On the surface, upcoming free-to-play FPS THE FINALS doesn’t appear to reinvent the wheel. Read its synopsis and you’ll struggle to pick it apart from numerous other shooters already playable. Will you amass a small arsenal of guns and weaponry? Yep. Build your own playstyle? Certainly. Fight alongside teammates in rapid-fire rounds of gun-toting action? You bet. So far, there’s nothing singular, nothing standing out, no promise of a long future for THE FINALS. Except… there is an ace in the hole. Something largely unprecedented. Observe the ultra-destructiveness of the game’s virtual arenas; in THE FINALS, players move beyond gun wielders to become human wrecking balls, reaping all manner of destructive behaviour on their way to victory.
More importantly, the destruction on offer in THE FINALS isn’t just a gimmick for visual aplomb, because, of course, blowing holes in walls or blasting bits of breezeblock and concrete skywards will always look cool and feel satisfying to pull off. No, destroying the environment effectively is necessary on the route to winning tournaments, to grow in fame, notoriety, and riches. Whether it’s establishing short cuts by knocking down walls or demolishing entire buildings to reduce vital traversal points between rooftops to rubble, ruining the environment is a tool for the tactically astute. As the catchy slogan on developer Embark Studios’ website goes: “don’t just pull triggers, pull down buildings.”
Of course, ultra-destruction isn’t a revolutionary concept in games, and plenty of other titles successfully incorporate the freewheeling joy of smashing stuff into their gameplay: Red Faction: Guerrilla is a game with colossal destruction at the core of its third person shooting action; Teardown incorporates environmental demolition into its exciting heist missions; Remedy Entertainment’s Control rips concrete clean out of the ground to fling at enemies. But have any of these titles ingrained destruction into the very fabric of gameplay? Does THE FINALS’ destructive miasma offer a level of tactical flexibility not yet seen in video games?
Early access game Instruments of Destruction is a veritable smorgasbord of childlike Lego-smashing glee tasking players with concocting crazy construction vehicles with which to flatten buildings to ash and rubble, and it is perhaps most closely aligned with THE FINALS. Both games provide a sandbox of sorts, an opportunity to furrow boundless imagination. More exciting with THE FINALS though is these decisions to shape the environment in interesting, strategic, destructive ways aren’t necessarily pre-planned but made on the fly, at breakneck speed in tandem with the game’s frantic gunplay. Get a handle on the destructive capability of the game’s demolition weaponry – it’s rocket launchers, C4, and the like – and in THE FINALS, blowing stuff up becomes another weapon in your arsenal alongside conventional pistols and shotguns.
So, in practical terms, how can the game’s wealth of demolition options strategically affect the outcome of a round? Well, say you and your squad are looking to barricade yourselves upstairs as you’re stealing an opponent’s cashbox on the top floor of a building, instead of installing turrets, camping, and waiting – well, you could do that – instead, just nuke the entire staircase. Maybe a bridge or walkway between skyrises is too easy a traversal point for players without ziplines, grappling hooks, or access to launchpads, so you may as well attach some C4 to its girders and blast the bridge to smithereens. Ziplining to rooftops could leave you exposed to enemy gunfire as they lay in wait at your landing point. No matter, take out your trusty RPG to blow a gaping maw in the rooftiles at their feet and send them hurtling into the building within. Or maybe you need a quick route to ground level, so just blast a hole through the floor and jump through it yourself.
Of course, the knock-on effect of all this explosive action is encounters can become rather chaotic. Observe the trailers and gameplay footage revealed so far, and THE FINALS’ visual viscera can swiftly overwhelm. Plumes of smoke engulf a corridor as floors above spark, crumble and explode. The objective – a vault or cashbox which players must transport to set locations in the capture the flag style ‘cash out’ mode of the game’s current closed beta – can disappear in the rubble, or perhaps be catapulted to the other side of a building on the brink of imminent collapse. These split-second moments are a joy to behold; for all the slapdashery of blind rocket launcher fire, bouts still teeter on a knife edge. Certain victory can be snatched away in milliseconds via the unsubtlety of building’s foundations crumbling to dust.
Graphically, THE FINALS certainly looks impressive. It won’t be the standout title for graphical prowess by the time it releases but for a title with such extraordinary destruction and particle effects the game’s graphics are beyond serviceable. Of the gameplay footage available to stream right now, there are only a few instances of noticeable lag no matter how much destruction befalls the landscape. However, there are frequent grumblings of dropping frame rates and other performance issues rife amongst the beta testing community, but fingers crossed these issues are minor, and thus easy fixes for Embark Studios to iron once the game releases proper (which, by the way, is initially slated for August this year).
A relatively fresh studio, Embark Studios, established in Stockholm Sweden in 2018, is comprised of industry veterans who after years of service working within EA and its various subsidiaries, including Mirror’s Edge developer DICE, have opted to embark on their own venture. The pedigree of their CV’s is clear to see in THE FINALS, but also in their other upcoming free-to-play shooter ARC Raiders. Notably, the crisp lines and bold, brick white rooftops of the game’s Seoul level immediately evoke the parkour fun running of Mirror’s Edge, whilst the Parisian suburb of the closed beta’s other level are reminiscent of Battlefield: Bad Company.
Embark are bringing a couple of other ideas to THE FINALS too, with perhaps the most eye-catching being the goo gun and goo grenades, which both spurt out a sort of foam insulation that can be used to concoct temporary structures to that’ll act as a barrier. This goo is solid enough to walk on too, so theoretically could be used as a traversal tool as well. Character choice is based on light, medium, or heavy builds, and it’s worth noting that certain weapons, moves, and features are class specific, with, for instance, light builds having faster move speed and access to stealthier equipment and abilities such as knives and invisibility. Medium builds have access to assault rifles, shotguns, and healing beams, whilst heavy tank-like characters offer the most destructive firepower with option to take sledgehammers and C4 into battle. Harnessing a blend of character traits amongst your squad of three will be a significant contributor to success alongside strategic tactical demolition.
THE FINALS’ closed beta test took place during March and has now concluded but Embark are currently advertising for playtest participants on the game’s Steam page so there’ll likely be opportunity to give THE FINALS a bash before it’s slated 2023 release. At present, the game is set to release on PC and consoles, and with the wealth of destructive firepower on offer expect this one to be current gen only.
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