The Finals has released its beefy 1.4.0 patch, confirming balance changes, quality-of-life improvements, crash fixes and, crucially, anti-cheat detection improvements.
The Finals is a free-to-play competitive first-person shooter made by Embark Studios, which is made up of former Battlefield developers. It’s enjoying big player numbers on Steam, where at the time of publication it was the seventh most-played game. IGN’s The Finals review returned an 8/10. We said: “The Finals is a fresh and exciting take on team based PVP shooters, featuring some of the best environmental destruction in any FPS.”
Not everything has gone down well with fans though, as Embark was criticised for using AI voiceovers in The Finals by myriad voice actors and even other developers. Embark told IGN that "making games without actors isn't an end goal" and claimed it uses a mix of both recorded audio voices and audio generated via AI text to speech tools for its games.
Players were awaiting this latest patch as it helps to combat cheating, which has been a particular problem. Meanwhile, Embark has released a snow version of the Monaco map alongside unique holiday cosmetics.
Here are The Finals update 1.4.0 patch notes in full:
Balance Changes
Abilities
Goo Gun
- Fixed an issue where goo could block the player
Mesh Shield
- Mesh Shield Health reduced to 1100 from 1250
Recon Senses
- Recon Senses activation cost reduced to 1 from 2
Gadgets
C4
- C4 max player damage reduced to 210 from 240
- C4 max damage radius reduced to 1.6m from 2.4m
- C4 self-damage multiplier increased to 1.3 from 1
Dome Shield
- Dome Shield health reduced to 300 from 350
Gas Mine
- Gas Mine arming time added (1.6 seconds)
Glitch Mine
- Glitch Trap arming time added (1.6 seconds)
Goo Grenade
- Fixed an issue where goo could block the player
Mine
- Mine max player damage reduced to 140 from 160
- Mine damage radius reduced to 3.5m from 4m
- Mine arming time added (1.6 seconds)
Pyro Mine
- Pyro Mine arming time added (1.6 seconds)
RPG-7
- RPG-7 max player damage reduced to 150 from 165
- RPG-7 min player damage reduced to 80 from 90
- RPG-7 damage radius reduced to 4.5m from 4.75m
- RPG-7 max damage radius reduced to 1.5m from 2.5m
- RPG-7 aim-down sights dispersion increased slightly
- RPG-7 hip-fire dispersion increased slightly
Stun Gun
- Increased Stun Gun range to 12m from 10m
Maps
Game Show Events
- Added a repulsor to the flying saucers in the ‘Alien Invasion’ event
Vegas
- Updated strain in various buildings, to give better destruction results
- Resolved an issue where cashout stations would become invisible before players finished the transfer
Modes
Bankit
- Disallowed Deathmatch game show event from occurring in BankIt game mode
Weapons
AKM
- Slight adjustment to AKM recoil pattern
Flamethrower
- Flamethrower fire rate increased to 170 from 160
LH1
- LH1 damage increased to 47 from 45
Melee Weapons
- Fixed an issue where melee hits didn’t always connect with enemy players
- M11
- M11 damage increased to 16 from 15
- Riot Shield
- Fixed a bug where the shield would block bullets, while invisible, during interactions (e.g. reviving or stealing extractions)
SA1216
- SA1216 pellet dispersion increased slightly
- SA1216 damage per pellet reduced to 7 from 8
Movement
Vaulting
- Reduced instances where you unintentionally climbed on objects outside of the player's view.
- Fixed an issue where players could get stuck without being able to give input
Ziplines
- Prevented placement of ziplines on pickupables
UI
- Various fixes to contestant screens
- Polish to the social screen, which now hides the "Invite to party" button when you are not the party leader
- Added a warning to the UI that appears when players are in danger of being AFK kicked
- Player health bars now use the squad color when selected in the settings
- UI shows you as "unranked" unless you’re among the top 500 on the leaderboards
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
