Preview of the online shooter The Finals. A mix of Battlefield and Fortnite with total destructibility

Testing took place from October 25 to November 5 The Finals is a total destructibility shooter being developed by the Embark studio. The team is led by the former head of DICE Patrick Söderlund, so many players consider the project almost “new-old” Battlefield. We will tell you in this article whether the authors managed to meet expectations and what impressions we got from the game.

The first time we heard about The Finals was a year ago. Then, in September, the authors showed the first gameplay trailer of the project and opened registration for alpha testing. Since then, the style of the game has not changed: pastel colors with bright yellow, opponents showered in gold and dynamic shootouts with vertical gameplay.

According to SteamCharts statistics, the peak online was 265 thousand people. It seems that the developers did not expect such an influx, and the servers could not always cope – every time we entered the game we stood in line for some time. It also happened that part of the assembled squad entered the game and another part “stuck” on the loading screen.

Overall, the playtest was The Finals in miniature: there were two modes and ranked play available, as well as a shop for gear and cosmetic items. We collect weapons and gadgets, “dress” the hero to our liking (for this the developers were generous with 10,000 units of donated money) and, having gotten used to the modes, we set out to conquer the ratings.

Both modes, and “rating”, revolve around “cash”. In Quick Cash you have to take a box (literally) of money, take it to the ATM and defend it until the machine ‘counts’ the money. At this point, they can ‘steal’ your hard-earned money by seizing an ATM and pocketing the money for themselves. A variation on Capture the Flag. The same mode underlies the rating game: in the knockout tournament table, eight teams are eliminated over three rounds.

The second mode, Bank it, is ‘money’ tokens. Remember when there was a mode in Call of Duty where you had to collect tokens from defeated enemies? In Bank It, killing enemies and opening cache boxes yields ‘coins’ that must be picked up. Until you deposit money into the “team account” using the same ATMs, you risk losing everything you have earned – all the player’s coins will fall out after his death. Moreover, opponents see how much money you have with you and they actively shoot at the ‘fat’ targets.

When we talk about customization and builds, everything here is quite simple. The game doesn’t care about realism at all – in the store you can find a “cardboard” skin for a sniper rifle, a cheese paddle and a diamond AK.

Instead of classes, there are three body types available: S, M and L. Small, medium and large. Depending on the chosen physique, the set of available weapons and skills changes, as well as the amount of health and movement speed.

S-class fighters are armed with sniper rifles and submachine guns. The M guys usually carry assault rifles, like AKs, and the big ones (L) are armed with machine guns. They can also use a hammer as a weapon, which they can use to destroy the environment.

The weapons were more than sufficient for the eleven days of play testing. There aren’t many arenas, but they do have random features. For example, the same construction site may be dilapidated, have platforms for rapid movement, several elevators and other modifications.

Let’s start with the most important feature. The total destructibility declared by the authors is truly palpable. You can destroy the entire map if you want, but there aren’t many ways to do this. C4, a hammer and a hand grenade launcher from an L-trooper, several “red barrels” – that’s probably all.

But even this is enough to change the course of the battle or approach the enemy from an unexpected direction. In many ways the game works like Rainbow Six: Siege. During the defense of an ATM, the enemy team, unable to breach our defenses, simply blew up the floor under the machine, bringing it to the floor below and capturing the money.

A ‘bully’ armed with a hammer can not only hit you hard, but also suddenly attack you out of nowhere. A successful position can easily turn into a trap, as soon as the enemy remembers the opportunity to simply carve out a new path for themselves.

Moreover, the level design is tailor-made for such possibilities, as well as for vertical gameplay – several stairs, many window openings, “elevators” and zip lines – all this allows you to quickly move around the map, dodge enemy fire or to catch up with him.

Shooting here feels more like shooting in Overwatch than Battlefield. Both you and your opponents have quite a bit of health and reloading weapons is slow. As a result, you can try to kill the enemy in close combat, or escape out the window – there is no second slot for a cannon yet.

The overall atmosphere and style is somewhat reminiscent of a mix of Battlefield and Fortnite. Calm white tones, no fall damage, individual bright elements of important objects that allow you to navigate through the sometimes chaos – the game clearly has a style, but perhaps not everyone will like it.

In this regard, we move on to aspects that seemed controversial. The shooting is probably the most unpleasant element at the moment, which spoils the overall positive impression of destructibility and atmosphere. The enemy ‘absorbs’ an indecent amount of damage. Less than Overwatch, but more than twice as much as Call of Duty or Battlefield. As a result, gunfights turn into a farce of rivals jumping around each other, and pistols and shotguns rule: automatic weapons do too little damage per shot.

Perhaps in this way the authors strive to protect players from unexpected shots from a suddenly formed opening, but this completely kills the pace of the game and spoils the impression of the shootings.

A controversial point can also be called the Team Wipe event: when your entire team dies and, even if you still had a second left for the revival, the timer is reset and you sit together and watch it for another half minute battlefield.

Moving feels strange. On the one hand, various cable cars, trampolines and parkour elements ensure that you can race across the map in comfort. On the other hand, crooked animation and bad camera work kill all dynamics, and the character feels… Yeah, generally not at all. Moving doesn’t even remotely evoke the same emotions that you experience in Apex Legends. The developers should reconsider this aspect somehow.

Controversial class balance, problems with servers, an incomprehensible system for creating builds – these are all points for the sake of debugging for which the developers conduct a play test. Therefore, despite the time left in line, we will not focus on them.

With the right polish, Finals can surpass both Battlefield and Call of Duty. It sounds daring, but the project has an excellent foundation: the concept of total destructibility, which shooter fans have been waiting for for years, interesting images and atmosphere, as well as a team of experienced developers.

It only depends on them (and also on publisher Nexon’s proposed monetization policy) whether the game will become the new standard for multiplayer shooters, or whether it will close soon after release due to low online numbers .

What do you think of The Finale? Have you tried it yet? Share your thoughts in the comments.