ALBAWABA - Nexon subsidiary Embark Studios officially ended the open beta for their upcoming competitive FPS The Finals, on Nov. 6, 2023, with a final stretch to Monday morning so that players could enjoy the game more before closing the servers.
For anyone unfamiliar with Embark Studios, it's a new game studio under Nexon consisting of ex-Dice developers and employees with upcoming games including Arc Raiders, The Finals, and Creative Play.
The Finals is a unique competitive shooter as everything on the map can be demolished or destroyed in advantage of the player's team leading to one hectic and exhilarating time with friends and teammates alike.
Our thoughts on The Finals Open Beta
Nexon / Embark Studios
Let's start with one thing, we've not had that much fun in a competitive shooter since the release of Valve's Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Riot Games' Valorant!
We also adore that the game's environments took inspiration from Mirror's Edge with its vibrant color palette as seen in the picture above.
This comes to no one's surprise since Embark Studios consists of many ex-Dice developers who probably worked on one of the most iconic parkour games in the industry, Mirror's Edge!
A few hiccups here and there
The open beta of The Finals had a few hiccups here and there including connection issues where some players kept on getting kicked out of our party every single time the match ended.
Inviting them repeatedly wasn't the issue as it was difficult to invite them back to the party. They either appeared offline or didn't receive the invite message until they restarted the game which became slightly frustrating.
Other than connection and partying up issues, Traversal all in all was smooth as butter except for the jumping mechanics as it's best described as clumsy and buggy.
Nerf or remove the flamethrower, PLEASE!
Nexon / Embark Studios
None of the issues were as bad as the flamethrower weapon for Heavy players, this thing is unfair and unreasonable, especially in compact places such as when players are fighting over the vault inside a building.
It does an insane amount of damage, has a long-range, and makes it difficult for players on both sides to see what's happening.
Solutions for the flamethrower could be as follows; shortening the range of the weapon, making it spread less, and lowering its damage output.
By the time of writing this article, the open beta offered a total of four fast-paced game modes:
- Bank It - a new game mode added in the open beta where four teams consisting of three players each go against each other to collect the maximum amount of coins with one team coming out as the victor.
Quick Cash - Our favorite game mode out of the others, it features the unique cashout mechanic where players go 3v3v3 as they fight over one vault at a time.
This game mode has a longer playtime than Bank It and requires players to strategically defend the cashout machine till it finishes or suffer the consequences of it getting stolen by other players.
Unranked Tournament - A cashout mode where four teams compete against each other over a number of cashboxes.
The goal is to bring the cashboxes to the vaults by juggling going against other teams trying to do the same thing. It's called a tournament mode because it goes for over three rounds and can have up to 24 players.
- Ranked Tournament - It's similar to the unranked tournament but offers a total of four teams instead of four with double the amount of players.
Nexon / Embark Studios
Nothing felt as good as when our teammate destroyed the ground where the cashout machine spawned leading to stealing it and coming out victorious which is why we believe that The Finals has a lot of potential especially since it's launching as a free-to-play title!
With enough marketing and updates, the game could be as huge as titles from other developers in the competitive gaming market.
Our score for The Finals Open Beta
According to Esports Illustrated, The Finals is allegedly set to launch in late 2023 but the developer, Emabrk Studios didn't give us an official release date yet.
For more information visit the official website here.
Wishlist the game on Steam here.
Join the Finals official Discord here.
