In The Finals, a new squad shooter from Battlefield alumni, everything is destructible
Four years ago, Electronic Arts’ chief design officer left to co-found his own studio, created with Nexon’s backing. On Monday, Patrick Söderlund’s studio showed off its first game: The Finals, a squad-based, free-to-play multiplayer shooter inspired by sci-fi bloodsport narratives like Squid Game and The Running Man, where pretty much everything on the game’s maps can be destroyed.
The Finals, said Embark Studios creative director Gustav Tilleby, is “a hero builder, not a hero shooter.” As shown in a debut trailer, players will have access to a variety of weapons and their tactical uses, from a katana and other melee weapons, to rocket launchers, and even a foam gun that can reinforce crumbling walls or build a bridge to higher ground.
“We want to build a game that provides players with the tools to meaningfully interact, change, and use their world,” Tilleby said. “So, this is a shooter; it’s a game where aiming and shooting is important. But it’s also a game where the players can use the environment, and adapt to changes in the environment.”
“We want The Finals to be a game about intuitiveness; wherever you think something should work, it probably will,” Tilleby said. Hence the comprehensive destruction players can wreak all over the map. A standard match in The Finals will feature four teams of three players each. It is “not a battle royale, it’s not a military sim,” Tilleby emphasized.
Stockholm-based Embark Studios was co-founded in 2018 by Söderlund and Rob Runnesson, who is also Embark’s chief creative officer. Originally, Embark’s first game was to have been ARC Raiders, a free-to-play, third-person sci-fi shooter that wasannounced in December at The Game Awards 2021. In August, Embark announced ARC Raiders was
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