The Finals has been making some noise in the first-person casual and competitive scene as of late. To new players, the game seems like a breath of fresh air given how mechanics and gameplay loops work. To veteran players of fast-paced combat, something feels oddly familiar. And, there’s enough evidence to support that feeling.
The makers of The Finals are some of the best in the industry; having worked on popular franchises like Battlefield. The creative mark is blatantly visible; detailed animations, destruction physics, and overall gunplay accuracy. However, despite being the popular game it is at the moment, the game was initially not meant to be. Instead, it came out as an iteration of different ideas the team had planned initially.
The Finals Was Not Supposed to Be the Fast-Paced Shooter It Is Right Now
In an interview with Game Informer, the creative director behind the project, Gustav Tilleby, explained how The Finals was merely a product of multiple game jams and bland ideas. Tilleby went on about how boring the initial ideas felt, and how everyone could expect from a mile away that a bunch of people who worked on Battlefield were obviously going to make another first-person shooter that would rile up competitive players.
Embark Studios’ creative director didn’t hold back when revealing the behind-the-scenes hard work regarding what really went into iterating the game’s concept:
We actually had game jams and stuff pretty regularly from work early on, where everybody pitched ideas and stuff. I pitched some ideas, including the ‘boring idea one’ and the ‘boring idea two,’ and those were both shooters.
Gustav Tilleby went on to describe the ideation process as something that was a result of multiple ideas and displayed a sense of uniqueness and novelty that no one had seen before:
A few of us sat down and said that if we’re going to do it, it needs to be unique. It needs to be something that no one else is doing. So that was the starting point for the whole pitching process.
It’s hard to imagine The Finals being anything other than what it is right now. A third-person looter-shooter? Nah. An adventure game about class-based characters? Overdone. It’s likely the studio came about the game’s uniqueness after brainstorming a lot.
How the Devs Plan On Keeping the Finals Fresh and Unique as Intended
In the middle of the interview, another remark is made on the game’s ongoing map changes. Season 1 sees the entry of Las Vegas; a popular location known to almost every other player coming across the game.
The Finals blends the destructible environments into a solid gameplay loop that has players struggling, rushing, and shooting the bright and colorful map’s different buildings and structures. Monaco and Seoul are two other locations you can find in the map rotations throughout The Finals’ matchmaking. The dev commented:
We actually go and visit the place that we want to build. Because you know, that always gives so much more impressions and you actually get to see the place.
It was further revealed how the studio is using photogrammetry to accurately place in-game maps and carefully design maps. Realism mixed with creativity seems to be the key philosophy here. Undoubtedly, the team’s hard work reflects in the quality of matches you experience and we won’t be surprised to see more unique maps added to the game in the future.
At the time of writing, The Finals has crossed 10 million players and has ‘Mostly Positive’ reviews on Steam. To most players, the gameplay loop and maps feel fresh and fun. However, few players complain that the game needs to add more skills, weapons, and maybe even new modes to keep things engaging.
The future for the game clearly looks exciting, and time will tell if The Finals is able to retain its player base and become one of the best competitive shooters of our time.
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