From Embark Studios comes The Finals, a high-octane, destructive arena shooter with some unique attributes. In The Finals, players must contend with other teams across small, highly destructible maps to secure pots of cash in a game that’s themed around being a game show packed with explosions, weaponry, and powerful abilities. Recently, the game’s open beta went live – and will run until November 5th – but it’s less than perfect and players have been having some issues.

Embark Studios is a new venture that was raised back in 2018, being founded by ex-Battlefield developers. It was kickstarted by Patrick Soderlund and Rob Runnesson, ex-CEO and ex-CCO at DICE, respectively. The Finals has been in development for quite a while now, and although it’s emerging as quite a popular, widely anticipated game, the open beta has been met with some concerns right off the bat.

What is The Finals?

In The Finals, players assume control of highly customisable characters and take to a series of brightly-coloured, destructible maps. Each character has unique abilities, and even the shape of their ‘build’ dictates how they move around the map. For instance, the heavier-set character has an ability that allows them to use their mass to pummel through obstacles, while another build has a healing beam, and another can temporarily turn invisible.

It’s quite a diverse game that facilitates multiple playstyles, but it does have some strange flaws. For example, the time-to-kill is bizarrely slow, and it can often take dozens of shots to drop a single enemy. It’s almost because one kill can change the pace of the entire game – which sees players typically loot cash and deposit it in safe boxes across the map. It’s disorienting, though — and for the time being, there’s a huge imbalance present in the weapons.

Ultimately, The Finals is about teamwork, with each character hopefully fulfilling a different role. It’s a team-based shooter with huge elements of verticality and dynamic combat, allowing players to run along rooftops or blast a building to smithereens with highly explosive weapons. It looks brilliant on the screen, but console players have experienced crash bugs (which are being addressed by Embark), and cheaters have already been seen in the open beta.

How to Access The Finals Beta

At the moment, The Finals open beta has been made accessible on PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5. If you want to access it on any of these platforms, simply navigate to the digital storefront, search for the game, and hit ‘download’. If you’re on PC, The Finals is available through the Steam storefront. It’s around 12 – 15 GB and doesn’t require any sign-up besides making the most basic Embark account imaginable and choosing an in-game username.

It’s not all that demanding a game, either — so PC players can feel comfortable with The Finals whatever rig they’re running. It still manages to look fantastic, but it’s not photorealistic, so that’s a huge advantage. It’s also important to stress that The Finals is a free-to-play shooter, and even now, you can use credits in-game to purchase a variety of cosmetics packs and skin bundles. There’s also a battle pass available now that you can work your way through — and everything you unlock in the beta will, remarkably, carry over to the full game.

So, there are teething issues present in The Finals beta right now, but it’s still an enjoyable enough demo.