The Finals heads into closed beta, and you can smash its destructible environments right now

The first time I glimpsed The Finals' bonkers environmental destruction (some might say "levelutions") last August, I couldn’t quite believe it was real. But it is real, and you can play it today. Following its closed alpha last September, the first-person shooter is now having a closed beta test for the next two weeks, and you can join the mayhem simply by requesting access on Steam.

The Finals is a free-to-play, PvP shooter where you duke it out in a virtual game show for a chance to win the big bucks and eternal fame. Its big selling point is the bombastic environmental destruction that lets you shoot through walls, collapse ceilings, and turn a bridge into a pile of debris. You’ll also be able to modify your playstyle with a slew of abilities, including a handy grappling hook and deployable turrets. Despite all the chaos, my favourite detail is that enemies burst into a bundle of coins when they die, clinking as they hit the floor.

The ongoing beta includes two stages that are actually recreations of real-life locales: downtown Seoul’s highrise skyscrapers and the banks of the French Riviera in old-town Monaco. If you want to play around with the server-side destruction, without the threat of being shot, there’s also a practice range in the beta.

The Finals comes from Embark Studios, who were founded by former Battlefield devs at EA DICE, hence the massive destructible levels. In their latest Steam blog, Embark say “almost everything in The Finals can be wrecked”. They also say they “want to breathe new life into a genre that’s frankly grown slightly monotonous.”

The Finals’ beta will run until March 21st and you can request access right now.