THE FINALS

Embark Studios was founded in 2018 by former staff of DICE, the studio behind Battlefield. THE FINALS and ARC Raiders were its first games. Embark has said it was partly inspired by The Hunger Games, the novel The Running Man and the film Gladiator.

Before a match you pick a build. Light is quick and fragile, Medium supports the team, and Heavy is slow but can carry a sledgehammer, a rocket launcher or explosives.

The game was released in the middle of The Game Awards ceremony on 7 December 2023. Even before launch it drew criticism for character voices generated with ElevenLabs software. Embark replied that they are based on recordings of professional actors and temp voices from staff.

One reviewer worried about the balance at the time of his review, saying Heavies were everywhere in competitive modes. Players give it 78% positive across 280,085 reviews, critics 80 on Metacritic. In our Recommended Score it ranks 1,470 of 4,736 games.

Liked it? Try Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege, where walls also give way to explosives but you get one life per round, and Apex Legends, where squads of three heroes with their own abilities fight to be the last ones standing.