A new trailer for the upcoming free-to-play first-person-shooter The Finals has been revealed, giving people a first real look at its gameplay. The Finals is portrayed as very frenetic and fast-paced in general but the most notable aspect that many have been gleaning from the trailer is the environment’s surprising level of destructibility. Building chunks are blown off and fly about in a fairly realistic-looking manner, and they seem to function within a dynamic physics system, as it even causes a building to crumble under its weakened foundation.
Now, it is just a trailer, meaning that it may not be completely representative of the final game at release, but if it is, the dynamic destructibility aspect is sure to draw many eyes. However, we will not have to wait long to find out, as the purpose of this trailer was to announce a closed Alpha playtest session which you can sign up for on their Steam page right here. The playtest will only be available on Steam for USA, Canada, and EU residents. It will run from September 29, 8AM (ET), to October 3, 3AM (ET).
The trailer provides a lot more pieces of information about The Finals. The intro sequence suggests the gameplay is structured around four teams of three. The objective, at least for the game mode present in the trailer, appears to be capturing a golden safe and taking it somewhere that will grant your team victory. Vertical movement options were shown, such as ziplines and shootable smoke which acts as a solid surface. It also appears as though players can use telekinesis to pick items up in the field of battle and throw them at opponents.
Many multiplayer games have a premise to loosely justify the gameplay and The Finals’ has a fun twist to theirs; it’s a virtual game show. The game’s premise is that the actual gameplay itself is a game… Okay… In other words, within the fictional world’s lore, The Finals is a free-to-play combat game show inside a virtual space. It has fans that watch it, and as per its Steam page description, it would seem as though part of the game’s progression will revolve around getting more famous, and repping sponsors. It also seems to suggest that stylish gameplay will net you more fans.
The Finals was first revealed with a short teaser back in Gamescom 2022. Embark Studios, the development studio, is a Swedish team that’s composed of former EA veterans that worked on the Battlefield series. They are working on this game, which will be their first, as well as a co-op third-person shooter called ARC Raiders. It does appear that the company’s goal goes beyond just making games, as their website speaks a lot about advancing technology with AI and procedural generation in order to change the way people make games.
The Finals releases on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. No release window has been announced.