FBC: Firebreak Review (Tails)
A frustrating game. I love the idea of a convoluted shooter in the world of Control with weird Altered Objects and mechanics.
Unfortunately, while they got the environment nailed down, the game barely tells you anything about itself: how you're supposed to complete objectives, what basic status effects mean, or how to keep yourself from dying.
The game lacks a basic in-game help menu or tutorial level, instead relying on random tooltips that get triggered randomly. (I was getting tooltips on Extreme difficulty about how leech goo protects you from radiation; it would've been nice to know that four hours ago). The consequence of this is that you and most people you play with will be doing everything the boring and wrong way (shooting sticky notes, running back and forth to showers to clean radiation, splitting off because no one can communicate with each other).
"It gets better five hours in" should not be how one describes a co-op shooter. You need to work hard to find the fun in this game. There are many weird, complex systems going on in FBC: Firebreak, but it's a shame the game never allows you to easily learn about any of it (again, no in-game help menu or tutorial) or tells you where the fun is. This results in you spending tens of minutes walking around shooting your gun at sticky notes (the right way is supposedly to wet them via the wet kit/shower and shock them using the Jump kit or a shock grenade that you won't unlock until about six hours into the game).
I hope this game finds an audience. I'll keep playing because sometimes, very rarely, I find myself maybe having fun.
The Oldest House is still a fascinating place, but there are very few memorable moments you'll make in FBC: Firebreak.
Update 21 June: The latest update notes mentioned a lot of my (and presumably many others') issues. The notes about player onboarding and information about fundamental game systems are appreciated and show they're recognizing the correct problems to solve.
It's a good first move post-release. Although it will probably take a while to fully fix, the honest and detailed communication (regarding status effects clarity and the "hours-to-fun," for example) shows the team cares.
I will update this review more as more updates roll out. But short-term, this seems like the right move.