In the coming months, it will be necessary to monitor The Finals just like its creatorsEmbark Studios. Behind this structure, there are veterans from DICE and a lot of people with well-filled CVs. The kind of things that give a studio the means and the ambition to achieve something big. That’s pretty much what Embark Studios with its first title. The Finals claims to be one of a kind thanks to destructible environments which we will obviously come back to in detail. But while waiting to find out if this feature makes all the difference or not, we can already tell you thatEmbark Studios pulled out all the stops to compete against fierce competition from others FPS competitive.
Embark Studios succeeds in almost everything it does.
The Finals indeed has nothing to envy to all AAA who card. If we could already judge the substance of its content, we must admit that it is on the form that the title amazed us. Visually speaking, The Finals seemed flawless to us. The game is beautiful as a truck, so during our first contact, we allowed ourselves a little sightseeing in the streets of Monaco and Seoul, the two maps on which we made our debut and the only ones that will be accessible during the closed beta which will start tomorrow. Brief, The Finals sets the tone from the start. An encouraging preamble that lets us think that he will make a very serious rival to a certain Apex Legends. Like him, he is a FPS competitive game played in cooperation, in this case, a team of three. Like him, The Finals is intended to be a free-to-play and like him part of the fun is choosing your character. It’s not about heroes though. We just choose between three different archetypes (heavy, medium, and light) before the magic of customization comes to work. As you can imagine, each protagonist has equipment in accordance with his build. It is therefore not a surprise that the heavy characters have access to a large machine gun, a rocket launcher, protections to place on the map as well as a higher quantity of hit points.
Conversely, the “light” category is intended for those who like mobility, handguns and disruptive objects of all kinds. To these specificities are added class skills, the icing on the cake to give identity to yours. Put end to end, the arsenal of The Finals is already well developed. And if traditional firearms are a little behind on this point, the accessories are numerous enough for control of the terrain to become a real issue. From the trampoline to the “Goo” grenade which creates a kind of solid foam, passing through toxic traps… there is plenty to do. To note that The Finals opted for a fantasy that was unexpected to say the least.
Unlike most FPS multi, players have access to unlimited ammo for all their weapons. No resupply points or ammo chests. After all, we are not in a Battle Royalebut still, it raises some questions about game balancing. Isn’t it for example too permissive to have multiple C4 charges and only a small cool down a few seconds to see one of them recharge? The question remains unanswered for the moment, but it must be admitted that this gives the game a side release which is to its credit. The outlet, however, is far from messy. For all the reasons we’ve mentioned, there’s a certain depth to The Finals. The many tactics and synergies are much more interesting than the kind of capture the flag that the classic game mode offers us. Not that the goals are bad, just deja vu. Truth be told, that’s something we could say about most elements of the game so far.
As we said earlier, the workhorse ofEmbark Studios is its dynamic management of environments. Clearly, the fact of blowing everything up and shaping the arena with each scuffle. It is therefore with a lot of explosives and a desire to wipe out the map that we put the ambitions of the creators to the test. Obviously, not everything can be destroyed, it would have been too good to be true, but it must be recognized that a large majority of buildings can be. Like a Rainbow Six Siege that would be directed by Michael Bay, this mechanic brings to the strategic dimension that we were talking about above. To say that this is avant-garde as the studio claims is perhaps a little too much coffee, but we must admit that The Finals wouldn’t have the same appeal without it. In any case, he would be left with a level design very inspired to argue.
You would have to be blind to miss the potential of The Finals.
Generous in verticality, the title manages to brilliantly combine varied environments and equally eclectic configurations so that each skirmish is different from each other. And although it is our equipment that creates most of the interactions with the scenery, it is worth highlighting the presence of numerous objects, mainly zip lines, explosive canisters or containers of “Goo” to be thrown away, reinforcing the idea of a living playground. Here again, Embark Studios has the little idea that brings replayability and interest: all the maps can be transformed by climatic conditions that change the approach to the battle. The thick fog might make you want to turn to melee weapons, where nighttime battles are a foot call to choose night vision in your attachments. In the same vein, events in-game are there to add some spices to the mixture. Bulk, we remember a temporary increase in damage as well as the explosion of eliminated players (a painful experience by the way). Nothing more than a few well-oiled features, you might say, but that’s one of those details that makes the gameEmbark already very complete. And if the only defect of maps of The Finals was to be too big? We are convinced that four teams of three was really the bare minimum to take advantage of gunfights correct. It goes without saying that we have never tasted real nervous exchanges, without doubt the greatest drama of this preview.
Our first impressions: Good.
We are not rave about it, but you would have to be blind to miss the potential of The Finals. Taken separately, the elements of the game are rather agreed. Together, they form a generous whole capable of competing with the biggest names in FPS multi. At the same time, Embark Studios succeeds in almost everything he does except perhaps being truly one of a kind. We have no doubt that cooperative players will still keep it in their sights in the coming months.
