FBC: Firebreak is Remedy's gloriously bizarre, out-of-Control ploy for mainstream success

Form a triangle of madness and dive into the slimy detritus of the eponymous Bureau.

Were revenue generated through the sheer force of internal oddity and digitised cups of coffee, Remedy Entertainment would be the industry’s most valuable corporation. The Finnish fiends for textual idiosyncrasy are highly literate in their inspirations, drawing upon the disparate oeuvres of John Woo, Stephen King, and - perhaps greatest of all - David Lynch. Beginning with the Max Payne duology, a hard-boiled thriller delivered in an operatic, time-bending tenor, Remedy cultivated a character as a studio capable of producing esoteric, elevated genre fare - driven via the pen of Sam Lake, the literal face of Max Payne. However, following on from these titles, Remedy chose to partner with Microsoft to pen Alan Wake: the twisted tale of a novelist haunted by intrusions erstwhile held by a barrier between fantasy and reality. The Washington milieu inspired explicit allusions to Twin Peaks, albeit through the lens of an aforementioned King-ian wordsmith caught in an increasingly irrational world.

Saga and Alex’s go-to coffee is as black as a moonless night!

Alan Wake, against its standing as an innately niche diversion, garnered 4.5 million sales: a respectable tally, given its relegation to the Xbox 360 and PC platforms - later remastered to retroactively brighten Sony’s estimation of the title. Furthermore, it became the second-most pirated Xbox 360 game of 2010 - greater than Halo: Reach, Red Dead Redemption, and Call of Duty: Black Ops. Curiously, Dante’s Inferno seized the top spot; its cultural contribution is a repackaging of the Divine Comedy with an amusing advertorial varnish. However, its successor, Quantum Break, was shrouded in anonymity, selling a meagre 760,000 copies to date. Moreover, in the most aggressively intertextual move a contemporary title could make, the narrative was accompanied by a quadrilogy of television episodes, bearing a symbiotic relationship with the player’s decisions. With regard to Remedy’s lineage of storytelling, blending computer-generated imagery with live-action choreography sanctioned safe passage through the uncanny valley - for a flagship title designed to raise the vigour of a fledgling system, the studio’s intrinsic form codifies a certain impenetrability to a broad audience.

Nevertheless, Remedy responded a nominal three years later, delivering their most beguiling proposition to date: Control. Within this interregnum, the studio became a public entity, further affirming its independent measures of merchantry. Consequently, Control - produced on a budget of less than €30 million, approximately $32 million USD - became proof-of-concept for the existential fabric of the company: a purveyor of small titles reserving grand ambition, underpinned by tactile, novel gameplay mechanics. A spiritual adaptation of the SCP Foundation’s fictitious fancies, Control’s conspiratorial considerations are enabled through its canny countenance: a grand scope of lore condensed to brutalist vistas, pulsating hallways, and chilling overlays. Additionally, Remedy’s proprietary Northlight Engine pioneered early measures of ray-tracing, whilst exercising remarkable means of physics-driven carnage in a revelatory respect - arguably on a scale tantamount to Half-Life 2.

Control’s tone can best be described as though Mr. Robot took up residency at the Black Lodge.

The Bureau’s membership has grown steadily since its foundation: its sound reception presaged a strong playerbase of 19 million, in tandem with 4 million direct copies sold. With €100 million in cumulative revenue against its modest budget, the game became a lean, yet sturdy model of success in the industry’s diminishing middle-class. Evidently, there is an audience for Remedy’s curious concoctions - hence the announcement of FBC: Firebreak, formerly Project Condor.

In the disco afterglow of Alan Wake II’s rapturous reception, Remedy have solidified their place as your favourite studio’s favourite studio: rigorously dogmatic in their adherence to the weird waters of Sam Lake’s imagination, yet effusive in their love for Twin Peaks: The Return’s kaleidoscopic representation of the harrowing revolution of evil. However, the unveiling of FBC: Firebreak, the second cooperative title requiring players to survive against a lethal company, represents a play for the passions of a broader audience: in the vein of a horde shooter, its aesthetics draw upon the eclectic carnage of Killing Floor, the emergent narrative power of Left 4 Dead, and the vacant promise of Payday 3. Sorry, Overkill: you overcooked your thermal drill trying to sneak yourselves into the zeitgeist once again. Therefore, Firebreak has the fundamental fabric of a viral phenomenon - its own rogue phenomena notwithstanding. Thus, this may be the studio’s panacea, if not remedy, for its perceived inaccessibility: the game will be available via subscription on Xbox Games Pass and PlayStation Plus Extra/Premium and, perhaps most crucially, both on Steam and Epic Games upon launch - set at a lower-than-average price point. A premium experience at a minimal or no extra cost - who would turn down the opportunity to suit up?

Slaying interdimensional threats ain’t much, but it’s honest work.

Due to parallel deals made with Sony and Microsoft, Remedy have likely covered the title’s budget - albeit at the price of reduced individual sales. Produced to the tune of €25,000,000, the studio are hoping Steam will claim the title as their fervent sensation-of-the-month, retaining a solid playerbase that will fund the development of their experimental narrative titles. In addition to raising the mainstream esteem of the studio, Control 2’s debut may be raised by the FBC’s firemen, furthered by the fostering of its nascent multimedia empire. To borrow the principle credo of the city of Austin: keep it weird!