I've been hanging out for Remedy's next game after falling head over heels in love with the developer's last big hit, Control. So when FBC: Firebreak was announced by the brand last year, I was delighted to see the team is bringing a cooperative shooter into this twisted world. Control resonated with me so intensely that it's in my top ten games of all time. This is in no small part thanks to how deeply weird the game can be, and FBC: Firebreak is looking to ramp this right up for some silly fire-zombie shenanigans.
With any new game release, there's always the question of hardware. And given how much of a ray tracing demon Control was for its time, I was a little worried about how demanding FBC might end up. There's not much reason to get excited for a game that my machine can't even run. Well, thankfully, Remedy recently announced the required specs over on BlueSky, and this is looking like a game that will still run, even on a fairly dated rig.
So not only is FBC: Firebreak looking to respect my time, it might respect my wallet as well.
To run at 1080p 60 with quality upscaling, you only need a Nvidia GTX 1070, or an AMD RX 5600 XT. This needs to be paired with at least an Intel i5-700k or an AMD Ryzen 5 1600X, as well as 16GB of RAM. You'll also need 30 GB of SSD storage to store and run the game from. Really, that's some super minimal stuff. While it'll only run the game on low settings, I'm impressed it would do it at all, so props to Remedy for giving some of us still rocking the older hardware a chance.
Naturally, the recommended specs are a fair bit more demanding than the minimum. These will let you run the game on medium settings at 1440p 60 FPS with quality-based upscaling. For this, you'll be needing a much more recent GPU, with at least an Nvidia RTX 3060 or an AMD RX 6600 XT, giving you at least an extra 2 VRAM over those minimum specs. It's recommended to pair these with at least an Intel i5-8500 or AMD's Ryzen 5 2600 CPU and still have at least 16 GB of RAM.
To step that upscaling up to 4k performance levels, Remedy recommends upgrading that GPU. An RTX 3070 or RX 6800 XT can level this gaming experience up to High presets. If nothing else, this tier demonstrates just how far a GPU upgrade can really go to helping you enjoy this game built for chaotic joy.
If you want the high-definition Ray Tracing experience of your lives, then Remedy's High Ray Tracing tier is probably what you're after. These settings deliver a 4k 60 FPS experience with performance upscaling like before, as well as High ray tracing enabled. Hold your breath, mind, as Remedy recommends you're packing an RTX 4080 or RX 9070 XT before attempting these settings. Your CPU also needs an upgrade, with an i7-8700k or 5 3600 specified. The good news is that your 16 GB of RAM should still be enough, so you can save some cash there at least.
And look, I'm not going to lie. Control looks amazing on rigs that can do it justice, and I'm betting FBC: Firebreak will too. All those fire infected hiss-like creatures will no doubt look incredible reflecting off the shiny walls of the oldest house offices, but they don't have to. I'm excited to be able to play this game with more friends than I initially expected, even if their weird pink blobs of goo don't look as good as mine.
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