Alan Wake creators Remedy have announced their first multiplayer game, a three-player co-op shooter set in the world of Control and therefore the Remedy Connected Universe. Previously codenamed Condor, it was called FBC: Firebreak – and I’m going to recommend they shorten it to Firebreak because that colon-caps combination is going to piss me off when I’m typing messages quickly. While I throw my weight around, let me too immediately fend off the pedants who are even now racing to leave a comment stating that Remedy was, in fact, working on Smilegate’s multiplayer shooter CrossfireX. Yes, yes, but only the single-player parts.
Either way, Firebreak! Here’s the announcement trailer.
As he described in detail post Xbox WireIn Firebreak, you will play the role of a rescuer working for the Federal Bureau of Control – a skilled paranormal exterminator who must stop extradimensional terrors attacking the shape-shifting headquarters of the FBC brutalists, the Oldest House. Firebreak members can equip Overwatch-style “ultimatums” in the shape of Altered World objects that have “paranatural” properties.
According to Remedy’s head of communications, Thomas Puh, they should be used more carefully than the average video game. “I like to think of them as a jaguar in a box,” he told The Wire. “You carry a box, you aim it at something, you open the box and you just hope the jaguar doesn’t turn around and eat you or your friends.”
So Schrödinger’s Jaguar? Yes, this is commendable in the style of Control.
Firebreak does have some sort of narrative element – it takes place after the events of Control and as such likely draws on the events of Control 2. It tries to maintain a similar balance of absurdity and horror in its script and atmosphere. But it’s not the same kind of story-driven game.
“For those following the single-player journey, we wanted to make sure that FBC: Firebreak was a legitimate and impactful part of that story and story,” game director Mike Kayatta comments in an Xbox Wire article. “The narrative style you’ve seen in our previous games just never worked here for this type of game. When you think about the gameplay differences in FBC: Firebreak – overworld story, multiplayer instead of single-player, voice chat with teammates, action instead of exploration, and so on – you probably understand why it was vital for us to make FBC: Firebreak a standalone experience “.
“That said, you will see more of the world of Control,” he continued. “More about the Federal Audit Office. Meet more of the people who work there. Explore more of the Oldest House. Come across stranger things. And most importantly, get to know this world, old and new, from a completely different perspective.”
What do you think about all this? While I’m currently wary of anything half-live, I’ve always felt that the Oldest House would be a natural setting for such a game – it’s a monstrous maze that slips between realities in a way that has to do with introducing modern enemies, stories, and areas. Just don’t ruin it by turning it into a content factory.
