It's been a good while now since impressive free-to-play shooter The Finals landed on Xbox Series X|S, which means we're now into Season 8 of the team's post-launch support plan. This new season has just been unleashed, then, and there are some particularly interesting features being added this time around.
First off, destruction has always been a core pillar of The Finals, but developer Embark Studios is making big changes to the mechanic in Season 8. Dubbed 'Smooth Destruction', an evolution of the system enables more realistic destruction - including the ability for falling structures to completely change the dynamics of a map.
Here's an introduction to Smooth Destruction, alongside a before vs. after comparison clip:
"Welcome to the first release of a feature we’re calling Smooth Destruction. Until recently, impact damage from collapsing structures wasn’t really there. With this new update, we’re dialing up the cascading damage that can occur when buildings or objects fall into others.
Smooth destruction introduces knock-on effects and chain reactions that open up new tactical and strategic options. It’s a fundamental leap forward, and further proof that evolving our core systems can transform the Arena just as much as brand-new features."
The other big feature that's been added to The Finals Season 8 is one called 'Instant Replay'. If you've ever played Call of Duty you'll be familiar with this - it's basically the 'KillCam' feature from CoD brought over to The Finals. Due to the dynamic nature of The Finals and its destruction-laden maps, this one has been tough to implement, and it's also rolling out in beta form for now. Xbox Series X players can toggle it on manually at the moment, while Xbox Series S players miss out on this feature for now. It sounds as though developer Embark plans to further expand the feature in future; hopefully to Xbox Series S as well:
"It [Instant Replay] is not enabled for everyone by default (especially on systems under 16 GB RAM), but you can toggle it on manually. If you’ve got the horsepower, turn it on, try it, and tell us what you think. We’ll be gathering feedback, polishing performance, and expanding integration throughout the season."
Elsewhere, The Finals Season 8 adds a new 'Match Recap' feature that gives folks more information about their performance after a round, alongside some new weapons, map changes and a whole host of tweaks and bug fixes. You can have a gander at the full update and its accompanying patch notes via the link down at the bottom of this article.