Some cool tech & snappy gameplay trapped in Free-to-play hell. We talk a lot about games being tied to & shaped by their technology but little about how they’re shaped, and hollowed out, by their revenue model: GaaS “living games” are released (and shut down) before there is any life in them.

The Finals contains the movement & sugary energy of nu-battlefield (post-Battlefield 1) wrapped in the most horrid vibes: Forza Horizon-esque npcs at their infinite party, Siege/Valorant/Hyperscape-adjacent esports mush. Embark has managed to make Unreal resemble Frostbite, including impressive physics & destruction that echoes the chaos of bad company 2, but it’s all wasted here.

Even for a tight competitive shooter, this needs a more fleshed out setting, either leaning further into the surreal elements (bodies exploding into coins) or situating it in a world that is more than a watered down squid-game/mirror's edge/DICE's entire catalog. Feels like a very polished tech-demo and I refuse to play 100 hours to unlock interesting mechanics or outfits, which has led to every character running around in the default tracksuit/pyjamas. And don't get me started on the AI voices.

I am cautiously optimistic about embark’s other beautiful but empty sci-fi project, ARC raiders, which has seemingly transformed into yet another extraction shooter.

This could end up becoming terrible over time, and it could be the novelty talking, but right now I am having tons of fun playing this with friends. Not quite Titanfall 2, but still some of the best player mobility and map interactivity I've experienced since that game and maybe like, Battlefield Bad Company 2? Genuinely a surprise for me, can see why some wouldn't be into it but I most certainly am. Grappling hook.

Edit: just found out about the ai voices (I played on low volume bc of my baby and didn’t hear them, and hadn’t read these reviews). Very tired of EVERY new multiplayer game having some kind of major caveat. The announcer gimmick isn’t even cool, you could delete it and the game would be missing nothing. Or, you know, they could hire actors.

Mirrors Edge and Battlefield combined for destruction mayhem in a fast pace low TTK 3v3v3 objective shooter.
It's so refreshing to play a new FPS IP that feels vastly different from what's currently on the market.
Unfortunately not everything is perfect, as the game is quiet new there are a few balancing issues and a handful of minor bugs. I have noticed that sometimes a majority of a team will leave and it won't re populate, but this only happens on occasion.
The other negative is the battle pass progress, its heavily tied to daily challenges that are almost always the same. The store is a little pricy but that's passable as the game is FTP.

Overall I'm very happy to be playing a fresh take on the online shooter genre and I'm excited for the future.
Let's hope they continue to support this game with updates, patches and new content.

No star rating yet since game isn't out.

Played the Closed Beta in March then played a bit of the closed beta in June. Gunplay, movement and destruction are fun. The game mode is needlessly messy. It boils down to run to box, fight at box until timer is up, pick up box, take that box to another box, fight at that box until timer is up.

If that's the main game mode I don't see many people playing for very long. It just doesn't seem to have that magic sauce that keeps the game fun and simple.

Good gunplay and impressive destruction won't carry the game. The primary game type needs to be something people will want to play every day for months on end, and I just don't think what they have now is it.

Insanely fun multiplayer game that feels like a breath of fresh air in the shooter space with its "game show" match format and insane amounts of interactivity that give a very "divergent gameplay" vibe to the experience. Being able to throw explosives and blow up buildings and spawn walls and turrets and have all these things react in real time in a multiplayer game lends itself to some really unique gameplay moments.

However, The Finals also has lifeless AI announcers and the aesthetic of a wet rag, so while I might remember my novel experiences with the gameplay, I doubt a single piece of its style will stick with me for the long run - which means it's only a matter of time before someone else does it better.

Judging from the open beta, this game has the potential to be one of the greatest PVP multiplayer FPS still (a)live, but some little and big things might prevent it from truly making it to the big leagues, or, at least, from staying there too long.

The biggest reason for that is that the content on offer is a bit one-note, with a gameplay that requires a lot of teamwork to be successful. The only two distinct modes are a capture-defense type, and that mode where you get coins from killing people that you then bank at a special terminal. Plus a tournament version of one of those.

And they are great, don't get me wrong. The much-praised gunplay is fun and the equipment allows for a wide range of strategies, the destruction is fantastic, and the presentation holding it all together is solid. That's all true.

But the thing is, the carry potential is a bit too small, meaning that if you're up against even a somewhat well-coordinated team, and your two guys are mongrels who don't push objectives or just aren't that good at shooting or throwing barrels yet, you are almost guaranteed to lose. The winner-takes-all nature of Quick Cash, plus a lack of an overtime (the timer runs over a bit if the objective is contested) or sudden death (everyone respawns in the last throws of a match) mechanics, means that defending your cash-out requires some careful planning and consideration, as losing the objective in the last 20-30 seconds of a match might mean that you'd just have to watch helplessly as your wiped-out team is defeated and the winner does, indeed, take it all with little resistance. And again, it'd be exceedingly hard to avoid being on the losing side of this particular interaction if your team isn't going for objectives, wasting time taking long roundabouts, doesn't consist of two full members, or doesn't exist at all. Because yes, I've had plenty of times where I've been connected to a match with a full team but one or two members left before seeing the game through to the end, and even been connected to a match in-progress where my team was entirely empty before my arrival. This is actually the biggest weirdo freak thing The Finals does: often you will start or end your match with an incomplete squad, but rarely do the empty slots get filled in.

That issue is further exacerbated with the lack-luster communication features on offer. There is no chat at all, no way to quickly ask for healing or denote traps or strategic destruction points, and the "request revive" button only makes your downed character icon emanate a faint glow, which I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of players don't know the meaning of. The objectives in this game aren't difficult, but aren't always immediately intuitive, and the nuances of destruction mechanics, plus the nature of "Specializations" and different types of grenades, really make some matches frustrating when your team isn't pushing the limited ping system to the max or aren't playing as a team.

The other big mode, Bank It, is a bit more forgiving: your goal is to kill your opponents, collect the coins that splurge out of them, and bank them at designated and time-limited points on the map. Bank It is great for casual solo-play because the issue of players being too enamored with the gunplay to push objectives is not as persistent -- you are supposed to focus on killing. The problem of "poorly coordinating teams of lemmings vs sweaty CoD vets" is also somewhat alleviated here, since coins drop from everyone on death, meaning that it's possible to lose your teammates in a skirmish, collect their death doubloons and skedaddle without the deaths or the skedaddling being an outright setback. The destruction shines in the main capture-defense mode, but the main combat loop gets it's full spotlight right here.

The only issue with Bank It is purely one of balancing. Simply put, light builds with a sword or a silent pistol are guaranteed to do better than heavies and mediums, due to lacking mobility of the former and support-based gameplay of the ladder. It's clear that the classes and their general kit were based around the more defense-focused modes, but the light is built as a disruptor, with their abundant mobility options and small hitboxes, which makes them a powerhouse in a mode where speed and evasion is everything.

Overall, these issues aren't game-breaking or essential; I can easily envision a one-day patch that fixes the balancing issues, ads more relevant ping options and gives them shortcuts, as well as making them more contextually adaptable, and does away with small annoyances like not being able to customise your weapons from the equipment tab. And it's also entirely possible that as early as this year or the first months of 2024 we will see more maps, a traditional deathmatch mode and a singles option for match-making.

But I do worry that some of these changes won't come soon enough, and that The Finals might struggle to maintain or even gain any meaningful momentum. This game is fantastic, it's fresh, and it's visual style and iconography have a potential to become absolutely...well, iconic. All I hope for is that it actually happens.

3.5 stars for the state the game is in as of this last Beta; might go way up if the devs play their cards right

P.S.
Apparently the game uses AI text-to-speech for barks and announcer lines, which explains why the announcers sound so stilted and weird. Fuck that! Hope that's adressed with the damn day-one patch!

UPD:
I just read some more interviews and lurked a bit on Reddit and y'know what, make this game 3 stars. Embark is both run and funded as if it were a AAA studio yet the fans argue that AI-voiceover was something the devs needed to do in order for this game to exist and have a brisk development pace, which is the view Embark tacitly supports. And that's obviously bullshit.

The Finals is a free to play game and it comes with a lot of what you would expect from that. It is a work in progress that doesn’t have enough content. It has a battle pass and overpriced, mostly cringey cosmetic items that often clash with the rest of the games look. It’s slow to progress and expects too much of your time. Despite all that I like this and think it has the potential to do really well.

Normally I’m not a big fan of these games and often don’t even try them. So I almost passed on The Finals but I’m glad I didn’t. The Finals nails the core basic stuff. Moving and shooting just feels good. The movement is quick and fluid with slides and conveniently placed jump pads, ladders and zip lines. It’s so important to the gameplay especially because of how vertical this game is, which I really enjoy. But it’s not completely perfect and you will have the occasional bit of awkwardness. Gunplay works really well with quality animations and sounds. They found a really good spot with shooting. It’s fast and arcade-y but you still need to have decent aim and deal with recoil. There’s also a decent variety of guns and gadgets and some melee weapons too. Changing your loadout and class really impacts how you play. The time to kill feels spot on and allows time for quick thinking and strategy instead of just reflexes and/or who spotted who first. The developers clearly know fun and first person shooters.

Then there’s the destruction. Not only is it just cool but it is an essential part of the gameplay. Being able to just blow holes in floors, roofs, walls or just bring down the whole structure, in an objective based game, just changes everything with how it opens up options for attacking and defending. I will never get tired of blowing a hole in the ceiling and having the objective drop down in front of me, suddenly rendering most of the defences set up by the other team almost useless. Added to all of this is the ability to make goo walls and set things like mines, sentry guns and barriers. There are also different things in the environment you can throw, like goo canisters, explosives and flower pots that are handily located. It’s important to play as a team too. Working together when attacking or defending is vital and so is reviving and healing if possible. All the different elements of The Finals just feel well thought out and work really well together. It makes for such dynamic, emergent gameplay.

I don’t like the presentation as much as the gameplay unfortunately. The maps, weapons and gadgets are mostly fine and of course the destruction is excellent but I’m not a fan of everything else. I don’t like the TV show, virtual combat style they have gone with. The announcers are horribly annoying. But if you turn them off the game feels weirdly quiet, so I settled on just turning them down a bit. The music doesn’t help here either. There is a lot of cringey, over the top cosmetic stuff that has become common now. But for the most part the game looks kind of bland.

The Finals works really well despite the chaos and destruction taking place but I’ve still encountered some issues. It’s crashed on me and gotten stuck on the joining game screen multiple times. Sometimes destruction will look awkward and I’ve spotted floating debris every now and then. There have been times when I haven’t been able to revive a team mate without moving them first. The spawns can be awful, like spawning right near opponents and getting shot straight away and spawning on the other side of the map to where the action and objective is. There needs to be more maps and modes ASAP. More weapons and gadgets will need to come too. Being able to unlock new weapons, gadgets and cosmetic options is way too slow. Everything just needs more time and work and they will need to do some balancing as well. At least monetization is okay I guess, for now. The cosmetics are way overpriced but at least they are only bought with real money while the weapons and gadgets are earned through playing. It also doesn’t take up an enormous amount of space like some other games.

The Finals has a great recipe for a game and a solid foundation. If only it wasn’t a free to play, work in progress. But I guess this is where we are now. The market is over saturated and already has well established games so the only way you can get people to try your game is if you give it to them for free. It is a shame because by the time this game reaches its peak potential I will already be gone. The game hasn’t been around long and I’m already losing interest. That’s if it even manages to survive and doesn’t get ruined along the way as well. Maybe I’ll give this one a break and then come back. The Finals would have been so much better as a full priced, highly polished, content rich, finished game though. I’m stuck between ‘I can’t complain too much as I am getting some pretty fun, good quality online first person shooter gameplay for nothing except my time and data’ and ‘this free to play, always online, digital only, microtransaction riddled, second job level of investment, games as a service bullshit is ruining videogames.’ I’m definitely leaning more towards the second one but I can’t deny the quality here or the fun I’ve been having. If you like multiplayer first person shooters then this is an easy recommendation, give it a try but expect what comes with a game like this.

6.8/10 (for now)

Legitimately fun, even if the AI voice acting leaves a bad taste in my mouth. The destruction, the movement, the gameplay loop are all satisfying and make for some of the purest fun I've had in a multiplayer game since Multiversus. It does feel a little barebones however, I can see myself getting bored and moving on quick with the low amount of content the game has to offer. And I hate the recent obsession with content over fun in recent MP games, so for me to focus on it here really shows how barebones this game is.

The Finals is the redeeming last five minutes of a boring-as-fuck Fortnite round stretched out to cover the entirety of enthralling, nail-biting rounds that make you feel triumphant for every small victory you make. This is the kind of game that will make a follower a leader on a whim, and it feels great. The core gameplay loop here is kinda perfection, in that it's simple enough to describe to somebody who has no idea what this game looks like, but can get exceedingly complex in action. And this blunt intricacy spans more than one mode, too. The Final's take on Kill Confirmed is just as chaotic and cathartic as the main mode and feels like a welcome addition rather than a lazy afterthought. I'm genuinely pumped to see what else they add to this because they're clearly bringing their A-Game to it.

Get two of your friends (or family) on voice comms, and this is great fun. But the magic of a good teamwork-centric multiplayer title like this is that it works just as fine if you're playing with complete strangers several continents ahead of you who don't even speak your language. I can't say with certainty that it's as fun here, but going off of the few rounds I've played on my lonesome, it's been more than possible and, in some cases, just as fun.

Playing The Finals, I feel as enthusiastic as my siblings did when they got into TF2 over a decade ago. I never thought I'd have my moment, but I have.

EDIT: Had to knock off a star because of the AI shit that's apparently in the game. I'm grateful that this game is free so I don't have to have any conscience issues with supporting it, but it's still kinda scummy.

3-player team Battlefield style shooter with team-focused game modes.

I thought the game modes were pretty inventive and the monetization isn’t too aggresious for a free-to-play game. The shooting itself is pretty fun and reminds me of Battlefront 2 whilst the destructability reminds me of Battlefield. The only downside is that I prefer games with stories for the most part and I am not good enough at multiplayer games especially shooters to enjoy this long-term.

Overall, if you like multiplayer shooters I highly recommend this and if you prefer story-based games like myself it’s still worth having fun in this for a couple of hours.

fun as fuck and monetization seems ok right now (it's purely cosmetic). though earning the in-game currency to unlock gear feels really slow, but i got what i wanted for my class pretty quick.

it's a bit lacking in game modes right now but the game modes currently in the game work so damn well with the chaotic environmental destruction that i can't complain, especially quick cash. i seriously hope other developers take notes about how much you can wreck everything.

fuckers hanging out protecting a cashout on the third floor? fuck it, blow the whole building down!

i wish there was text chat at least though, since i don't wanna use voice chat. but ig people would be lame... but one match i had 30k on me heading to the cashout and i really wish i could've said "pls help" to my team instead of relying on just pings.

i also wish my friends would play it, cuz that would be fun...

This is just some first impressions and thoughts from the playtests, the game isn't even out yet.

Overall, I really love what this game is going for. It's got very fluid and tight gunplay, some of the best destructible environments we've ever seen, a unique enough aesthetic, and pretty good customization.

Some issues though, the game is HORRIBLY optimized. I have a 4080 graphics card and even I stutter about on epic or even high settings, big issue there. Also there seems to be some balancing issues, with weapons such as the flamethrower and some abilities such as the shield wall being way too powerful.

Regardless of these issues, they will likely be tuned out and we've got a great FPS game on our hands. The experience and prestige from former battlefield devs can really be felt in this game, they've really honed in their craft on gun play and destructible environments. I'm very excited for what's in store for this game.