The current state of PvP shooters is pretty underwhelming. Whilst games like Counter-Strike 2 and Halo Infinite are genuinely exciting, they also don’t bring anything new to the table. Instead, every game wants to break into that battle royale or extraction shooter gameplay loop. There’s very little experimentation or attempts to be fun; just look at the abomination that is Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3. This year we managed to get two completely new and compelling concepts: Capcom’s Exoprimal, which brought an exciting spin on PvEvP gameplay and despite some issues I will urge anyone to at least try. Then we have the Game Awards shadowdrop – The Finals – and this is the big one.

Buildings very rarely survive the match.

The Finals is exclusively a PvP multiplayer shooter, so there is no story to discuss but the theming is around a game show that has teams battling it out for prize money. Core gameplay is at the forefront here and for the most part it’s excellent with a great fast paced movement system that feels fluid. And even better gunplay that finds that sweet spot between mechanical skill and tactical gameplay with a Time to Kill that for the most part feels nicely done.

Cashout is the premiere mode where you will be spending most of your time. A 3v3v3 arena shooter that has the 3 teams competing for a vault. Players will have to collect a vault, take it to the cashout and defend it with their lives for a couple of minutes whilst the other competing teams fight to capture it. First team to capture two vaults wins the game.

The biggest drawback with Cashout is that most of the round. It’s not who holds the cashout for the longest. It’s who controls it at the end; making the vast majority of the round feel kind of wasted. I feel like the cashout should bank point overtime rather than one big cashout at the end. Regardless of winning or losing, I just had a really damn good time with it.

Maps are massive.

There are some other game modes like Bank It which adds another team of three to the mix. As instead of just grabbing vaults, killing enemy players will have them drop coins for you to take to the cashout. It’s chaotic but I feel like out of the two casual modes this one feels a bit weaker. As for ranked you have tournament mode which plays very similar to cashout but with a tournament structure ending in two teams for the finals. 

The one downside is the games overall lack of content. Coming down to three modes and four admittedly huge maps. To offset this games will have random modifiers from floating platforms and sandstorms to meteorites crashing down. There is enough here and with the ultra dynamic gameplay each match feels completely different from the last.

Players will have the choice of three distinct classes that fits the standard role archetypes. Each class has their own different advantages, disadvantages and gadgets to use and they are all pretty self-explanatory. The heavy class has higher HP but at the cost of mobility, able to equip themselves with larger weapon, shields and melee weapons. On the other side the light class is faster and more agile but with much lower HP and equipment more focused on faster movement like grappling hook, invisibility and grenades. Equipped with pistols and small SMGs as their primary weapons.

Finally the medium class sits just in-between providing that sweet spot of mobility and durability. With medium class weapons like AKs and abilities such as mines and jump pads. Playing as all three classes they all feel really well done. The exception to this is the heavy class which can be absolutely frustrating to play against multiple at the same time. Balance as a whole is decent but not perfect and I’d like to see less emphasis on abilities which can feel just very spammy at times.

Competitors explode into a pile of gold.

The Finals is very much a team oriented game. As such playing in random groups will likely be a very miserable experience as players fail to grasp the simple concepts that the game lays out to you. Whilst it can be a tricky game to play it’s amazing that so many players can’t follow the objective. This is by no means a fault of the game itself and I’m not holding it against it but be aware that this can be rough for solo players. If you want Team Deathmatch this is not your game. Playing with a premade group is absolutely the way to go, especially if you have solid communication as you will also most likely be going against other groups anyway.

One of the big selling point however is that Embark Studio are using their DICE/Battlefield expertise to bring destruction to an entirely new level. Living up to that original Crackdown 3 concept the entire environment is destructible (with very few exceptions). There’s nothing quite like being in a building that is literally collapsing in on itself. As chaos erupts and three separate teams are all clambering over and through the wreckage as it collapses in real-time is chaotically epic fun.

Destruction as a whole becomes a whole part of the games tactical design. Another team has the cashout locked down? Try breaching a hole into the walls, or even drop the vault down the floors. Still not working? Try bringing down the entire goddamn building and stealt the cashout in the chaos.

The V9S is surpirsingly powerful for the light class.

Overall The Finals does provide probably one of the most uniquely compelling and interesting approach to PvP multiplayer in a sea of awful Battle Royales and even worse extraction shooters. The movement is fast but rarely falls into the spammy area reached in the newer Call of Duty games and the time to kill feels just right but may be a little too much on the high end against heavy class players. It’s off to an incredibly solid start and I’m excited to see where it goes next. Hopefully with some extra modes; A finals twist on Halo’s oddball mode would be incredible.

As a free to play game at launch I’m really happy to say that the game is indeed fully free to play.  You can play all modes at launch and will not be at a disadvantage if you don’t pay; premium content is purely cosmetics. Of course there are a lot of microtransactions in terms of store items and the dreaded battle pass. I found a cosmetic pack that cost 1,600 Multibucks (this games premium currency) and there’s no real way to get that.

The closest you can get to that is buying the 1150 muiltibucks pack alongside the 500 pack leaving you with 50 bucks spare. Whilst this is a common practice in the industry it’s one that needs to be called out for it’s bullshit behaviour; especially since these skins cost upwards of £20! That’s as much as a solid indie game. Not only this; if you want a particular jacket or something you will need to purchase an entire “bundle” of cosmetics you probably don’t want; why?! Is it to stop people from spending the currency from the battle pass on cheaper items?

In Embark Studios credit the battle pass is a better deal and does spit out enough premium currency that you will be able to get the next battle pass and possible even more to use on the storefront as you see fit but also may take a few seasons until you can get something substantial. Unfortunately unlike Halo Infinite the battle pass does have an expiry date so you will need to grind it out before that 90 days limit is up.

*sigh*

In terms of levelling up the battle pass daily and weekly challenges provide you with plenty of XP but it does feel grindy enough that you may not complete the pass unless you put a good amount of hours in. I still find the Battle Pass to be one of the most boring and uninspiring form of progression that attempts to make the game more of a job. After twenty of hours gameplay I’m not even close to halfway to completing the battle pass.

One of the games biggest controversial points is the use of AI voice acting. I don’ want to go too deeply into the morality of this and I will say that I do very much prefer the traditional voice acting method I can mention the quality of it. The Finals incorporates AI voices in the form of two announcers who will frequently comment on the happenings of the games. Things like objective positioning, team wipes, kills and more. It adds a lot to the theming of competitive sports but can be absolutely annoying, like watching a twitch streamer who just won’t shut up. This can easily make or break the game for you. Thankfully though you can disable this if you want, personally I would like a feature to simply reduce the number of announcer call outs.

As for the quality of the voices themselves it is a convincing enough effect as Embark did use real voice actors to assist. However, whilst it can be convincing it becomes pretty clear that it is AI voices. It’s something you may not notice in the heat of combat but was something in the back of my mind that I would notice. Elsewhere the sound design is typically decent but overall lacking. Especially in directional audio where it can be really hard to pinpoint nearby players.

Bring it all down!

I mentioned earlier that the destruction is magnificent and this is helped along with the games visual style. Whilst it doesn’t have the same level of detail as other games in the genre. This gives The Finals a nice and clean look. Even with buildings collapsing around you I never felt lost and could always see what I was doing. This destruction has very little performance cost as well running perfectly smooth in even the most chaotic of situations.

Whilst there is an overall lack of detail with quite a few interiors not really having anything in them this helps the games competitive nature. Nothing really gets in the way. Saying that the Vegas casino is a visual highlight and really showcases The Finals style at its very best. Another thing to note is that player skins don’t really have a theming around them and can feel random, but this oddly fits into the games styling and doesn’t feel forced in.

The Finals is one of the most interesting PvP shooters in a long time. A truly unique and refreshingly simple concept that worked out for the better. It is fast paced without being annoying and puts solid teamwork at the forefront of its main game mode. Although there is a lack of content and balance isn’t perfect; The Finals is well worth trying.

The Finals is available now on PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5.

Reviewed on PC with an RTX 4070.