Firebreak Players May Be Shooting Themselves in the Foot Without Even Realizing It

Remedy Entertainment has a long history of confusing its player-base deliberately. The plots of Alan Wake and Control revolve around mind-bending paranatural entities that warp reality and travel between dimensions, and Remedy likes to keep players in the dark for as long as possible before slowly unraveling the mystery behind the madness. FBC: Firebreak confuses players as well, but not in the same way.

A three-player co-op shooter, FBC: Firebreak is quite a departure from Remedy’s previous works. And as should be expected from an experimental new entry, FBC: Firebreak doesn’t nail everything right out of the gate. One of the most common criticisms levied at Firebreak over the last few days is its short mission length. But FBC: Firebreak does have longer missions, they’re just hidden behind some obtuse wording.

FBC: Firebreak May Have the Same Progression Problem as Destiny 2

FBC: Firebreak’s progression system might be chasing something players have seen before in Destiny 2, where player input doesn’t match their output.

FBC: Firebreak Does a Bad Job of Explaining Its Mission Structure

FBC: Firebreak’s Missions Are Split Into Three Parts

When players jump into FBC: Firebreak for the very first time, they’re told to equip a Kit and set up a match. Players are forced to choose Firebreak‘s first mission (called a Job), which is titled “Hot Fix.” Once in a match, players will be guided to fix some fans, and will be told to extract via an elevator. This first mission will last only a few minutes if a team of three is efficient. The short length of this mission has caused a lot of players to express their disappointment with the amount of content in the game. But this is just one part of three.

FBC: Firebreak doesn’t do a good job of explaining “Clearance Level” to players. Essentially, once players have finished the first part of a mission, like “Hot Fix 1,” they’ll unlock Clearance Level 2 for that same mission. “Hot Fix 2” sees players fixing fans in that first room again, but then sees them moving onto the level’s next room, where they’ll complete similar objectives before being asked to extract.

Completing a mission on Clearance Level 2 will then unlock Clearance Level 3, the final, full-length version of the mission. “Hot Fix 3,” for example, has players fixing fans in rooms one and two, and then embarking on a finale set piece that sees them throwing barrels into a giant furnace. This full-length mission will usually take players around 15–30 minutes to complete.

Here’s a more simplified version of this three-act structure:

Hot Fix Clearance Level 1 – Fix fans inside starting room, extract
Hot Fix Clearance Level 2 – Fix fans inside starting room, fix fans inside second room, extract
Hot Fix Clearance Level 3 – Fix fans inside starting room, fix fans inside second room, throw barrels into furnace, extract

The climactic finale of FBC: Firebreak‘s Hot Fix mission is a direct reference to a side activity in Control, where player-character Jesse Faden needs to throw toxic waste barrels into a furnace.

This three-stage format is the same for all of FBC: Firebreak‘s five Jobs. This mission structure is rather convoluted, and it definitely feels like padding, but the Clearance Level 3 version of FBC: Firebreak‘s Jobs is where the game’s real substance can be found.

FBC: Firebreak Has Several Mission Modifiers

On top of its three-act structure, FBC: Firebreak‘s Jobs also have a range of four difficulty options (called Threat Levels), which affect enemy health, damage, and spawn rate. Each mission also has three possible levels of Corruption, which add Corrupted Items that modify the match, such as the Snare Drum, which increases enemy movement and attack speed. These Corrupted Items can be destroyed using the Black Rock weapons found in safe rooms.