If you were a fan of previous Battlefield games where environmental destruction was at its peak... Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Battlefield 3, and then Battlefield 4... you might be surprised that ex-developers of the studio that created the Battlefield franchise -- DICE -- left the developer a few years ago now to form Embark Studios. Embark has been hard at work on their new game "The Finals" which should most definitely be on your radar.

The Finals is an upcoming team-based multiplayer first-person shooter that takes place in a virtual game show, where your goal is to be the winner at all costs... with something quite special indeed: fully destructible environments. We're not talking about "Battlefield moments" with the "Levolution" in Battlefield 4 here, but full-blown, fully insane environmental destruction. Everything in The Finals can be destroyed, where if you try hard enough, you can pull an entire building down on the enemy teams 🏢 💥

The Finals Details (so far)

• Made by ex-DICE developers (who created the Battlefield franchise) 💪
• Fully destructible environments (and we really do mean EVERYTHING) 💪
• PC + next-gen consoles only 💪
• Amazing graphics + destruction physics (best ever?!) 💪
• 3 vs 3 vs 3 vs 3 gameplay 💪
• NOT a battle royal title 💪
• Totally free-to-play 💪
• Squid Game-style sci-fi bloodsport feel 💪
• Late 2023 release at the earliest 💪

The main objective for gamers in The Finals is collecting coins and depositing them safely... which is going to be hard with 3 other teams hunting at the same time, looking for you and those coins... if you can deposit the coins into locations across the map, it seems that the person with the most coins wins. I guess that'll be if the enemy teams don't annihilate you by means of shooting you... throwing objects at you... or using the environment to end your life.

Embark hasn't been clear on the full details of the game, but we do know that you'll play in a 3-player squad against 3 other squads in a 12-player server (3 vs 3 vs 3 vs 3). 

Each build of character has different abilities, weapons, and gadgets... so your light build is most likely going to be wicked fast, while the heavy build is probably going to be your character that will handle destroying an entire building.

🔫 Cool weapons: The Finals will see you handling the Grapple weapon, which is a Foam-based weapon that is really quite interesting. Players can use the Foam in various different ways: using it as cover from enemy fire, to modify the environment and create new paths to play -- or block enemies -- as well as build vertically if you want to take the high ground against the other players.

The Finals Contestant Packs:

• Light Build
• Medium Build
• Heavy Build

Let's go into more detail of The Finals' contestant packs, and what each build will deliver to the player:

🪶 Light Build 🪶

🦘 Abilities:

• Cloak: a temporary cloaker that conceals you from the enemy, making you invisible when you're standing still
• Grappling Hook: self-explanatory, really... a grappling hook to launch you up vertically, as Spider-Man yourself across walls, away from enemies
• Dash: need to dodge incoming fire? Dash your way out of imminent death

🔫 Weapons (only one to choose from):

• Suppressed Pistol
• Revolver
• SMG
• Sniper Rifle
• Sword

🧮 Gadgets (three to choose from)

• Breaching Charge
• EMP grenade
• EMP trap
• Flashbang
• Frag grenade
• Gas grenade
• Smoke Grenade
• Thermal Vision

🔫 Medium Build 🔫

🦘 Abilities:

• Recon Vision: this allows you to better track your enemies, seeing them through structures for a limited time, yet it weakens as the distance increases
• Dome Shield: a temporary dome is placed around you, protecting anyone inside of it (your teammates) from projectiles, but takes damage from incoming fire

🔫 Weapons (only one to choose from):

• Assault Rifle
• Battle Rifle
• Grenade Launcher
• Level-Action Shotgun

🧮 Gadgets (three to choose from)

• Defibrillator
• God Gun
• Tracking Dart
• Zipline
• Healing Station
• Frag Grenade
• Incendiary Grenade
• Solar Grenade

💪 Heavy Build 💪

🦘 Abilities:

• Ground Slam: a jump that is followed up by a ground slam, massively destructive and knocking back enemies... the bigger the jump, the bigger the ground slam
• Charge: propel yourself forward with a short burst of super-fast speed, letting you break through obstacles

🔫 Weapons (only one to choose from):

• Flamethrower
• LMG
• Semi-Auto Shotgun
• Sledgehammer

🧮 Gadgets (three to choose from)

• Rocket Launcher
• APS Turret
• C4
• Deployable Shield
• Guardian Turret
• Mine
• Frag Grenade
• Incendiary Mine

To wrap things up, The Finals should be coming out in late 2023, but... and this is the best but... you can sign up for The Finals Playtest on Steam right now, which is going live in March, so if you're accepted... well, we're going to be mad jelly 😭😿