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.