THE FINALS: The Final Preview

08.12.2023 - 04:23 / mmorpg.com / Joseph Bradford

It’s official. THE FINALS is out now.  The announcement was made during The Game Awards 2023 earlier tonight in what is arguably the best tactic for developers to capitalize on hype: the ole’ “ and it’s available now! ” approach. We had another opportunity to go hands-on with THE FINALS just last week, and here are some of our key takeaways from Embark Studio's first debut title.

I played THE FINALS for the first time at a preview event earlier this year alongside our own Joseph Bradford, but you can read more about his impressions some other time. Both then and now, the “buzz word” that kept flying around THE FINALS was ‘ fun ’. During this most recent preview event, Executive Producer for THE FINALS , Rob Runesson, reiterated this point:

“THE FINALS isn’t another battle royale, military sim, or tactical FPS – there are plenty of those out there. It’s an entirely new take on shooters. [It’s] the world’s biggest and most explosive combat-entertainment game show. You are a contestant in this gameshow and you’re here to fight for fame, money, and favor of this season’s sponsors. It’s a game where you have to master chaos and build stardom. Where the entire world in the game is your toolbox. THE FINALS is about having fun.”

What a strange basis for a video game, right? But coming after a wave of big competitive multiplayer arena shooters such as Splitgate, Quake Champions , and Halo Infinite just to name a few – which I have always found highly stressful – I think I could do with some of this so-called ‘ fun ’.

Most of what I experienced in playing THE FINALS earlier this year had remained the same. The biggest addition this time was the reveal of a brand new map: Las Vegas. This brings the total map count up to three, alongside ‘Monaco’ and ‘Seoul’. Whereas both Monaco and Seoul are open, spacious environments the Las Vegas map seems more tightly packed, with lots of buildings for cover and multi-level buildings for tactical destruction. It has the glitz and glam that you would expect in a Vegas map, and it fits perfectly with the theme of being a ‘gameshow’ that THE FINALS takes place in.

It’s evident that the devs have really been putting on the ritz to THE FINALS this year. I could easily recognize how much polish and care the team at Embark Studios has spent in fine-tuning every aspect from the menu navigation to the gunplay itself. The UI felt less cluttered and more focused in directing my attention to elements that mattered. It also felt more intuitive navigating options in the “Backstage”, the launchpad for customizing a character or starting a matchmaking session.

Which was convenient, because I spent a lot of time during this preview customizing my contestants’ appearances,