Developer Remedy is actually known for single-player games like Alan Wake and Control. Now, the studio is releasing a co-op shooter on Steam, but players are wondering what the devs were thinking.
The game is FBC: Firebreak: A co-op shooter for up to 3 players, developed by Remedy Entertainment. In it, you explore the Federal Bureau of Control – a mysterious federal agency that has been attacked by supernatural forces, already known from Control.
FBC: Firebreak was released on June 17, 2025, for PC on Steam and in the Epic Games Store, as well as for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. The game is also included in Game Pass. The shooter is receiving mixed reviews from critics on Metacritic and players on Steam:
- The Metascore is 65/100 from 15 reviews (on Metacritic), the game currently does not have a user score (as of June 18, 10:54 AM)
- On Steam, only 60% of the reviews are positive, with the rating being “mixed”.
- Additionally, the co-op shooter had just under 2,000 peak players on Steam (steamdb.info). Players on other platforms are not counted here.
You can see a gameplay trailer for FBC: Firebreak here:
Remedy alienates players within the first minutes of gameplay
What are the reasons for the bad reviews? Looking at the community discussions on Reddit, the player experience within the first hour is heavily criticized. On Reddit, a user named AhogadoEnImpuestos writes: “Remedy urgently needs to overhaul the first hour’s gameplay experience – otherwise, this game is dead.”
He criticizes in his Reddit post:
- Most special abilities and tools have to be unlocked first, which makes the entry feel too generic.
- The tutorial needs to better explain what to do: In the first match, the Reddit user and his teammates ran around aimlessly.
- The first mission of the game is simply uninteresting: “Turn on generators, seriously?” the player asks in his post.
The next two missions are already significantly more creative. Because of the boring tutorial, the game makes an unnecessarily bad first impression on new players.
User No_Project5633 criticizes the introduction in a similar post on Reddit. He writes: “This game urgently needs an update that explains to the players what the hell it’s all about.”
Other points of criticism concern the scope of the game:
- In the release version of the game, only 6 weapons are available – some players find that far too few, as stated in this Reddit post.
- The game also launches with only 5 “jobs”, i.e., missions that would wear out quickly (Steam Review).
Is there nothing positive to say? Yes, many players have already had fun with the release version. User Elate_Scarab argues that the game should be taken for what it is: “I’m just having dumb fun with this game. It’s exactly what was promised: Left 4 Dead in the Oldest House,” he writes in his Reddit post and gets support from other players.
Have you tried FBC: Firebreak already? If so, feel free to share your impressions in the comments. Another co-op shooter on Steam is extending its demo phase: Because so many wanted to play the game. You can read more about it in this article: A SciFi shooter on Steam attracted 500,000 space pirates even before its release – And if you missed the demo, you now have another chance
