Finally putting all that destruction tech to the test.
The Finals, a multiplayer FPS from the ex-Battlefield devs at Embark Studios, is holding a closed beta test soon. That’s exciting news, considering we haven’t heard much about the game since its last closed test in October. The closed beta will run a full two weeks, from March 7 to March 21.
Embark is taking sign ups for closed beta through The Finals Steam page. Just click the “Request Access” button in the “Join the The Finals Playtest” box to sign up. You’ll be alerted through Steam if you get in. In the meantime, there’s a new gameplay trailer to behold.
The Finals has been a big blip on my radar since its announcement last year, mainly due to its impressive-looking destruction tech. Embark is saying that every building, decoration, and piece of furniture can crumble into bits under the might of rocket launchers, and somehow all that mayhem is synced across every player’s client. It looks really cool. So cool that I almost can’t believe it’s real.This level of server-side destruction has never been possible in gaming (one reason why you can’t level every building in Battlefield), but Embark insists it has cracked the code.
Trailers paint a promising enough picture that The Finals has become my most-anticipated FPS of 2023, but I still have lingering questions about what kind of FPS it will be. It’s not a battle royale, thank god, but it’s not a traditional arena shooter either. Its main mode has 12 players divided into four teams. Each 3-person squad races around the map gathering cash and depositing it at banks. It’ll have customizable loadouts, but we’re not sure if that means picking preset guns or slapping attachments on them Call of Duty-style. There’s also a lot of verticality with grapple hooks and elevators, but it doesn’t look as frantic as Apex Legends. My guess is that it’ll move about at the pace of a modern Battlefield game.
The closed beta will feature two maps, including “the skyscrapers high above the heart of downtown Seoul and old-town Monaco, on the banks of the French Riviera.” Conveniently, it’ll also have a practice range to let players get a feel for the guns and try out the destruction.
The promotional push for the closed beta suggests to me that, unlike the last technical test, players won’t be restricted by NDAs to talk or share about the game. Last we checked The Finals is coming out sometime in 2023, though its Steam page says it’s simply “coming soon.”
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