Summary

• The Finals offers a unique gameplay experience with its combination of building destruction, varied movement options, and customization features, setting it apart from other FPS games.
• The game's emphasis on building destruction adds a new level of strategy and creativity, making each combat engagement feel unique and dynamic.
• The Finals has a solid core gameplay loop, impressive graphics, and a low barrier to entry, making it an accessible and enjoyable FPS experience worth trying.

There's just something special about the dystopic bloodsport in recently released first-person shooter The Game Awards 2023 for PlayStation, Xbox, and PC on December 7, 2023.

The Finals is a free-to-play live-service arena shooter where teams of three battle it out across a vivid virtual environment. Set in a game show, teams use a wide arsenal of weaponry and advanced gadgets to take each other out, where death means exploding into a flashy cascade of coins. Reminiscent of other team shooters like Fortnite and Apex Legends, the title has enough unique content and mechanics to set it apart from other FPS games on the market.

Building Destruction Is In Full Effect In The Finals

While it's not the first game to do building destruction, The Finals is arguably one of the better titles to execute the mechanic. Unlike the rigid shooters of the past, in The Finals, it's many times easier to go through a wall rather than go around it. People can get creative with it, as strategies that entail exploding floors to extract vaults were made more than viable throughout the beta period. Even the most fortified positions are rendered useless in the face of an RPG or explosive charge, making each combat engagement feel varied and unique.

Rather than being merely a feature of the game, building destruction is woven into core aspects of the gameplay itself, as creating cover, finding high ground, and repositioning are fundamental elements of team shooters. In The Finals, completely changing the landscape is more than possible; it's encouraged, leading to unique encounters even though the game currently has a limited map pool in Las Vegas, Seoul, and Montaco.

Movement Is A Key Feature

With a multitude of gadgets at one's disposal, movement is another pillar in the core gameplay of The Finals. With light, medium, and heavy builds, it's up to each individual to select an option that best suits their playstyle. This is an important feature in customization and one that shouldn't be overlooked as merely a minor component, as this selection does impact gameplay quite significantly. Lights act as the game's glass cannons, capable of Specializations that add to mobility, like a Grappling Hook and Cloaking Device, both of which have a cooldown.

On the other hand, the medium build is more balanced, with team-focused mobility gadgets like a communal Zipline and Jump Pads. For those that prefer shooting over movement, there's also the heavy build, which comes with more offensive and defensive options, like an RPG and Barricade.

While it's nothing new for there to be different weights with variable movement speed, typically, movement speed is dictated by weapon choice, where here, people can customize their character before entering the match. These options enable people to mix and match based on their abilities, gadgets, and loadout choices, leaving more alternatives for variability than other arena shooters.

There Are Plenty Of Ways To Spend Money

As it goes with most live-service titles, the fact you can buy cosmetics in the game is an ever-occurring fact that's made obvious by the multitude of cosmetics one can achieve for a character. Virtually every piece of clothing can be modified.

Rather than individual skins that cover the entire body and dictate the cosmetic look of a character (though they do have "Packs" that include cohesive outfits), players can modify each piece of their gear to create wholly unique characters. This helps with immersion and, along with the build choices, adds to player choice and customization. Like other games of its ilk, The Finals also comes with a seasonal .

Longevity Will Depend On The Community

Like other PvP shooters, the success of The Finals will come down to reception and whether it can maintain a solid player base. That said, the future for the title remains bright as it has a lot of things going for it. With a solid core gameplay loop, vivid graphics, full-building destruction, and a multitude of fun abilities, gadgets, and weapons, it combines elements of the most popular team shooters and combines it into a single experience.

The Finals also has a relatively low barrier to entry — being cross-platform for the major consoles and having a surprisingly small file size and minimum system requirements. These aspects of the game will enable more people to access the title, regardless of their platform of choice, in a market where it's more than common to have bloated games with file sizes exceeding 100GB. It's essential that the developers launch with solid servers, as disconnects or high ping could quickly frustrate those waiting to play.

One thing The Finals will likely need to expand upon is the limited map pool. Though the new Las Vegas map is an exhilarating indoor experience, having only three choices feels limiting. This could lead to burnout unless Embark adds more maps to keep players coming back for more. New game modes would probably serve the game as well, as giving more options and variability will help The Finals capture different gamer niches and expand its player base.

The Finals Is A Solid FPS

In a sea of sub-par live-service titles, The Finals comes off as a polished product derived from a pretty unique idea. Dazzling and flashy graphics punctuate solid shooting and movement mechanics, and player choice and customization are at the forefront. The game is free-to-play and has a small file size, making trying out the experience a no-brainer, especially for those on a limited budget. While the game's longevity will largely depend on the significance of its updates, The Finals is a game worth trying right now.

A Steam preview code for the game was provided to Screen Rant for the purposes of this preview.