Remedy has announced the content and update plan for its three-player co-op Control spinoff, FBC: Firebreak.
“It has been approximately four weeks since we launched FBC: Firebreak. During that time, we have released four patches that improve the game and partly address your feedback. Now that the game is live, our community plays a big part in shaping the future of the experience. This is just the start,” Remedy has said, stating the frequency of its updates will now slow as the team gears up for the first major update due this September.
Ahead of that September launch, though, the studio has a few points it will be focusing on in the coming months. These are: understanding the game, upgraded gunplay, new ways to play and more things to do.
On the ‘understanding the game’ front, Remedy said it wants to improve the onboarding process and playable tutorial level, with the developer admitting many players leave within the first hour out of frustration. “You feel ineffective and confused as to what to do,” Remedy acknowledged. “This needs to be improved.”
When it comes to Firebreak’s gunplay, the studio wants to give more control to players as to how weapons progress, and so it will introduce a mod system down the line.
“We don’t plan to become a game with 100 guns because we don’t believe that’s the right focus for our experience. That said, it’s important for us to deliver on meaningful variety, so we are adding three new heavy guns to round out your arsenal,” Remedy furthered.
Major changes to the way players access Jobs – and to the content of Jobs themselves – are also on the way to FBC: Firebreak. This will offer players “more ways to play” as well as a “more surprising and exciting way of getting there”.
Next up for this round of communication is Remedy’s ‘More things to do’ objective. “When we think about content variety, we aren’t just looking at how much is there, but also what it’s like to replay what is there,” the studio said. “Always knowing what to expect is counter to the fantasy of being a crisis responder. So, while we still want you to know what type of experience you’re stepping into, we want to mix up what specific things you need to do there to proceed through zones (especially zones 1 and 2), making runs a lot more dynamic and surprising.”
With that in mind, Remedy is now looking at what randomisations it can add to the mix, including things like placement of key items and ammo stations as just two examples.
As for that major update in September, that will bring a brand new Job for players to try out. This will, in the words of Remedy itself, require you to “identify and eliminate and hopefully not eat strains of mould” using something the team has dubbed internally as The Sushi Train.
“As we hope has become clear, we are pushing a lot of improvements and changes into the game for our first Major Update,” Remedy said.
“We are extremely excited about these changes and about delivering even more than we’d originally been planning, but changes now also mean changes later. We need to see what’s working for you and to hear from you again before we can be certain that we’re prioritising the right things,” it concluded. “So, while we are still planning on the next major update in the winter, and the next one after that, the specific focuses and features are a lot more nebulous.”
You can read full details via Remedy on the FBC: Firebreak Steam page.
In Eurogamer’s FBC Firebreak review, we awarded it three out of five stars, writing: “A bold approach to the concept of work marks this game out as a singular enterprise.”
