Embark Studios pivoted its main focus away from ARC Raiders in 2022, opting to push out THE FINALS as its debut game.
THE FINALS is a team-based multiplayer first-person shooter. Yesterday, the Swedish studio shared a lot more about the game, including an impressive gameplay trailer and lots of interesting tidbits of information. To begin with, Embark Studios (founded by former Battlefield boss Bach) is betting heavily on server-side movement and destruction.
Server-side movement & destruction has been a holy grail in game development for a long time
and we’re really proud to have made it a reality in THE FINALS. Rather than having movement
physics running on the client-side (ie the computer you run the game on), environment movement
happens on the server. That implies there’s a single truth for physics, for all players at the same
time. In turn, that allows for physics-driven movement on indeterministic surfaces. Yeah, that’s a
mouthful, we know, but it means that players can move at the same time on moving platforms, in a
multiplayer setting. Or that you and your friends can experience being in the same collapsing
house together, in sync. It’s an exciting topic, and it fundamentally changes the way dynamic multiplayer can be played.
Throwing things is definitely a part of the game. Barrels and other physical items in the
games are interactable and throwable. And yes, you can put them on fire.
The most exciting part is perhaps that there will be an Alpha Playtest for THE FINALS starting tomorrow, and you can register via Steam.
In the Alpha, players can expect:
- 12-player Extraction Mode featuring four teams of three;
- 42 different weapons, gadgets, and abilities;
- One map based on the Old Town of Monaco;
- Character builder with three types (heavy, medium, light), with each type featuring unique weapons, gadgets, attributes (like hp and movement speed), unique attributes, and visual customization options.
