HomeFeaturesThe Finals
Image credit:Embark Studios
Image credit:Embark Studios
Mad dashes, daring escapes, last minute reversals: these are some of my favourite moments in multiplayer shooters. It’s exhilarating to scream towards the chopper inLeft 4 Deador a dropship inTitanfall.
The Finalsis a multiplayer shooter that seems to take place entirely at this elevated pitch. In the dozens of open beta matches I’ve played, the result is as thrilling as those other games, but also exhausting. I wish it would chill for just a moment so I could fully enjoy its delights - of which there are many.
There are a lot of multiplayer shooters vying for playtime and those that succeed tend to have a strong, obvious hook. I’d argue The Finals has several. The most obvious is its entirely destructible world which lets you smash holes through walls, floors, ceilings until entire buildings collapse
In the Cashout mode, three teams of three rush to grab a vault then rush to deposit it in one of several available cashout stations. Cashing it out takes time and other teams can “steal” the cashout while the process happens, setting up a scenario where one team is defending an entrenched position while the others try to breach,
Defenders can create cover with goo grenades, lay down toxic gas, fire bombs, detection sensors, then take up positions to ambush anyone who comes through the windows or doors. Except, the attackers can come through the ceiling instead, using grenades, breaching charges, and propane tanks to make their own path. It’s not uncommon for a cashout to begin on the fourth floor of a building and end on the ground, as a building is razed one storey at a time.
On the left: I enter a building and confront two enemies with an explosive canister. On the right: I die, but half the building goes with me. |Image credit:Embark Studios
Each time you die, you have to wait a short while before respawning, and longer if your whole team is wiped. Respawn points move around the level at different stages of a match, but you’ll often be dashing, desperately, across one of The Finals' large, urban maps towards a cashout in progress. Once a cashout completes, another vault activates and the process repeats. There’s not a single moment of respite, no second when you’re not rushing, or attempting to defend a building every corner of which is exploding.
The high TTK encourages teams to stick together. |Image credit:Embark Studios
All of which maybe makes it sound as if I don’t like The Finals, which isn’t the case. I think I mightloveThe Finals. Its adrenaline high exhausts me, but I keep returning to it across several betas.
Not Rush mode specifically, but a mode that lets me make the full use of those delights I mentioned earlier. Being able to blow holes in buildings, or simply charge through them as the Heavy class can, is such a childish power fantasy, I love it. Movement is great, too, with easy sliding and clambering to navigate around ruined buildings, and a grappling hook tool for the Light class.
You’ll be shooting (and unlocking) machine guns and other various realistic weapons, all of which feel great, but there’s a silliness to The Finals, too. Jump pads, no fall damage, enemies flailing swords around… If a match goes on long enough, world-altering modifiers are introduced which rain meteors upon levels or turn the gravity on low, like a restless server admin getting creative with console commands.
Me and the boys coming to mess you up/fall off a building into the void. |Image credit:Embark Studios
The Finals’ open beta is over now, but the full game is due to launch fully in late 2023. From beta player numbers, it looks like it’s already cleared the first hurdle of finding an audience; I just hope it does well enough at retaining that audience long enough to also find its final form, because right now it feels like it’s one right mode away from being an all-timer.
