On 7th December 2023, Embark Studios launched a new cooperative first-person shooter game called The Finals. The developers remarked that their idea is a huge inspiration from The Hunger Games and Gladiator. Once you start the game, you will feel like you are in a gladiatorial-style society where entertainment thrives on brutal competition.
It is a team-based cooperative multiplayer game where you compete against other squads. The team can only have 3 members, so it is either 3v3v3 or 3v3v3v3 matches. You can customize your playstyle by choosing different body types, skills, and weapons to suit your preferences. Moreover, the game has parkour elements and intense movement mechanics reminiscent of Mirror’s Edge. As we know the creators are ex-DICE and Mirror’s Edge developers.
The Finals have a vibrant environment that grabs the player’s attention immediately. It is like 1987’s The Running Man, but with more destruction and intense gun battles.
The experience is more elevated with play-by-play announcers. The announcers do not hold back from making witty comments every time your team makes a mishap. However, the game initially faced some controversy as AI does some of the voice work.
Almost two months after The Finals release, Embark Studios announced a huge mid-season game update. What makes it more thrilling is they added a new game mode called Steal the Spotlight.
Mid-Season 1.6.0 Update
On 31st January, Embark Studios unveiled their mid-season patch with several improvements and bug fixes. The main show-stopper of this latest patch is the brand-new event called Steal the Spotlight.
They also made some prominent changes besides adding a new game mode. Firstly, recon sense has been updated with a limited reach instead of infinite sight. Secondly, controller players can now use gyro controls for supported gamepads.
Lastly, Embark Studios added 10 new career levels with additional rewards. Moreover, new players now need to play 45 rounds to get into ranked tournaments instead of 60.
Steal the Spotlight
Initially, in the game’s first season, The Finals experienced its first-ever limited-time game mode. “Solo Bank It” spices up the match by breaking apart the teams for a solo match. 12 individuals compete with each other to capture and deposit 40,000 in their cashout station. This new update was the cherry on top of the 1.5.0 patch.
However, in 1.6.0, the brand-new event will replace the Solo Bank Its mode and give players a much more thrilling experience in playing The Finals.
According to Embark Studios, the new solo event will be more challenging than the previous one. The player will enter the arena at night with a set build and loadout this time.
The arena will have no lights, and the cashout station will be heavily guarded. A series of tripwires and torrents will elevate the game’s difficulty. Players need to hone their skills in using RPGs because it will come in handy to blow up all the tripwires. Moreover, embark studios revealed that there will be dazzling new cosmetic bundles as reward. So, get ready to spend some time in dark arena to dazzle up your character.
Patch Notes from Embark Studios
These are the patch notes for 1.6.0 entirely collected from Embark Studios
Balance Changes
Gadgets
- Dome Shield
- Dome Shields will now use squad colors if the ‘Use Enemy Squad Colors’ setting is enabled
- Vanishing Bomb
- Increased the invisibility interrupt grace period for teammates from 0.65s to 0.8s (+)
- Increased the invisibility interrupt grace period for the player from 0s to 0.35s (+)
- Increased the duration of Vanishing Bomb invisibility on teammates from 5s to 6s (+)
- Zipline
- Improved placement validation for ziplines, making them easier to deploy
Maps
- Las Vegas
- General
- Added some cover to the side of kitchen trolleys to make them easier to use
- Replaced the zipline between Eastwood and Decora with a jump pad
- Moved various cover pieces to avoid gaps in cover
- Moved various chairs to make traversal easier
- Removed Turrets & Tripwires map variant in Quick Cash, Bank It, Tournament, and Ranked Tournament modes while we fix various bugs and re-evaluate the gameplay design
- Argon Casino
- Removed some of the monitors in the casino so some doors are easier to see
- Added an extra door to make traversal easier
- Updated some Vault spawn locations and added cover to some of them
- Eastwood Casino
- Updated exit points on various ziplines to make it easier to access rooftops
- Added decals to some windows to make the glass more visible
- Rearranged the aircon units to create more cover on the roof
- Adjusted the position of some cashout locations
- Glamora Casino
- Removed some chairs so it’s easier to jump in and out of cashier booths
- Removed some chairs and railings in the theatre to make traversal easier
- Various other small fixes and balance tweaks
- General
Specializations
- Mesh Shield
- The Mesh Shield will now use squad colors if the ‘Use Enemy Squad Colors’ setting is enabled
- Recon Senses
- Added a range limit to Recon Senses set to 30m. Players outside of this range will not be detected
- Players detected by Recon Senses will now see ‘Detected’ warning text on their HUD
Dev Note: Recon Senses have become much more common in the meta than we intended and can cause confusion for some newer players. The reduction in range and the warning given to detected players will bring the ability’s power back in line with other Specializations
Content and Bug Fixes
Animation
- Fixed some small issues with the LH1 reload and Goo Gun inspect animations
- Updated reload animations when aiming down sights to add slightly more movement to them
Audio
- Updated footstep audio and mix for the player, teammates, and enemies
- Dev note: It should now be clearer for players to tell friendly players apart from enemies and their own footsteps
- Fixed an issue where the spawn sound effect could be cut off when respawning
- Updated various VO lines
- Various VO bug fixes
Career Rank
- Added 10 more levels to the Career Rank along with additional rewards. Max rank is now 50.
Characters
- Fixed an issue where characters could have their legs bent backward on some screens
Controller
- Added Gyro aiming options for PS5 DualSense and PS4 DualShock controllers
- Fixed an issue with aim assistance sensitivity reduction that caused almost no sensitivity reduction to be applied to targets closer to the player than 20m
- Reduced input latency on PS5
Emotes
- Fixed an issue that prevented the player emoting while crouched
Gadgets
- Defibrillators
- Fixed an issue where player statues could not be targeted for revives when lying in foliage
- Fixed an issue where player statues could not be targeted for revives when carried
- Fixed various issues with placement distances on deployable Gadgets
- Fixed an issue where turret parts could collide with each other, causing strange behavior when placed on barrels
Game Modes
- General
- Added ‘Steal the Spotlight’ event mode
- Added the ability for players to customize their contestant Loadout for all Weapons, Gadgets, and Specializations during the match lobby at the start of each match in all game modes
- Ranked Tournament
- Lowered the number of rounds required to play Ranked Tournament from 60 to 45 (-)
- Dev note: With the improvements we’ve made to fair play and banning, the threshold required to enter Ranked Tournaments doesn’t need to be quite so high.
- Solo Bank It
- Disabled the experimental Solo Bank It mode
Maps
- Monaco
- Made night and night storm weather conditions slightly less dark on Monaco for OLEDs
- Tweaked LOD settings on some trees in Monaco to reduce popping on low settings
Movement
- Fixed an issue where players could become stuck in encroached spaces
- Fixed an issue where players would fail wall jumps if they pressed and held jump too early in a vault sequence
- Fixed an issue where the player would cancel a slide if aiming down sights was triggered from toggled crouch
Security
- Made various improvements to security and cheat detection
Settings
- Increased default FOV from 71 to 81 (new installations only)
UI
- Added Career Rank screen where players can see rewards earned by gaining rank
- Added new tournament overview screen to tournament modes
- Added additional item tutorial videos for the following items:
- APS Turret
- Gas Grenade
- Glitch Grenade
- Glitch Trap
- Goo Gun
- Motion Sensor
- Pyro Grenade
- Smoke Grenade
- Sonar Grenade
- Thermal Vision
- Added new Event Contracts to the Contracts screen
- Updated the size of ranked icons
- Fixed wrapping issues on Contracts during the end-of-round sequence
- Decreased duration of Vault objective markers on round start
- Made various improvements to contextual ping accuracy, making them more accurate
- Various bug fixes to the UI
VFX
- Added new impact effects when friendly players shoot each other, instead of the coin effects, as this could cause confusion for players
- Updated collision on coin death effects to reduce the number of coins that can fall through floors
- Various polish improvements to coin death effects
- Optimization pass on the gas canister explosion effects
Weapons
- Increased the size of various grenade projectiles, to make them easier to see in combat
- Fixed some issues where AoE damage could be wrongly invalidated, causing no damage to be done
- Fixed an exploit where melee weapons could be swung faster than intended
- Fixed an issue that prevented C4 and Mines from being picked up when placed on a throwable object that had been picked up
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