for tandem playthroughs of Remedy Entertainment’s Control. Night after night, we’d call each other and run through levels in parallel, careful to pace through the bizarre SCP-inspired story at the same rate. Trading tips and discoveries throughout this synchronized experience almost made me forget that Control isn’t a cooperative title.
Then came FBC Firebreak — a multiplayer game Remedy published, but did not develop. Out this week, it’s set in the same warped government department as Control (an agency that, incidentally, also featured in Alan Wake 2’s commendable Lake House DLC).
Naturally, I enlisted the same friend for this co-op adventure. We slinked through brutalist corridors. We jump-started and wrench-slapped faulty machines. We shotgun-blasted through hordes of abominations. The game kept us busy. It never felt meaningful.
Sure, Control’s weirdness still slips through. Occasionally, Firebreak even pulled out novel innovations. One series of levels tasked us with destroying tens of thousands of sticky notes that overrun the bureau’s offices. As I stomped them out, they stuck to my body, note by note blocking my field-of-view until a post-it monster emerged from my corpse to terrorize my team. Eventually, the game treated us to a by-the-numbers but nonetheless welcome boss fight against a behemoth entirely made of the yellow squares.
But Firebreak lacks Control’s intriguing characters, its unsettling tone, and its physics-defying powers. It’s got more in common with GTFO — but the comparison doesn’t favor it. GTFO shares the extraction mission format, but it’s genuinely scary, uncompromisingly difficult, and narratively rich. I couldn’t muster the fortitude or consistent play group to finish it, but I admire GTFO’s jagged ambition more than Firebreak’s streamlined attempts at mainstream appeal.
Remedy’s committed to making Firebreak better. I’m sure I’ll still play it now and again. But I doubt it’ll ever eclipse the sublime experiences I shared playing Control.
Other Mastromarino Productions
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'The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical' dramatizes the life of a gonzo journalist — an uneven play, but a ton of fun to work on!
G7 ends without strong condemnation of Russia as Ukraine endures deadly attacks
Surveying the shifting Middle East as conflict between Israel and Iran deepens
I really really wanted FBC Firebreak to be good :-(