The Finals is a game that was announced during The Game Awards this multiplayer team-based shooter was a pleasant surprise to see and was a bit of a fresh take for the genre. At the time of writing this review, anything I mention may be patched in a future update, so please bear that in mind.
Pros and Cons
Pros
Fun multiplayer gameplay
Three classes for you to play as, with their own weapons and abilities
Destructible environments
Customization options for your characters
Beautiful graphics that make the areas feel alive
Cons
Limited game modes for you to play
Vaults can be placed in hard-to-reach locations, impossible to get to
Vaults can land on bounce pads, making them impossible to contest
The map pool is very small, with only four maps in total
The anti-cheat system is really bad
AI voice acting
Gameplay
The Finals takes place in a virtual combat game show, where contestants are searching for fame, fortune, and favor from the sponsors. There are two main game modes for you to play, Quick Cash and Bank It. Quick Cash puts three teams of three against each other to open a vault, once opened, the team that opened it must go to a cash-out. There, they can cash out the vault for 10,000, the first team to get 20,000 wins. The other teams can steal the vault you have or contest the cash-out vault that you are trying to capture, so you better prepare to defend it.
Then there is Bank It, this game mode is more of a team death match, where there are four teams of three. When you kill someone, they drop coins, and you then can cash them out at a vault, first team to 40,000 coins wins. There are vaults that can give you a lot of money, so look out for those along the way.
There are three classes in the game, Light, Medium, and Heavy, each class has a different speed, health, weapons, and specials they can utilize for their advantage. Light can move fast and have the best movement; they get a grappling hook and the ability to turn invisible. Medium classes have the best specials in the game, ability to heal people, place down turrets, and can also instantly revive people with a defibrillator. Heavy has the highest damage in the game with their weapons. They have many destruction-based tools, like an RPG and C4s. One of their specials is a charge ability which can destroy buildings with ease, although they can also have a dome shield for protection.
Each class also has a certain weapon they can use but they can also customize them to spice up the gameplay. There are many options for you to try out allowing you to find a loadout that suits you best. Players who are killed are turned into statues, but they can be revived by their teammates which takes at least five seconds to be fully revived. However, with the defibrillator, this can be instant, making this one of mediums class's best tool in the game besides the turret.
The environment is entirely destructible, and you can use this to your advantage when trying to reach for the point. Although Heavy is probably the best at doing this since all their abilities can destroy buildings. There are also objects in the arena that you can throw, some explode, can cause a fire, or make a goo wall that can help in a defensive situation. Make sure to utilize these abilities as best as you can when trying to take the objective.
There are also many customization options available for your character. You can get cosmetics by normally leveling up but there is a battle pass you can purchase. You can mix and match the sets to make your character shine. You can even customize emotes, for your character intro, which is something I find very nice. The options are endless when it comes to your character, I love the variety and the sets you can receive. That is if you pick up the battle pass, which you can only get by using gold coins, the game's currency. If you get the starter pack, it will give you enough coins to get the battle pass, so it’s a pretty sweet deal.
Although as much as I had fun with the finals, there are some serious issues that do need to be addressed. In quick cash, vaults can be placed in hard-to-reach areas that can be made almost impossible to contest in certain scenarios. Especially if the platforms are moving and it has one or if the only way to get up there is by zipline or grappling hook. Ziplines and grappling hooks can be destroyed, so you better hope to get a bounce pad if need be when the time comes or equip one. But it does not end there either, as vaults can be placed on bounce pads, although to be fair, this is a bit hard to do, as you have to place it right and they can be destroyed. Although, if left alone, contesting the vault becomes impossible and will lead to the team setting this up winning the game, although it can be amusing when this happens.
There is also a limited amount of game modes, with there only being three in total, Quick Cash, Bank it, and Tournament Mode which is ranked but that’s just Quick-Cash in multiple rounds.
The map pool is also very small, consisting of only four maps. There are weather effects in the game to change the scenery but none of them do anything. Except when it’s a sandstorm, as that will create sand dunes but that’s it.
The game uses Easy Anti-Cheat but it is very bad as there are a lot of cheaters, especially in Tournament Mode, and this system doesn't seem to prevent other players from cheating.
Graphics and Performance
The graphics for The Finals are very beautiful, I love the detail that the arenas provide as they are very colorful. I tested the game on an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB, AMD Ryzen 5 1500X Quad-Core Processor 3.50, and 16 GB of RAM, I experienced no issues while I was playing the game, and it ran well.
When it comes to sound design, I do have an issue with the voice acting with the developers confirming the use of AI generated voices. It has been stated to be a mix of professional voice actors alongside AI generated ones by the studio. Personally, this is a practice that I do not like.
Final Verdict
The Finals is a fun multiplayer-based game that I really enjoyed, and I recommend it to others to try it. The game is free, so you won’t be wasting any money playing, although I would recommend finding some friends to play with you as this expands the experience and is more fun that way.