Competitive shooter The Finals will make rivals ‘panic,’ devs say

digitaltrends.com:

“I think that many other studios that are working on dynamic shooters will panic now.”

That’s what art director Rob Runesson confidentially told the press at a preview event for The Finals, the first game from Embark Studios (a team made up of many DICE developers who worked on the Battlefield series). In its current state, The Finals initially looks similar to other games in the genre, but one big difference that Runesson thinks will set it apart from the pack: almost everything is fully destructible.

The Finals was already shaping up to be a pretty intense team-based first-person shooter, but the amount of destruction that players can cause is truly astounding based on a hands-off look at the game I saw this week. DICE’s Battlefield series is known for its impressive levels of destruction, but The Finals turns things up a notch above that. Enough explosive shots can make even a giant building completely fall apart and that kind of damage potential is pivotal in the strategy of any match. If its gunplay and environmental destruction live up to the hype, The Finals may become one of the most memorable shooters out there, if only because players will recall all the destruction they left in their wake.

When introducing The Finals, the team at Embark claimed that the shooter genre has gotten too stale and that they wanted to spice things up. However, many of their inspirations and the primary game mode are quite familiar. Details on the story are scarce, but we do know The Finals follows players in a virtual high-stakes game show. Embark Studios cited The Running Man, Smash TV, American Gladiators, The Hunger Games, and the recent Netflix hit Squid Game as major influences on the narrative. Although some of those influences