Embark Studios’ The Finals Breaks New Ground in Competitive Multiplayer
The competitive multiplayer genre is no stranger to innovation, but every so often, a game comes along that truly breaks new ground. Enter The Finals, a first-person shooter that offers a rare novelty in the genre, with its focus on environmental destruction, physics-based hazards, and an armory of whimsical gadgets. Developed by Embark Studios, The Finals takes place amid a digital game show where three-person teams compete for money caches in an objective-focused format.
What truly sets The Finals apart is its unpredictability. Game show events like meteor showers or orbital lasers can remap previously memorized paths, map variants like moving platforms or suspended structures can obfuscate objectives, and the team’s best-laid defensive plans are often interrupted as explosives obliterate the buildings around them. Developer Embark Studios showcases its mastery of Unreal Engine with gorgeously lit, fully destructible level designs that are incredibly fun to maneuver.
The game features three unique classes: Heavy, Medium, and Light, each with their own set of unique abilities and gadgets. This allows for emergent play and encourages team collaboration, as players discover potent combinations of equipment to achieve success in the game.
While The Finals departs from current multiplayer trends with features like sturdy health bars, long respawn times, and an exclusion of multiple weapon slots, it still manages to offer a satisfying gameplay experience, especially with its focus on gadgets, environmental destruction, and creative strategies.
However, in a game with many well-designed characteristics, Embark’s use of generative A.I. text-to-speech voicework falls flat. The characters in the game show sound unconvincing due to one-note performances and mediocre writing, which detracts from the overall experience.
On the upside, the cosmetic microtransactions in The Finals are fairly priced and offer robust character customization. Whether earning a new skin via the battle pass or purchasing it from the in-game shop, players can equip various parts of the outfit and pair them with others.
Overall, The Finals has become a highlight of the multiplayer genre in 2023, offering some of the most exciting and innovative gameplay experiences of the year. With its focus on environmental destruction, physics-based hazards, and creative strategies, The Finals is a game that sets a new standard for competitive multiplayer.