Remedy Entertainment has plenty of hits under its belt, but the studio is known for taking big swings. Andwhen a studio takes big swings, it can either land with thunderous success, or miss the mark entirely.FBC: Firebreakseems to fall into the latter category.
Released just last week,FBC: Firebreakwas heavily criticized at launch due to its convoluted onboarding process, obtuse mission structure, poorly designed progression systems, and severe lack of enemy and map variety. These criticisms were almost unanimous across the board, leading toFBC: Firebreakhaving a much lower critical score than some were expecting, particularly when compared to Remedy’s past work.
Comparing FBC: Firebreak’s Critical Reception to Past Remedy Games
How FBC: Firebreak’s Review Scores Compare to Past Remedy Games
For the purposes of this review round-up, all scores below have been simplified to be out of 10.
9.3
9.2
9
10
9.4
8.4
8.6
8.7
8
7
6
8.8
88
5
Review in progress
4
Though Remedy’s first game wasDeath Rally, the studio really hit the big time with 2001’sMax Payneand its 2003 sequel. These third-person shooters brought bullet-time mechanics into the mainstream right asMatrixfever was at its height, and their quality storytelling certainly didn’t go amiss.Max Payne 1and2are still some of Remedy’s most acclaimed titles.
It took seven years for Remedy’s next game to hit store shelves, butAlan Wakeseemed to be worth the wait. Though its mind-bending story left some scratching their heads, other critics seemed to adore Remedy’s risky approach to narrative, leading to the game earning decent review scores.
In 2016, Remedy releasedQuantum Break, an Xbox console exclusive that’s still regarded as theblack sheep of Remedy’s catalog. WithQuantum Break, Remedy decided to take its experiments with genre to the next level, attempting to merge TV and video games to produce something wholly distinct. WhileQuantum Breakwas certainly unique, it wasn’t a major critical hit for the developer, though it still earned fairly favorable scores.
2019’sControlmarked something of a comeback for Remedy, with it earning high 8s and 9s across the board. 2023’sAlan Wake 2proved to be oddly divisive, however. While some outlets gave it scores as low as 5, others gave it a 10. But generally speaking,Alan Wake 2’s critical receptionwas on the higher end of the spectrum when all review scores were taken into account.
Then we come toFBC: Firebreak. The latest in Remedy’s line-up is also its lowest-rated in history, with many outlets giving the multiplayer shooter scores in the 6s and 7s.FBC: Firebreak’s middling critical reception is even more apparent when looking at its OpenCritic score.
FBC: Firebreak’s first patch did a great job of addressing a lot of day-one criticisms. But it’s still got a long way to go before its critical reception turns around.
77
78
70%
84
89%
89
93%
64
29%
FBC: Firebreak’s OpenCritic scorespaint an even clearer picture of the game’s critical reception compared to its predecessors. Its Top Critic Average score of 64 is much lower than any of Remedy’s previous projects, and only 29% of critics recommend the game.
