Health Hazard

Remedy’s imaginative yet muddled shooter, FBC: Firebreak, is gearing up for a major update next month, which will include a new mission and several crucial mechanical adjustments. Meanwhile, the cooperative Control spin-off has rolled out a final quality-of-life patch to prepare for the upcoming changes.

Patch 1.5 implements numerous adjustments to combat encounters, addressing spawn timings for the minions of the Hiss, while rebalance the enemy wave compositions.

Additionally, the update enhances the presentation of the end-of-match results screen and addresses multiple bugs, including a hilarious fix for a glitch where “shooting the sticky notes with the burning rounds perk made them wet.” Remedy humorously acknowledged, “that’s not how fire works, even in the Oldest House.”

Major Enhancement

One of the most noteworthy changes is the new option to disable the standard enemy health bars. This feature, though seemingly minor, could significantly alter the game’s combat dynamics. Health bars in FPS games are often deemed troublesome, taking focus away from the action.

Representation of Damage

Characters in recent games, such as the newer Doom titles, demonstrate damage visibly, which adds to the intensity and excitement of combat by keeping players engaged with the actual action rather than numbers. This new option in Firebreak is an encouraging step toward enhancing the experience.

While the health bar toggle doesn’t remove every health indicator, as enemies with shields will still display their protective status, reducing the overall number of health bars is still a favorable change.

Remedy appears to be mindful of the game’s shortcomings and is working towards major improvements in the upcoming update.