The Finals reawakens an appetite for destruction

Levels, stages, maps: we have many ways of referring to the virtual spaces presented by videogames, each term loaded with connotations. Often, though, it feels like we might as well just borrow from the vocabulary of theatre and cinema, and call them ‘sets’: backdrops designed to support the story and bolster its illusion of reality, but not to be prodded at or even seen from any angle other than those chosen by the cinematographer or set designer. There are good practical and aesthetic reasons why technological advances might have prioritised visual fidelity over reactivity. Yet, on the occasions when we are presented with worlds that we can mould and reshape using our own hands, we can’t help but wonder if something might have been lost here.

There’s the simple power-fantasy aspect, of course. All that buckling architecture and flying masonry makes The Finals’ action immediately exciting, and lends extra heft to every weapon, their fire not only able to eliminate rival players but punch holes in the scenery. It’s something the developers at Embark Studios have had in their sights since their days at Battlefield studio DICE. Indeed, many of the dynamic environmental features once touted as ‘Levolution’ in that series are on show here: buttons that raise bollards or lower blast doors; pressurised containers that throw up clouds of obscuring smoke when shot; shifts in weather and time of day that alter the rules of engagement. These small touches might lack the flashiness of the game’s more destructive tendencies, but they get at the real opportunity of reactive levels: as a game design tool.