Last month, Embark Studios announced The Finals, an upcoming free-to-play first-person shooter seeking to break the mold. This will be the studio’s first game release, but that doesn’t mean that the dev team is made up of newbies–Embark was co-founded by Patrick Soderlund, the former chief design officer for Electronic Arts and the former head of DICE, the studio behind the Battlefield franchise. Other former DICE developers populate the team as well, and if the newest gameplay footage is anything to go by, this is going to be an absolutely chaotic good time.
While there are plenty of multiplayer shooters flooding the market, The Finals brings something extra–almost everything a player sees is destructible. Shooting a gun at a building can cause it to collapse, and players can utilize everything from katana to rocket launchers to get the job done.
Check out the alpha playtest trailer below. (Those sensitive to flashing lights may want to skip this one.)
While it may look like a battle royale, Embark wants to stress that The Finals is far from the popular genre. The game’s major mode, Extraction, will see four teams of three trying to collect and deposit as much money as possible in eight short minutes. All maps in the game are inspired by real cities, offering a more engaging environment than many other shooters floating around today.
Gustav Tilleby, creative director at Embark Studios, stressed that the game is a “hero builder, not a hero shooter.” The game will have changing weather and times of day, and player avatars will be fully customizable.
“We want The Finals to be a game about intuitiveness; wherever you think something should work, it probably will,” Tilleby added. “We want to build a game that provides players with the tools to meaningfully interact, change, and use their world. So, this is a shooter; it’s a game where aiming and shooting is important. But it’s also a game where the players can use the environment, and adapt to changes in the environment.”
No release date for The Finals has been announced. The game will open its closed alpha in Europe and North America on September 29 which will run until 3 AM (EDT) on October 3. Those wanting to register for the PC alpha on Steam can do so now, and it would be wise to sign up as quickly as possible–only a limited number of people will be invited. Streaming the game is not permitted, though written reviews are welcome. Embark would love helpful feedback.
When The Finals does eventually release, it will also be available on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. Those wanting to join the PC playtest can sign up by clicking this link.
