The Finals Review: Ready Contestant One (PS5)

During The Game Awards, a new trailer revealed that season 1 of The Finals is available to play starting December 7th. The Finals is a game that has blown up in popularity over the past few months. And for good reason. It’s some of the most fun I’ve had in a multiplayer FPS in quite a while. This free-to-play title has three teams of three pitted against one another. They must steal money from a vault and exfil it to win. Or they can kill another team and steal all their progress. This The Finals review will cover what makes this new title one to keep an eye out for.

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

STORY – The Greatest Game Show

The Finals is a competition set in a virtual world where contestants from all over the globe compete for fame. These contestants plug into the world while commentators narrate the events that take place. The Finals doesn’t have a traditional story mode. It’s a free-to-play title that primarily focuses on the multiplayer component. 

Virtual spectators cheer you on as you fight your way to the top

There are tidbits of lore here such as when the commentators mention that the player’s sponsor spoke highly of them. You really have to look for that lore though. As for whether or not The Finals will get more story content later on, it remains to be seen. It would be a nice addition as there is some sort of world built here. As a note, this review of The Finals won’t cover updates after season 1. 

Gameplay: Modern Gladiators 

With your group of three, the objective in The Finals is to try and withdraw money from a vault (an ATM-looking machine) and bring it to a cash-out station. It sounds simple except you have other teams of three gunning for that money. Withdrawing and cashing out takes time too. Other teams can steal the money you’re cashing out after a certain period if no one stops them.

What makes The Finals so unique is that there are multiple ways of traversal, of getting to an objective, and methods of strategy. The world is dynamic and boasts an impressive destructible system. With explosives or the use of the heavy build’s ability, these buildings can completely come down, moving the vault or cash out station to a different floor or on the ground amongst the rubble. It’s chaotic in the best way possible. 

Run to the cashout box and protect it at all costs

There are so many avenues for attacks that make most matches feel completely different from one another. Standing on the floor above a vault’s location, and then using my RPG to break the ground below to descend upon an unsuspecting team and steal a vault is some of the most fun I’ve had in an FPS all year. Players can use a grapple to fly through windows like Batman, use a goo gun to block off an area or break down a zipline while enemies are traversing with it is so much fun. It feels like there is an endless amount of options available to use.

Variety

Players choose between three builds, each with their own unique abilities, set of weapons, and equipment. The light build has tools to help them get in and out of firefights, the medium has a lot of support tools to help their team, and the heavy has a lot of defensive and destructive equipment to get in an area and stay there. 

The Finals has a fair amount of gear you can use

Season 1 of The Finals has four maps and two game modes. The two main modes are quick cash and bank it. Bank it is essentially just quick cash, but four teams instead of three, and players earn money when they eliminate someone.

These maps also have variants that change the weather or time of day for these maps. I’ve mostly only experienced day/night cycles for some maps. I wish I got to see more variants. I feel like the chances for these variant maps should be increased. Having different variants can change how the map plays and create some interesting challenges. Admittedly, after playing more than a dozen hours, some repetition did start to occur. It didn’t drastically change how I felt about the overall experience, but I do wish there were more maps or a higher chance of variants. Due to the game’s popularity, I’m sure this game will see many new map updates and map variants.

The Team

Unlocking new equipment and weapons for the three builds available isn’t much of a grind. I found each weapon and build balanced. That being said, going in with a well-rounded team works best. Teams that consist of three light builds will have trouble being able to steal or survive in gunfights, while three heavy builds will have a hard time getting to objectives. Of course, it’s possible to win with teams like this. But it isn’t easy. Thankfully, The Finals supports crossplay between PlayStation, PC, and Xbox.

Which build will you choose?

What makes this doable however is communication. The Finals works best when teams are communicating. I had the most fun and success when I was in a group of three. When I was by myself, it was rough, as some people just don’t communicate through voice or the quick chat options. When I was just with one friend, it was doable but still hard. The Finals has punishing spawn timers. If your team gets wiped out, there’s a gap of time where the enemy can be cashing out or stealing your loot, and you won’t be able to do anything about it. On top of that, you’ll spawn far away. That’s why it’s best to go in as a team. If your teammates trickle in one by one and die, the game is nearly impossible to win. 

This isn’t Call of Duty where the time to kill is super short either. You won’t usually get multiple kills with one clip of your gun here meaning you can’t 1v9. Or maybe you will. This review for The Finals wasn’t written by an FPS professional. But it’s probably the exception and not the rule. As such, I wish The Finals had a more detailed quick-chat menu. It’s pretty basic and due to the destruction of the world, it’s difficult to communicate ideas and warnings when there are so many paths and strategies players can take. 

Gun fights can get pretty intense

Graphics and Audio: An Absolute Spectacle

Surprisingly, The Finals runs great. With entire buildings being destroyed and bountiful of effects going off, my game never once crashed or had any slowdowns. The Finals runs beautifully. And it looks spectacular when all the destruction occurs. I was never visually lost. I did run into some minor bugs here and there but nothing that hindered my experience overall.

Each map is a visual treat

Most players will immediately notice the visuals. The Finals is certainly is one of the prettier FPS I have recently played. This game has a vibrant and poppy aesthetic that matches the poppy and gameshow-like sounds. Its vibrancy doesn’t take away from how real the world looks either. All four maps have a mix of realism and arcady aesthetics. They each have a specific visual identity that makes them all stand out in some way. Color is judiciously injected into every map. As such, The Finals sells on the idea that it is a virtual competition hosted for people to watch. 

That game show vibe is carried over to the sound. Each team has a name assigned at the start of a match. The commentators use these names to narrate what happens in-game. It’s unique and adds an extra layer of exuberance to the match. I do hope however that more lines of dialogue for the commentators will be added in the future. As of now, they mostly narrate large events. 

Squad up

In other areas, sound plays a large role. Walls breaking and bullets shooting sound impactful and sharp. Some of it on the other hand sounds purposefully like a video game. For example, reviving someone plays this bleep noise as though they’ve just acquired a collectible. When players die, they turn into coins, aggressively being scattered on the floor. It all sounds wonderfully virtual which fits so well here. In addition, the music has this old-school arcadey soundtrack to it. It fits the overall vibe that The Finals wants to give.

Have you played The Finals? Do you agree with this The Finals review? Let us Know!