I had fun with The Finals

I had fun with The Finals closed playtest. The Finals will be a free to play squad based first person shooter. You play on teams of three and compete against two or three other teams depending on the mode to cash out as much money as possible.

The game feels pretty fast paced with the higher time to kill thanks to all the movement abilities and random destruction happening all the time. The levels are also destructible, adding to the chaotic energy of the game. Just imagine explosions happening all around you while the walls, ceilings, and even the floor beneath you crumble. I had a moment in one game where a giant man came out of nowhere, swinging a large sledgehammer around until he destroyed both the floor beneath me and then myself. It took me by surprise.

The team work feels incredible when you have synergy with your teammates. I solo queued this game having no friends. When you get a team that gels together, it really does let you see the full potential of the game. I had games where we would roam together, supporting each other with heal beams and reviving with defibrillators. We were a hard team to take down.

In addition to the teamwork, the game has a lot of unlocks available that create many ways to play the game. There is a wide variety of weapons and tools to let you approach the game in different ways. For example, you can equip a zip line or jump pad for easy access to the rooftops and use a sniper rifle to take out targets from a safe distance. Or you could choose to play more up close and equip an invisibility cloak and shotgun for a high risk, high reward approach. You could choose to play a more campy, defensive style and choose to deploy an iron wall and set up gas mines to deter pushes. There does seem to be a good bit of variety in the game.

While the team synergy and variety are definitely strong points, the downside of the game is also related to the lack of team synergy and weapon variety. If your team has no teamwork or some of your teammates are newer to video games and lack the ability to aim, the game becomes incredibly difficult to win. This is due to the higher time to kill and the different gadgets and formations that enemy teams can take. It can be incredibly difficult for a player to do well against a well oiled team of three by themselves. There is pretty much nothing you can do to win other than take a stealth approach and try to steal the cashouts right before it ends.

In addition to matches being potentially one sided, I have some other minor nitpicks as well. While the game looks, sounds, and feels satisfactory for the most part, there does seem to be a small feeling of sluggishness to the controls. I can’t quite put my finger on the cause but it feels like there is a bit of delay to the movement and shooting even when there really isn’t. It’s not a major complaint as I got used to it the more I played but it was noticeable enough.

Another minor nitpick is that the nature of how the game is designed can lead to some frustrating moments. The one mechanic that determines if your team wins or loses is the cashout mechanic. A box of money spawns on the map and a team must retrieve it and deposit it into a vault. The vault takes time to deposit all the money and any team can steal the progress at any time. It only takes one person to steal the vault at the very end to steal all of the money. It does not steal a percentage, it steals all of it. So imagine a moment where your team is successfully defending the vault all game only to wipe at the very end and all your money stolen by one person. It can be quite frustrating indeed.

There are some strategies to counter this from happening but it does require communication and cooperation from your teammates. Your team can simply leave the vault uncontested and wait for the other teams to fight each other and then come in to clean up the remaining members and defend the vault. Your team can also choose to never deposit the money and opt to go for steals near the end of the timer. You can also in general, just always wait to third party engagements instead of directly engaging to increase your chances of winning a fight.

Overall, The Finals does feel fun to play with some fresh takes on team based first person shooters. The longevity of the game is something that was a concern as there is only one game mode in the beta and for people solo queuing it can definitely feel more frustrating than fun. If the developers can add in small tweaks, additions, and new mechanics to the main game mode over time, it should be enough to keep it feeling fresh and provide an unique experience. There is also a small but valid concern as Nexon is involved in making this game. Nexon has a pretty consistent history of ruining their games by simplifying mechanics while infesting it with micro transactions so only time will tell how this game will do in the long run.