With FBC: Firebreak, Finnish developer Remedy Entertainment is entering a new venture in more ways than one. The main thing is, obviously, that they are going to publish their first multiplayer game (with the exception of Death Really, which is really a unique title in their portfolio) since their foundation in 1995. This means having to come up with entirely different level design approaches and character progression systems, not to mention needing to inject some actual teamwork into the gameplay and, of course, making sure that the online infrastructure is solid.
But there’s another noteworthy way in which FBC: Firebreak will differ from previous Remedy titles. Historically, the studio always pushed the graphics and technological envelop, from Max Payne to Alan Wake, Control (one of the best ray tracing showcases), and Alan Wake 2 (one of the only path traced games on the market). This inevitably came with relatively high PC requirements at the time of the titles’ respective releases. However, that won’t be the case with FBC: Firebreak, as Remedy Communications Director Thomas Puha told Gamesradar.
We are pretty conscious of keeping the minimum required PC spec reasonable, and not going so high with the requirements as we did with Control and Alan Wake 2. We’ll still have great graphics and visual effects, all that you expect from Remedy, but in a multiplayer experience like this, framerate is king as well as the responsiveness of the controls.
Indeed, the screenshots and footage released so far clearly show that it won’t be a visual showcase like their usual single player games. However, as Puha said, that’s understandable; after all, most multiplayer games follow the same pattern.
In the Gamesradar interview, Remedy also explained that they want to get the game into as many hands as possible, which is why it’ll be available on both PlayStation Plus and Game Pass at launch. There’s no launch window yet, but FBC: Firebreak is expected to debut later this year.
