Patch Review | 1.10
New game mode - Smoking Guns
If you log in to The Finals this week, a huge splash screen will greet you. There's a new limited time game mode in town and it isn't big enough for the two of us.
Smoking Guns is a re-release of the Beta game's 10 minute casual experience: "Single Round Tournament." Load in, pick your class, and use a limited selection of weapons and utility over the course of a single round of play. The game mode has a Mario Party feel. Everyone's playing a kit they wouldn't use in ranked.
The last and first limited time game mode (Lockdown) targeted solo players, this one is open to teams and is a great time with a few friends.
Plus, there's a sick cowboy hat to be had, if you finish the contracts in time.
Community Events
Embark announced that they're running a few contests this week. If the community can cash out 250 billion in game dollars, everyone will get "a special reward." On a live stream a dev indicated that a few of those gamers might even get a t-shirt.
Live stream viewers can also get an exclusive bonus this week, the "Chamber Chum Twitch Drop" is available to anyone watching The Finals on Twitch.
Both of these are clearly designed to juice some player numbers heading into a second season launching in just 13 days. Embark must want as much of a kick start as possible before the season launches officially.
Gameplay
There was a very important bit of gameplay news this patch:
Lowered the time for when you can cancel an emote to 1.5 seconds from 3 seconds
I can't wait to emote on people's bodies, it's an under utilized meta. Take advantage of the newfound safety. Frag your opponent's mental as well.
The squad member off screen indicator will now list name and health instead of a blue dot.
This was a small change, but an exciting one. Players like my friend Bibbit are constantly losing track of who's next to them and where. This will help those players follow their teammates a little better, and the visibility of HP bars is an underrated buff. Teammates, especially randoms, will have a better idea of your situation before engaging.
Hopefully.
You can now equip items directly from the store and equipment page.
Yet another little UI buff. Thank god for this one.
Fixes
Monaco's notoriously spongy floor has been nerfed! Hopefully fewer trophies slide through it. Hopefully Bibbit's mines stop vanishing. They also fixed the bug where players would occasionally have their knees on backwards.
There's a little note at the end here about increased performance across all platforms. They credit better rendering models, a reduction in crashes on the Xbox Series S, and general improvements. We're always happy to see the game run better. I think performance issues have been one of biggest stumbling blocks in the game's growth.
Written 2.29.24
