Light contestants are speedy glass cannons, with skills that revolve around stealth and athleticism, and small but punchy weapons like suppressed SMGs and sawed-off shotguns. These are basically classes, with each having a different movement speed, health bar, weapon roster, and abilities. Before a match, you can select one of three 'body types': light, medium and heavy. The result is a rolling game of attack and defence, with the vault constantly changing hands in frantic three-way battles.įurther complexity is added by the composition of those teams. Watch on YouTubeīut ah, a twist! The vault can be 'stolen' by another team at any point, whether you're waiting for it to initially unlock, transferring to the cashpoint, or during the cash out process. Manage cookie settings Here's a trailer for The Finals to show it in action. To see this content please enable targeting cookies.

The first team to successfully cash out twice wins. The Finals offers three game modes to choose from, but the one you'll probably play most, Quick Cash, sees three teams of three players competing to grab Vaults filled with coins, then transfer them to cashout points to gain the funds. The premise is intriguing and unusual - a multiplayer shooter that blends the cooperative heists of Payday with the explosive destruction of Bad Company 2. We'll get to all that in due course, but first, let's give The Finals the credit it deserves. Look closer, though, and you'll spot an emptiness behind its contestants' eyes, one that speaks volumes not just about The Finals, but of modern multiplayer shooters in general. Its smash-n-grab gunfights are satisfying in the moment, with sleek movement, precision-engineered weapons, and an exhilarating destruction mechanic. The Finals is explicitly a game about exchanging death for money, a free-to-play multiplayer shooter where you compete in teams for virtual cash prizes, and pay real money to give your tracksuit-wearing competitor a snazzier outfit. The longer I played the Finals, though, the more its glittering corpses troubled me. Availability: Out now on PC ( Steam), PS5, Xbox Series X/S.But this seemed like a smart, clean alternative. Don't get me wrong, I'm a sicko for virtual gore. It's spectacular without being grisly, satisfying without being gross. What an ingenious way to depict death in a multiplayer shooter, I thought. As with much else about the Finals, this wowed me when I first saw it. When you kill someone in The Finals, they explode in a shower of coins, their body scattering across the ground like a tub of popcorn dropped by King Midas. Embark Studios' multiplayer shooter dazzles in the moment, but its AI voices are symptomatic of a broader issue with artistic vision.

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