There’s a guy in FBC: Firebreak‘s newest trailer getting absolutely pummeled—a highlight reel shows him electrocuting himself, going blind in a blizzard of sticky notes, going blind in an actual blizzard, and screaming “I’M PINK!” as he combusts in a pile of explosive pink sludge. It seems like a pretty standard day of work, though, in a game that’s shaping up to have delightfully anarchic sensibilities.
The trailer, which debuted at Galaxies Games Showcase yesterday, offers a taste of some of the environmental interactions to expect in the full game. A hot environment is cooled off with a fan and an emergency sprinkler, a mob of enemies is incinerated by a jet of fire, that sort of thing. There’s no shortage of co-op horde shooters around in the age of Deep Rock Galactic and Space Marine 2, so I’m glad to see Firebreak continue to emphasize what makes it stand out from the pack. Take a look below:
It’s suitably goofy, with monsters aimlessly levitating around in desk chairs and a gruff voice-over pontificating about potential mottos for the game’s titular emergency response teams. Despite its firm roots in Control lore, Firebreak seems eager to cast off the grim pretense of Remedy’s previous games and embrace the joyful bedlam typical of co-op shooters. As a rube when it comes to narrative-driven games with 500 hours in Killing Floor 2, I couldn’t be happier.
In fact, I’m still reeling from the whiplash of going from Alan Wake 2 and Control, some of the most ambitious narrative games in the medium’s history, to a co-op shooter with a cheeky sense of humor and hordes of enemies to blow away, but that doesn’t mean I’m not excited.
Even though Remedy games are perhaps best known for their scripted story sequences, they’ve never skimped on the action; this is the studio behind Max Payne, after all. And if senior editor Robin Valentine’s preview of Firebreak is any indication, its systems-driven shootouts and open-ended objectives are as suitable a canvas as any for the studio’s signature surreality.
If you’re keen to help contain the chaos, Firebreak is slated for a summer release this year and available to wishlist on Steam.
