"After a period of uncertainty and dwindling popularity, The Finals is finally getting the praise and attention it deserves, and while its continued success depends on the reception of season 8, as of right now, things are certainly headed in the right direction."
As someone who enjoys a wide variety of games, including live service games, I have played more than my fair share of casual-competitive titles, and one thing I have witnessed time and time again is how very difficult for developers to succeed at launching a title that is either too similar or dissimilar to what is already on the market.
Developers hoping to succeed in the highly competitive causal-completive market must walk a fine line between these extremes and against all odds, that is exactly what Embark Studios have managed to do.
I must admit, my first thought when I heard of The Finals shortly before launch, was that it would be just another live service failure waiting to happen and that it would not survive against bigger and “better” titles, and yet where we are, almost two years later, and The Finals is not only still here, but it is finally coming into its own, and gaining the type of attention needed to ensure that it is here for many years to come.
Could it all still go horribly wrong? of course gamers are fickle and streamers more so, but after playing a fair bit of The Finals, I feel that it has a lot to offer, some of which we will examine below.
The Finals plays like a cross between Battlefield, Overwatch and Fortnite, which is to be expected considering that it comes from a studio founded by former DICE developers who had previously worked on EA’s flagship shooter.
However while it clearly takes inspiration from these games and more, the core gameplay loop is something else entirely, especially when it comes to its flagship mode Cash Out, in which three teams of three players battle to secure vaults full of cash and cash out to achieve victory.
When a player deposits a vault a cash out station a countdown begins and is displayed on the map for all teams to see, and giving the other teams a chance to steal the cash, at any time during the cash out.
And by “Any time during the cash out” I mean at literally any time, as I have personally stolen a cash out for my team mere seconds before the timer ended, and similarly have witnessed my team lose a cash out we had held until the final moments of the timer, only to see another team swoop in and steam the cash for their team.
To me this is the very best way to play the finals, and certainly the most unique, however for those who want to try other modes, The Finals also offers three other modes, which are essentially their take on modes made popular by other titles, such as Terminal Attack which plays like a more arcade-like version of Rainbow Siege Six, Power Shift, which is essentially Payload from Overwatch, and Team Deathmatch, a mode which is featured in many titles, but perhaps nowhere more famously than in Call of Duty.
While all of these modes are brilliant, I must admit to me, there is no finer or better way to play The Finals than cash out, which captures the essence of so many amazing modes in many other games while bringing them together in such a way that it feels both unique and highly familiar at the same time, and yeah and did I mention you can blow stuff up? a whole lot of stuff.
Embark has accomplished something that many developers have tried and failed to accomplish, server-side physic based environmental destruction, which makes every battle feel unique, from sneak attacks from adjoining rooms, to literally taking the floor out from under your opponents, there is no other title on the market quite like the Finals.
In a recent game, my team were trying and failing to flush out the pink team out of a highly defendable position, and with the cash out timer ticking away and our chance of victory going with it, we needed to do something quickly if we were to secure the cash and claim our victory.
While trying to attack from the sides was out due to firing lanes, and an attack from above would place my team firmly in the crosshairs of the defending pink team, it became apparent that an attack from below would pose very little risk, and attempting such a manoeuvre would be our best chance at securing victory, and with that in mind we set the plan into motion by first blowing out the floor from under the cash out station, before disorienting the defenders with a barrage of small arms fire and grenades.
While my team mates engaged the defenders on the floor above, I was able to take advantage of the the confusion to secure the cash out station moments before the timer expired granting my team the final $10,000 we needed to achieve victory.
The Finals differs from many other free-2-play shooters by allowing players to design their own character and equip them with a wide variety of free and paid cosmetic items, allowing for an essentially infinite combination of character designs for those who enjoy customising their character, in addition to a selection of preset characters and outfits for those who prefer to just get on with the game.
As someone who has played a lot of free-2-play games I must admit I am very impressed with how the way that The Finals portrays female characters, by allowing them to dress in clothes that are every bit as cool, functional, and occasionally bizarre as their male counterparts.
While some dismiss the sexualization of female characters in video games as a non issue, causing others to lust, and in fact, lusting after even fictional women is not only unhealthy but is damaging spiritually, with Jesus Christ having this to say on the matter.
The Finals has one of the best battle pass systems in gaming, in that it allows players to retain access to premium passes they failed to complete but turning them into legacy passes which progress a little differently, in addition to allowing players to purchase passes from earlier seasons once a certain amount of time has passed.
Being able to complete passes at any time, makes me want to play The Finals more, as someone who plays Fortnite and Call of Duty already, I do not always have time to complete battle passes in other titles, and being able to purchase a pass, and complete it at my own pace feels like a step in the right direction, and one that all live service titles should seek to emulate.
The Finals is a free-to-play first person shooter game developed and published by Embark Studios, it released on 7 December 2023, and is available on PC, Playstation 5, Xbox Cloud Gaming and Xbox Series X|S.
The Finals supports:
The Finals offers the following matchmaking options:
The The Finals in-game store sells:
The Finals supports the following peripherals:
The Finals is rated PEGI 12+ and contains:
The Finals is one of the best free-2-play shooters on the market, and while I will not make needlessly grandiose statements like “Its better than Call of Duty.” or “Its better than Fortnite.“, as someone who plays an excessive amount of both of those games, I enjoy it just as much and heartily recommend The Finals too all fans of life service games and first person shooters.
We found The Finals to be a great game, meaning it delivers a memorable experience with only minor imperfections that don't detract from the overall enjoyment of the game.
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