Embark Studio’s free-to-play FPS game The Finals was already off to a strong start, but the arrival of The Finals Season 2 has overhauled the already-awesome title into a must-play live service game.
With the launch of The Finals update 2.0.0, a host of new weapons, gadgets and even a new game mode, the free FPS game is certainly bigger. However, the removal of the ever-annoying Recon Senses, a huge fix to the game’s map rotation and a revised contracts system has created something truly special.
Of course, everything is held together by an already sublime gameplay loop that provides one of the most thrilling multiplayer experiences around. Set inside a virtual game show, The Finals’ multiplayer matches all see you compete for cash in an FPS bonanza. While the pursuit for cash — in some modes, a race for Cashouts, in others a battle for depositing money from kills — the game’s intense destruction that allows you to destroy buildings, walls and all manner of decor is the awe-inspiring glue that keeps everything together.
In The Finals Season 2, Embark Studios has wisely focused even more on destruction. Starting with the new gadgets and specialisations, the new dematerialiser allows you to remove and replace chunks of the environment to silently make new paths or get your hands on the objective. Even the new shotgun for the heavy class is designed around destruction, allowing you to blast holes straight through walls and floors to get where you need to go.
Power Shift, a brand-new 5v5 game mode takes destruction further than its ever gone, almost making the entire mode revolve around it. A take on King of the Hill, this mode moves a floating platform through the map, smashing straight through cathedrals and hamlets to get from one side to the other.
All of this is tied together with a nice bow with a brand-new contracts system that rewards returning players and spreads out new content. Instead of focusing on weekly and event contracts, The Finals Season 2 now has libraries of rewards that launch on set weeks, allowing anyone to work through contracts as they wish. While we’re only at the start of the season, this new way of earning rewards already feels much more, well, rewarding.
There are certainly new issues with The Finals that have started with this season. For example, sudden death in Power Shift feels rather cheap and confusing, and a lot of the new weapons feel rather week compared to newly balanced existing weapons. However, for the most part, this new season is a great start for a, hopefully, long future for The Finals.
