With Season 7 behind us, my World Tour grind begins again in The Finals once more. Getting to Emerald One can be painstaking, and it isn't helped by one major problem: the pesky Riot Shield and CL-40 combo. It dominated the last season, so when I caught up with creative director Gustav Tilleby, I had to ask him about it. But beyond meta shifts, could Embark Studios bring The Finals to other platforms, namely the Nintendo Switch 2?
If you've been keeping up with The Finals' ever-changing meta, you might know that the Riot Shield is a formidable weapon across any map. Whether it's the interiors of Seoul's hospital rooms or the quaint dojos of Kyoto, I dread seeing any Medium player using it. It isn't completely gone in Season 8, although I'm seeing that the P90 is quickly replacing it as a consistent favorite across World Tour. With calls to nerf the Riot Shield and CL-40 grenade launcher in the last few weeks, I ask Tilleby whether Embark is aware of these calls.
"A lot of the Riot Shield frustration seemed to come from various issues it had with the shield's collision not being as accurate as it could be, as well as a number of third-person animation issues that could confuse players," Tilleby explains to me. Fighting it can be difficult, as its bulletproof exterior and awkward attack angles aren't ideal. I know some of you will be reading this and screaming your ways to counter it, but admit it, we all fumble in the heat of the moment.
However, he tells me that in Season 8, "we've tackled most of these, although there are still some additional fixes to come, but aside from these, the actual balance changes we made were fairly small. We're fairly confident these changes put the Riot Shield in a much better and more balanced place now."
But what about the CL-40? Well, Tilleby reveals that the weapon "is statistically pretty close to where we want it to be. Its usage rates are in the bottom half of all weapons, as are its win rates, and in terms of kills, accuracy, and damage per match, across most modes, it's also very 'middle of the pack', hence us not making any immediate changes in 8.0." Despite this, he promises that Embark is "continuing to think about how we can reduce frustration levels for those players who dislike facing it, without significantly affecting its power though."
In the meantime, Embark is focusing on other aspects to improve the FPS game's quality of life, and that includes handheld PC support. The Finals' Steam Deck capabilities aren't wasted by the team, and it is keenly aware of how important it is to support the console. As more fixes ensure the game runs on the Steam Deck, I'm curious whether full verification could ever be on the cards.
"It's on our list of things we really want to look at. We have a few outstanding issues with text input and text size, but the game is definitely enjoyable on Steam Deck," Tilleby comments. It genuinely is impressive how well it runs, and I personally enjoy the performance it can output on the Asus ROG Ally Z1e. When I ventured over to Gamescom last month, anytime I got outside of interviewing Shinji Hashimoto or my 007 First Light preview easily found its way to The Finals in my hotel room.
However, I didn't take my Nintendo Switch 2 with me. Yeah, that might be a crime in the eyes of my fellow Pocket Tactics colleagues. But The Finals doesn't exist on it, and I need a new Switch game to deliver some gnarly shooter thrills. With The Finals running on PlayStation 4 without making it fly off into space, I reckon the Switch 2 is fair game for some Cash Out action. Right now, though, Embark relays that it doesn't "currently have any plans, but we're always looking for new opportunities for new platforms."
I'm not giving up on it happening, though. The Finals turns two in December, and it'd be quite a way to celebrate. Before then, Embark's next game ARC Raiders is right around the corner. You can check out my ARC Raiders preview to see how it's shaping up.