Preview of The Finals – when nothing is an obstacle

The Finals greets applicants with a video presentation of competitions of the future with parkour, shooting, and destruction. In some ways, the project is vaguely reminiscent of the defunct HyperScape, since everything that happens here is also presented as a virtual show, in which defeated players leave behind only a scattering of gold coins instead of severed limbs and fountains of blood and soon return to battle.

• Developer: Embark Studios
• Publisher: Embark Studios
• Release date: not specified

Today, the demo version of the game available to everyone includes one map – futuristic Seoul at night and during the day. You can run through the streets, you can jump on rooftops, or you can break into one of the high-rise buildings, breaking any window.

To quickly move, The Finals fighters use jumping platforms or ropes, or they can even climb onto a crane, change its position and dive straight from the arrow onto their opponents. And above all this splendor, countless balloons float, from which various explosives or foam are suspended, to make it even more fun for the participants to wreak havoc.

Of course, the main feature of The Finals was absolute destructibility, which is why the project is mainly compared to Battlefield. Neither walls nor floors are any longer obstacles, because each game character, if not equipped with something explosive, can at least use the aforementioned balloons or flammable substances in the boxes placed around the location.

This gives rise to many spectacular situations. For example, if one of the teams say, tries to occupy the floors of some high-rise building, and the others rush inside to smoke them out, burning out partitions, collapsing stairs, and even entire flights.

The usual tactics of those who like to shoot and hide to reload or restore lives behind a wall often fail here, since a grenade thrown from the enemy can easily eliminate both the fragile barrier and the shooter himself. And if you are lucky enough to run into a heavy fighter, he can ram his shoulder into the wall, throwing the player off the map if he is lucky enough to survive the onslaught.

There are currently two modes in the game: capturing territories where you need to bring resources and collecting coins with subsequent delivery. In both cases, several teams compete – three participants each. The system itself gives the teams unique names, which are used by the commentator, highlighting the highlights of the match for an awestruck audience.

Each player can create up to six avatars in light, medium, and heavy weight categories, which quite logically determine the fighter’s class, that is, the set of weapons and special abilities available to him.

Thus, a lightweight fighter has increased mobility, but a small supply of health points, and uses gadgets such as a device for temporary invisibility or a grappling hook, so in The Finals he is assigned the role of an assassin or a sniper, and the arsenal contains submachine guns, rifles, and even sword.

The Heavy is the slowest, but tenacious and physically strong class, using a grenade launcher, heavy machine gun, or even a flamethrower as its main weapon, and is able to set up barricades and bulletproof energy shields.

The average fighter, who has both revolvers and assault rifles in his universal arsenal, is assigned the role of support. His healing ray and defibrillator make him an excellent medic, while his turrets and grenades to locate targets make him a useful scout for the team.

Each class can be assigned two sets of weapons, gadgets, and one special skill so that during a match you can quickly switch within a class to different builds – The Finals does not allow you to change the weight category during a session.

Today, each class in The Finals has three unique special abilities, can choose from 6-8 types of main weapons, and take up to three gadgets into battle, of which there can be up to 16 types in the arsenal. At the start of your career, only a few options are unlocked – the rest will have to be purchased using in-game currency.

There is also a premium currency in The Finals, where testers are immediately credited with an amount sufficient to dress at least three heroes in the most expensive Donat clothes. It must be admitted that the developers seriously messed around with customization, already at the testing stage providing a decent selection from many variations of not only outer and underwear, but also masks, hats, belts, backpacks, body paints, and so on.

The clothes look surprisingly decent, which will certainly encourage players, if not to pay for them directly, then at least to purchase a season pass with many unique rewards. A nice little thing is that devices and guns receive points as they are used, for which you can later unlock skins for them completely free of charge.

Visually, The Finals is a little inferior to modern shooters like Overwatch 2, and the effects of explosions, destruction, and especially burning are far from the impressive analogs in the aforementioned Battlefield, but The Finals does not load the system, and most importantly, the brain. Turned it on, started searching for a team, and within a few seconds, you burst into an adrenaline-filled shooter with almost instant involvement in spectacular shootouts.