GamesFPSThe FinalsThe Finals' new season is even more explosive than its debut: “We’re introducing a way to really leverage the destruction"When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
GamesFPSThe FinalsThe Finals' new season is even more explosive than its debut: “We’re introducing a way to really leverage the destruction"When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Embark Studios)
I’m fond of a destructive approach toThe Finals, but what’s happening around me now is ridiculous. The efforts of my ‘All Heavy, All Sledgehammer’ team are being put to shame as the entire cathedral at the heart of the Monaco map falls down around me. This is Power Shift, a new game mode coming to The Finals as part of Season 2, a Payload-style push-and-pull in which the central platform utterly annihilates any structure it comes into contact with.
Hackerman
(Image credit: Embark Studios)
SOPHOMORE STYLE(Image credit: Embark)The Finals Season 2 is a shopping list of community requests combined with a lore dive I don’t think anyone really asked for
SOPHOMORE STYLE
(Image credit: Embark)The Finals Season 2 is a shopping list of community requests combined with a lore dive I don’t think anyone really asked for
(Image credit: Embark)
The Finals Season 2 is a shopping list of community requests combined with a lore dive I don’t think anyone really asked for
Those map-building tools combine with a set of new gadgets that also speak to CNS’s larger-than-life presence within The Finals. It’s clear that Embark is trying to round out some of the weaknesses in each individual class - offering support tools for the Light, destruction for the Medium, traversal for the Heavy - but it’s pushing The Finals' gamification further with these new toys; portals, dematerialization blasts, and anti-gravity cubes are a notable departure from the more grounded gadgets of Season One. It’s a fun set of additions, but beyond that, they’re part of a sense throughout the second season that this is Embark trying to push itself a little further than before.
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(Image credit: Embark Studios)
“We’re learning a lot. The first season for us was a huge learning experience.”
“We’re learning a lot. The first season for us was a huge learning experience.”
I ask about the cadence around that flexibility - The Finals did see a gradual, but substantial, dip in players across Season One, with sentiments in the community that new content was needed to keep things fresh. That’s a common difficulty for live-service games to overcome, but there’s a quiet confidence that Season Two marks a substantial improvement for The Finals.
“I think we’re getting better,” Grundberg says. “We’re learning a lot. The first season for us was a huge learning experience.” Stigsson agrees: “I think what’s been cool to see now, throughout the first season and going into the second season, is the way we managed to go from an idea to implementing in game. We’ve been working a lot with the tools and the tech and the workflow that we have. I think now we’re at the point where we feel we have a cadence that works.”
Among the trio’s obvious pride in the ways that Embark has improved on its game, however, is a quiet testament to the perennial precariousness that any title in this space can come up against, even something as successful as The Finals: “Based on what I hear, I think we are getting into the groove in a way,” Grundberg concludes, “but I don’t think we’re ever going to betherethere.”
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