Remedy Entertainment has confirmed that FBC: Firebreak will launch this summer for PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC, shared a healthy dose of gameplay and revealed one of the big supernatural dangers you’ll face in the game: Sticky Notes.
Oh sure, yellow sticky notes seem innocuous enough to you and me, their small size (often cut into cute shapes these days) and weak glue making them mildly useful, but in The Oldest House and with the Hiss still running rampant? Well, haunted sticky notes are a real problem. The gameplay reveal for FBC: Firebreak focuses on this Job, a crisis-filled mission that will take you to the Executive Sector of the Federal Bureau of Control. This mission, titled Paper Chase, is just one of many to take on in the game, with the sole objective to destroy as many sticky notes as possible. Other missions might have you try to find mannequin ski instructors and load them onto a paranatural ski lift…
With three-player PvE co-op at its heart, you’ll have three saved loadouts to choose from, Crisis Kits, which are themed around a particular tool and playstyle. You’ll then pick the Threat Level and Clearance Level of a Job, determining the difficulty of enemies and then the complexity and length of the mission.
The trailer and dev diary both show plenty of what you’ll expect to face. There’s regular Hiss zombie-type enemies, bomb squad Hiss with much heavier armour, and then humanoid forms constructed entirely of sticky notes. There’s even a giant Sandman-like boss to battle. One thing you’ll have to be wary of is getting covered with sticky notes yourself, with allies able to wash you down or showers dotted around the world to do the same – albeit at the cost of slowing you down for a bit from the cold water, unless you fix the heaters for the showers.
In addition to standard weapons like shotguns, there’s also a crank-fired fluid projector, an electric charge impactor, and the big wrench which can have a squeaky toy pig attached to it. There’s plenty of Left 4 Dead vibes to the action here, with safe rooms helping to provide some structure to the levels, and the need to defend from alerted enemies.
Remedy has already confirmed that FBC: Firebreak will be available day one on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, PlayStation Plus Extra and PlayStation Plus Premium. In addition to this, they’ve now confirmed that all playable content will be available to all players for free, meaning any new levels will be playable for all. There’s no word on monetisation outside of that, but Remedy will share those details another time.
