Summary
- FBC: Firebreak will serve as a side-story bridging Control and its upcoming sequel, letting players team up to confront the Hiss in the Oldest House.
- Players won't control Jesse Faden in Firebreak, but she may appear as a support character that will give out assignments and missions.
- Fans found an Easter egg on FBC: Firebreak's website hinting at Jesse's presence, sparking speculation and excitement among the community.
Fans looking forward to Remedy's upcoming multiplayer co-op shooter FBC: Firebreak have discovered a well-hidden Easter egg of sorts on the game's official website, which seems to bolster fans' hopes of Jesse Faden having a presence in the game as a non-playable character. Remedy fans still haven't seen much of FBC: Firebreak aside from what was shown in the game's reveal trailer, so there's been plenty of room for speculation as to how elements from the world of Control might tie into the next game to be set within the confines of the Oldest House.
While it's been explicitly stated not to be a direct sequel to Control, the upcoming FBC: Firebreak - scheduled for release at an as-yet undetermined point this year - is more of a side-story of its own that will seemingly help bridge the gap between Control and its official sequel. While Control 2 itself is likely some years away, it's known with certainty to be in development. Remedy even included a substantial teaser for this future title in Alan Wake 2's Lake House DLC, similarly to how Alan Wake 2 itself was teased in Control's AWE DLC back at the beginning of 2020.
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Fans eager to learn more about FBC: Firebreak may wish to subscribe to the game's official newsletter via its website. As it happens, this webpage is exactly where the user AkeeRDT discovered a cool Easter egg, who quickly shared the find with others in the online community. In classic FBC fashion, fans can find parts of the text under the newsletter section redacted, but simply highlighting the text in the browser reveals the words underneath the ink. The website tells fans that signing up for the newsletter will let them be the first to learn about "dispatches from Director Faden" as well as "exciting intelligence about the Oldest House," sparking fans to wonder how Jesse Faden will fit into FBC: Firebreak.
How FBC: Firebreak Aims To Create Something New Out of The Old
The game's official reveal already confirmed that Firebreak will be taking place inside the Oldest House, a paranatural and shifting Place of Power that serves as the headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Control and, tangentially, the setting of Control. While the reveal trailer included glimpses of many recognizable hotspots from the original game, such as the Black Rock Quarry threshold, it's likely that the nature of the Oldest House will allow players to explore some new areas in Firebreak thanks to a variety of House shifts and new extradimensional threshold manifestations that may have occurred in the time since the events of Control.
Players apparently won't be playing as Control protagonist Jesse Faden in Firebreak, though. Instead, they'll be playing as members of a special forces group tasked with evicting the final traces of Hiss from the Oldest House. It seems more than likely that Director Faden will have a presence in the game somehow though, with many fans speculating that she'll be a sort of support character who will personally assign tasks and missions to players.
FBC: Firebreak
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 65 /100 Critics Rec: 25%
- Released
- June 17, 2025
- ESRB
- T For Teen // Violence, Blood
- Developer(s)
- Remedy Entertainment
- Publisher(s)
- Remedy Entertainment
WHERE TO PLAY
FBC: Firebreak is a cooperative first-person shooter set within a mysterious federal agency under assault by otherworldly forces. As a years-long siege on the agency’s headquarters reaches its boiling point, only Firebreak— the Bureau’s most versatile unit—has the gear and the guts to plunge into the building’s strangest crises, restore order, and blast their way back from the brink.
Paranatural Pandemonium
Dive into the Federal Bureau of Control’s (FBC) unpredictable and extradimensional headquarters during its darkest—and strangest—hours. As one of the FBC’s fearless first responders, you and your team are on call to confront everything from reality-warping anomalies to otherworldly monsters... No matter the odds. Will you contain the chaos or finally lose control?
Cooperative Chaos
Join forces with friends or strangers to tackle each mission as a well-oiled crew. Survival in this three-player cooperative FPS hinges on quick thinking and seamless teamwork as you scramble to tame raging paranatural crises across a variety of unexpected locations. Improve your odds by utilizing the tools and skills that make you unique or improvising with whatever’s on hand to support your crew.
Beyond Bullets
Before deploying, select your weapon and customize your Firebreaker’s Crisis Kit with specialized tools, grenades, support items, and paranatural augments... Then modify them to suit your strategy and change the way you play. Experiment with different loadouts to perfect your playstyle and synergize with your team, giving you the edge to succeed in every mission, no matter the difficulty.
The Federal Bureau of Control
Return to the strange and unexpected world of Control or venture in for the first time in this standalone, multiplayer experience. Discover the iconic and unfathomable headquarters of the FBC — the Oldest House — from an entirely new perspective as a team of volunteer first responders with nothing but gear and guts to bring the Bureau back from the brink.
- Engine
- Northlight Engine
- Multiplayer
- Online Co-Op
- Number of Players
- 1-3
- Platform(s)
- PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
- Genre(s)
- FPS
