While 2019’sControlmay be set in just one location, the Oldest House is much more than meets the eye. Acting as the global headquarters ofthe Federal Bureau of Control, the Oldest House was first discovered by FBC management in the early 1960s. But the Oldest House isn’t just your average New York office building, it’s a Place of Power, a location that’s imbued with paranatural energy and one that isn’t fussed about obeying the laws of reality.FBC: Firebreaktakes place in the heart of this Place of Power.
As the titular Firebreak team, players are tasked with exploring the various sectors of the Oldest House and solving a range of interdimensional issues. It’s a great premise for a multiplayer game, butFBC: Firebreakdoesn’t make the most of its incredibly unique setting.
FBC: Firebreak Should Have Used The Oldest House’s Shifts to its Advantage
The Oldest House’s Shifts and Thresholds Explained
As a Place of Power, the Oldest House has an intrinsic connection to alternate dimensions. These alternate dimensions can occasionally be accessed by performing rituals that open up a gateway known as a “Threshold.” Thresholds can also appear spontaneously, usually after the appearance of anAltered World Eventsomewhere on Earth.
The constant push and pull of these dimensions results in “Shifts,” where the Oldest House’s architecture and layout transform unpredictably. These Shifts can cause corridors to collapse, rooms to shrink, and walls to bend unnaturally. To try and limit these Shifts, the Federal Bureau of Control set up a series ofControl Pointsat key locations in the Oldest House.
Right before Jesse Faden arrives in the Oldest House in the opening moments ofControl, the paranatural entity known as “The Hiss” managed to slip into the Oldest House via a Threshold andcorrupt Director Zachariah Trench. Under their influence, Trench used an Object of Power to open a gateway to the Hiss' dimension, allowing them to invade the Oldest House and corrupt many of its Control Points, leading to erratic Shifts that blocked paths and cut sectors off from one another.
How FBC: Firebreak Could Have Used Control’s Building Shifts and Thresholds
One of thebiggest criticisms ofFBC: Firebreakis its lack of variety, particularly when it comes to level design. Once players have completed a Job on Clearance Level 3, they’ve essentially seen everything it has to offer, with every subsequent playthrough featuring the same layouts and objectives with just a slight variation on where those objectives are located.
The Oldest House’s Shifts could have been used as the perfect excuse to shake upFBC: Firebreak’s level design, and potentially explain away the use of procedural generation. It would make complete sense to see alternate map layouts inFBC: Firebreakgiven these Shifts have already been well-established in the universe’s canon. This could have madeFirebreakat least a little more replayable.
One ofFBC: Firebreak’s in-universe text documents (seen during loading screens) explains the Oldest House’s Shifts and Thresholds, so they were clearly in Remedy’s mind when making the game.
Thresholds could have also been used to spice upFBC: Firebreak’s gameplay. Though Thresholds are technically the reason behindFirebreakmissions like Frequency Shift – with Emily Pope’s researchers having opened up a Threshold to a pink goo dimension – the concept could have been used more directly to shake up the game’s enemy design and visuals.FBC: Firebreak’s moment-to-moment gameplay might feel a bit more exciting if structures and foes from other dimensions were sporadically sneaking through Thresholds and throwing unique challenges at the player.
