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Audiences everywhere have been hungry for a new first-person-shooter to play with friends, andThe Finalsmay be a decent contender for that. The ability to go on intense heists across destructible cities with two of your closest friends is a truly engaging experience.
Thankfully, The Finals does a great job of ensuring that adding and playing with friends is a streamlined process, no matter what platform you’re on. That being said, you will need to create a new Embark account and accept the terms or sign in when you first launch the game.
How To Play With Friends
The first time you launch The Finals on a new platform, the game will ask if you want tosign in with an existing Embark ID.This isn’t mandatory to play The Finals, as selecting ‘No’ will automatically make you an in-game usertag. If you decide to make an Embark account, whether now or later on, you cansign in atlink.embark.games.
If you sign in with an account and want toplay The Finals on a separate platform, you can gotoid.embark.gamesand log in with your platforms of choice. If you don’tattach an email addressduring the sign-up process, you can do so then anduse it for cross-progressionafter verification.
If you didn’t attach an email or finish the account setup during the initial launch of the game, there will be a’Complete Account Setup' option,which will appear with animage of gold bars in the rotating news galleryon the top right of the lobby screen. When you open it, it will providea QR code and the same link as the one above,directing you toid.embark.games.
Once you have created your account, you’ll be directed to the settings screen and then the game’s lobby. When you do so, you canclick on the icon of two people close togetheron the top right of the screen next to your name tosee your friend’s list.
On the friends list, you’ll see your name in the top right, with the default beinga combination of words and a ‘#’ symbol followed by a series of numbers.This ishow your friends will add youand alsohow you will add themif they are on a different platform.
If you have friends on the same system who play,they’ll appear on the left listandcan be easily invited through that platform, or the game itself on PC.
Once they have accepted your friend request on the appropriate tab on the same page, you cango back to the lobby and select “Invite to Party.“This will take you back to the same page, where you canclick the addition mark next to their name, and they’ll receive an invitation. Once accepted,they’ll join your partyand you’re able to queue up for a match.
If you’re playing on Steam,you won’t be able to see if your friends are onlinein The Finalsif they are listed as offlineor have theirlibrary listed as “Private"on their Steam profile. In that case, it might be easier to add them by their Embark IDanyway.
Once you’ve added a friend by their Embark ID,you’ll be able to play with them at any pointfrom then on, no matter what platform they play the game on, as long as youcontinue to have crossplay switched on.
How To Turn Crossplay On And Off
If you don’t like playing with those on other platforms, you have the option toturn off crossplay inside the game’s Settings menuunder the ‘Gameplay’ tab.
It’s a simple toggle under ‘Network,’ and willkeep you from having to queue upwith those on different systems. This will prevent crossplay across all the platforms the game is on, including:
If you turn crossplay off,you’ll only play against others on the same platformas you are, which canhelp level the playing fieldin the case of the difference between console controllers and a PC mouse. While some might prefer this, it doescome with its own set of downsides.
If you turn off this toggle, thenyou may have to face longer queue timessinceyou’ll decrease your matchmaking opportunitiesby a couple of platforms. You also won’t be able toplay with friends who aren’t playing on the same systemas you.
If you do decide to turn off crossplay and have a hard time finding a match,it might be worth turning it back onfor a round to see if that’s what is preventing you from getting into new matches.
