Remedy's new multiplayer game set in the Control universe has been fully revealed for the first time under the name FBC: Firebreak.
Billed as a three-player co-op experience, it features a more colorful take on Remedy's popular universe. The first gameplay trailer shows three characters in environmental suits battling a variety of enemies in fast-paced first-person gameplay. There's also a garden gnome. Check out the trailer below.
In a follow-up post on Xbox Wire, director Mike Kayatta said that FBC: Firebreak is "not Control DLC and it's definitely not a Control sequel." Instead, Remedy calls it a game you can "enjoy with your friends and tackle multiple hectic co-op missions."
It casts players as first responders from the Federal Bureau of Control battling enemies in The Oldest House using "paranatural augments," which are "Altered Items" engineered into tool attachments. That apparently includes
“We have always done single player games at Remedy, and rest assured, we have more single player games in development, and they will be awesome, but for a long time we have wanted to make a PvE multiplayer game.," Kayatta says. "There are loads of us here who love multiplayer besides single player. We don’t want to be doing the same types of games all the time; it’s good to take on new challenges.”
Notably, Remedy says that FBC won't be a typical live service game. While there will be plenty to unlock and will feature a steady supply of fresh content, it won't be geared around "logging in every day for some loot or fear of missing out on materials." It will also feature plenty of new stories set in the world of Control, albeit with a somewhat different approach.
“For the people who are keeping up with the single-player journey, we wanted to make sure that FBC: Firebreak was a legitimate and impactful part of that history and lore. The narrative style you’ve seen in our previous games just wasn’t ever going to work here, for this kind of game," Kayatta explains. "When you think about these differences in FBC: Firebreak’s gameplay – world over story, multiplayer over single-player, voice-chatting with your teammates, action over exploration and so on – you can probably see why it was important that we made FBC: Firebreak a stand-alone experience. That said, you will see more of Control’s world. More of the Federal Bureau of Control. Meet more of the people who work there. Explore more of the Oldest House. Run into more weird stuff. And importantly, experience this world, old and new, from a completely different perspective.”
In the meantime, work continues on Control 2, which is currently in the design stage of development. Remedy is also preparing new Alan Wake 2 DLC. As for FBC: Firebreaker, it'll arrive in 2025 for Xbox Series X|S and PC, and will be available on day one on Xbox Game Pass. For more, check out everything announced at the Xbox Partner Showcase.
Kat Bailey is IGN's News Director as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.
