It’s been a long six years and resources are getting kind-of scarce.

That’s the situation when you join members of the Federal Bureau of Control in Remedy Entertainment’s upcoming cooperative shooter, FBC: Firebreak.

The six-year struggle against interdimensional villains the Hiss has left its mark on the team of three tasked with handling the outbreaks in the weird and otherworldly Oldest House. Everything about the mostly anonymous characters seems piecemealed and held together by duct tape, sometimes literally. 

Office chairs are turned into turrets, outfits are jumbles of hazard suits, jackets, and yes, duct tape. And everyone travels with a wrench, as if the dangerous world around them might need a good smack just as much as a blast from a shotgun.

In May, developers showed off three of the kit build-outs players can choose from before embarking on a mission. It also dropped players into two missions: Hot Fix and then Paper Chase, a mission made dangerous by seemingly sentient sticky notes. 

That session delved deeper into FBC: Firebreak’s background and progression systems. You should definitely check it out. 

At Summer Game Fest, with just a week or so until FBC: Firebreak's release, the focus was on showing off another of the five missions available at launch: Frequency Shift.

“Frequency Shift is slightly different to Paper Chase," said Remedy Entertainment’s Andrew Marshall. “Paper Chase is all about stopping the sticky notes, which you may have seen from the trailer. You have Sticky Ricky, the giant, big sticky note monster at the end, and then you have the shufflers, which are sticky note monsters that you have to deal with.

“In Frequency Shift, there is a giant exploding pink goo all over the place, which will blow up and take you and your teammates out if you’re not careful.”

Before diving into the job, the team also went over some of the things expected to come to FBC: Firebreak post launch. A new job codenamed Outbreak will have players deal with the unexpected release of a mutant strain of mold into the research sector. Players will have to eliminate the spores while “fighting a strange and powerful urge to eat them instead.”

That fall 2025 update will also bring with it new enemies, new gameplay systems, new free earnable rewards, and a new paid classified requisition, which includes unique armor sets, sprays, skins, and voice packs.

The major update coming in the winter is codenamed Blackout and sees Firebreak descending deep into darkness to hunt down the “scariest and deadliest escaped Altered Item they’ve encountered so far.”

The winter update will include a new job site, equipment, enemies, and other content. It also will come with free earnable rewards and the new paid classified requisition includes unique armor sets, sprays, skins, and character voice packs. 

Once in-game, players decide who they want to suit up as (or rather, what kit they want to use). Each has its own approach to dealing with the perpetual supernatural menace of the Oldest House. This job drops us into an office oozing with what appears to be thick pillows of pink foam that slowly threaten to fill the entire space. Shooting the stuff makes it dissipate for a bit. Touching it makes it explode, and doesn’t feel great.

While you and your officemates maneuver through the sea of nightmare pink, you’re tasked with setting up emitters that emit a very specific frequency that kind of shuts down and stops the mass from being able to hold together. 

We spend the next 30 minutes or so repelling an assortment of oddities, clearing out pink gunk with gun blasts, and assembling emitters.

FBC: Firebreak's gameplay is frenetic and fun. It’s easy to get lost in the offices and hallways when everything is covered in pink—and easier still to shoot your teammates when you can’t distinguish them from the walls and floors that are covered in the stuff.

There are three sections to Frequency Shift, with each escalating in both difficulty and enemy count. The final section ends in labyrinthine corridors that have us going around in circles, seemingly chasing each other as we try to find our way to the exit elevator.

It’s a goopy, pink, shooty bit of fun that has me itching for a replay as soon as I’m done.

FBC: Firebreak releases on the Epic Games Store on June 17.