Alter. Exploit. Destroy.
The Finals is a free-to-play First-Person Shooter and the debut title of Embark Studios, a team consisting of former DICE developers on the Battlefield series. It was released on December 7th, 2023 during the Game Awards, following three beta testing periods hosted earlier the same year, for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S, with support for crossplay between each platform.
Players assume the role of contestants in the titular virtual reality game show, battling it out in digital recreations of iconic real world locations and competing to bank enough money to reach a cash goal in one of several game modes:
- Cashout: The game's base mode. Four teams of three fight to extract cash boxes from vaults that spawn in the arena and deliver them to one of two cashout stations on the map, and then defend the station until the cashout is completed. Cashouts in progress can be "stolen" by other teams, earning them the payout instead, bonus cash is rewarded for eliminations and interacting with vaults/cashout stations, and team wipes will forfeit 30% of a team's current score. The team with the most cash once the timer runs out wins the match.
- Quick Cash: A quickplay variation of Cashout with three teams and only one vault to fight over at a time, as well as unlimited respawns. The first team to complete two cashouts wins the match.
- Bank It: A mode focused more on player versus player confrontation. Four teams compete to collect coins from eliminated players and vaults and deposit them in deposit boxes. Vaults spawn with a steady increase in cash value as the match progresses, and each deposit box is only present on the map for a couple of minutes before despawning and being replaced with a new one in another location. The first team to bank $40,000 in coins is declared the winner. An experimental version of this mode, Solo Bank It, was introduced for a limited run on January 17, 2024, which saw twelve players compete in a free-for-all to deposit the same amount of cash in order to win, with an additional cash bonus automatically awarded for eliminations.
- Tournaments: A competitive mode with a starting bracket of eight or sixteen teams, in Unranked and Ranked respectively. The initial knockout rounds are played on Cashout, with the two teams that have the most cash when the timer runs out qualifying for the next round. The final round consists of a Quick Cash match between the last two remaining teams.
- Power Shift: A casual mode introduced in Season 2 where two teams of five fight for control of a moving platform to escort it across the arena. The platform can be shifted by outside physical influences and is capable of smashing through anything in its path. Unlike in other modes, players are allowed to change contestants (as opposed to just loadouts) in between respawns.
The game boasts a variety of weapons, equipment, and special abilities to suit a plethora of play styles, further emphasized by its class system, which has players assume one of three basic builds: Light, Medium, and Heavy, which respectively specialize in mobility, support, and survivability. Most prominent of all, however, is its fully destructible environments — explosives and heavy weaponry can punch holes through walls and ceilings to create new points of entry, fires can spread and consume their surroundings, and entire buildings can be brought to the ground once they take enough damage, introducing a dynamic element to gameplay that encourages players to use the arena to their advantage.
Can you trope THE FINALS?
- 20 Minutes into the Future: The game takes place an unspecified number of years into the future, given the futuristic VR premise and that the Las Vegas map is supposedly designed to resemble how the city looks in 2032.
- The '80s: Season 2 and its battle pass revel in the aesthetics of this decade, with various homages to analog tech, martial arts movies, 8-bit video games, and geek culture.
- Achievement Mockery: The "Butter Fingers" achievement, awarded to players who get killed by their own grenade.
- Action Bomb: The Dead Go Boom gameshow event causes eliminated contestants to explode, potentially putting their assailants out of commission as well.note
- A.K.A.-47: Zig-zagged. A few of the game's guns have exotic names completely unrelated to their real-life counterparts — the MP5A3 is referred to as the "XP-54", the M1A SOCOM 16 is the "LH1", the Taurus Raging Bull is the "R.357" (despite being modeled after the .44 Magnum variant), and the Laugo Alien is the "V9S". Most of the guns, however, either bear their real-world names, such as the AKM, Model 1887, M60, and Lewis Gun, or have names with a passing resemblance to their actual ones, like the MGL32, FCAR, and M11.
- Alien Invasion: One of the less common gameshow events, which summons Flying Saucers to fire lasers indiscriminately at the arena below, is named this verbatim.
- Arbitrary Gun Power: The game's various firearms are balanced to be roughly equal to each other while fulfilling a certain niche, with no one weapon noticeably overpowering the other. This means, for instance, the CL-40 and MGL32 grenade launchers deal less damage than you'd expect and lack the arena-destroying capability of other explosive items, with the latter even using rounds which bounce before exploding to offset its higher fire rate and magazine size, the V9S is a Punch-Packing Pistol which can match the damage output of the SMGs and assault rifles in a skilled user's hands, and the RPG, on top of its status as single-use equipment rather than a primary weapon, only deals enough damage to bring Light enemies within an inch of their lives and is more useful for blowing holes in walls than for direct combat.
- Armor Is Useless: You can purchase and equip a few different armored helmet and vest cosmetics, but they don't actually provide any damage resistance; the flavor text for the Flak Vest outright lampshades this, stating that it's "fashionable but not bulletproof". In a similar vein, the gas masks that come with the Contam Couture and VAIIYA Arena Guard sets won't protect you from poisonous gas.
- Back Stab: The Light build's Dagger has a secondary attack that deals massive damage when used from behind, instantly killing Mediums and other Lights and bringing Heavies down to a sliver of HP.
- Barrier Warrior: Heavy players have several barrier abilities at their disposal, including the Mesh Shield, which produces a Reinhardt-style holographic shield in front of the user, the Bubble Shield, a throwable which produces a spherical barrier, and the more mundane Barricade.
- Bloodless Carnage: While The Finals presents itself as a game show involving brutal violence between contestants, it’s all set within the confines of virtual reality and thus can afford to sanitize its violent action by replacing the blood and corpses with coins.
- Breaching the Wall: As you'll frequently find your opponents barricading doors and windows to protect their cashouts in progress, breaching through walls tends to be one of the more optimal ways to bypass their defenses. You can do the same with the floor as well, potentially sending the cashout station tumbling down to your level and out of the enemy’s reach.
- Carry a Big Stick: The Sledgehammer, a slow but devastatingly powerful Heavy melee weapon. Its slower secondary attack can break through walls in a single swing.
- Character Class System: There are three basic "builds" which you can play as — the Light build boasts more maneuverability at the cost of survivability and specializes in hit-and-run tactics, the Medium build is balanced in movement and health and assumes a support role, laying down turrets and movement-enabling equipment including jump pads and ziplines and healing or reviving teammates in need, and the Heavy build has more health but slower movement speed and is best at fortifying or demolishing the arena and protecting their teammates with holographic shields.
- Combat Commentator: Both Scotty and June fulfill this role, providing useful commentary (and the occasional team-based pun) about the match's developing carnage.
- Combat Resuscitation: Eliminated players will turn into a small statue which their teammates can hold the interact button on to revive them. The process of doing so takes several seconds, but a Defibrillator can be employed for a faster, hands-free resurrection.
- Continuing is Painful: Cashout matches place heavier consequences on being eliminated than casual modes, as you’ll have a limited number of respawn coins that you can use to rejoin the fight after the respawn timer expires, and team wipes will deduct 30% of your team’s current score.
- Dash Attack: The Charge N' Slam Heavy ability makes the user rush forward, destroying walls and damaging any enemies who are in the way. Activating it in the air or jumping halfway through a charge allows for a Ground Pound to be performed.
- Deadly Gas: Gas canisters, mines, and grenades can be used liberally throughout the game. They're very potent area denial tools, capable of preventing enemies from stealing cashouts or banking coins.
- Death Dealer: The Season 1 battle pass includes a reskin of the Throwing Knives which makes them resemble playing cards.
- Excuse Plot: The VR gameshow premise is entirely in service to the game's competitive design and its contestants' ability to rejoin the fight after being eliminated.
- Exploding Barrels: Many of the hazardous cylindrical canisters found around the map can be shot at or thrown to cause them to explode, dealing damage or releasing some dangerous gas or fire. Players have also taken to placing C4 onto these canisters and tossing them for an even bigger explosion, termed a "nuke".
- Fast-Roping: Ropes can be used to quickly and vertically traverse the arena à la Apex Legends.
- Flash Step: Evasive Dash allows for a Light player to quickly leap in the direction they’re moving, giving them the ability to dodge out of harm’s way or close the distance on an enemy.
- Friendly Fireproof: Played straight for the most part, but you can still harm your teammates with poison and fire damage and blind them with flashbangs.
- Gas-Cylinder Rocket: Explosive carriables take the form of these. Upon being thrown or damaged, they're propelled forward and explode shortly after.
- Gravity Barrier: A clear and present hazard in the Seoul and Skyway Stadium maps, where one wrong step will send you hurtling to your demise.
- Gravity Screw: The self-explanatory Low Gravity gameshow event, which briefly decreases gravity in the arena.
- Hacker Collective: CNS, a rogue hacker group attempting to infiltrate The Finals in order to broadcast cryptic messages urging viewers to "seek the truth beyond the walls". Season 2 deals with the aftermath of them successfully hijacking the show and changing up the game by introducing new hacking-themed abilities and a new arena.
- Healing Shiv: The Medium’s default special ability, the Healing Beam.
- Heist Episode: "Steal the Spotlight", the game's first limited-time event, had contestants take on the role of masked robbers and compete in Solo Bank It in a blacked-out Las Vegas, avoiding laser-activated turrets guarding the deposit boxes all the while.
- Hollywood Silencer: The V9S comes equipped with a suppressor that reduces its gunshots to soft "fwip" noises.
- Invisibility: The Light class can use the Cloaking Device ability to become invisible for a limited time. The user is slightly visible while moving but completely imperceptible while stood still, though the ability does emit a tell-tale sound when activated, potentially alerting enemies to the presence of a cloaked player. The first season also introduced the Vanishing Bomb, a throwable that can work the same magic on the user's teammates.
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: The Riot Shield, a Medium melee weapon that allows for full frontal protection against gunfire (save for the user's feet) when the aim button is held.
- Magical Defibrillator: One of the equipment items available for the Medium class by default. It can quickly revive teammates after a short charge period, bypassing the lengthy default revive duration.
- The Medic: The Medium class is best equipped to be one, as the Healing Beam and Defibrillator are made available to use by default.
- Nerf:
- Nukes were nerfed throughout Season 1 with balance patches that decreased the distance they could be thrown and removed the damage stacking caused by multiple explosive gadgets detonating at once. Season 2 effectively killed off nuking by making explosive canisters spin out of control when thrown with gadgets attached and preventing said gadgets from arming until a brief period after the carriable they're attached to has been thrown.
- Other notable nerfs during Season 1 include the Mesh Shield, which had its health reduced from 1,250 points to 1,000, the Stun Gun, which saw its effect duration reduced from 5 seconds to 3.75, and deployable mines, which were given a 1.6 second arming period.
- An update halfway through the first season cut the effective range of Recon Senses down to 30 meters and added a warning for players who are detected by the ability, bringing it more in line with the enemy-sensing Gadgets. Come Season 2, the specialization was outright removed from the game pending an assessment and rework.
- The Defibrillator was hit by a nerf at the start of Season 2 which increased the amount of time it takes to charge up for use and added a three-second delay after its application before the target is actually revived.
- New Old West: The crux of the "Smoking Guns" limited-time event, which was played on a Wild West-themed version of Monaco and restricted players to using loadouts featuring low-tech gadgets and weapons most appropriate for the time period, with a few exceptions like the Glitch Grenade and Healing Beam.
- Power Nullifier: Glitch grenades and traps can be used to temporarily prevent enemy players from using their gadgets or special abilities, on top of messing with their HUD for the duration of the effect.
- Quick Melee: Available as a potential finisher for close range encounters, or a last-resort attack against enemy players who refuse to give you breathing room. The occasional contract will pop up requiring you to use it to deal the finishing blow on an opponent.
- Recurring Riff: "The World's Greatest Game Show"
, the melody of which serves as the backbone for much of the game's pre-Season 2 soundtrack. - Regenerating Health: Your health passively starts to regenerate a few seconds after you last took damage.
- Retired Badass: Scotty is a former contestant on the show, and a rather skilled one at that, if the achievement named after him (which requires you to win a round without being eliminated) is anything to go by.
- Retraux:
- The game notifies you that you're able to use a respawn coin with a message made to look like an arcade machine "insert coin" prompt.
- The outfit set awarded for playing the "Smoking Guns" event has a unique effect overlay resembling damaged film, and simply equipping the hat will make your entire character appear monochrome.
- Shout-Out: The "Sandstorm" variant of Las Vegas resembles its depiction in Blade Runner 2049, dark orange haze and all.
- Sigil Spam: The name and logo of the titular game show are plastered across countless surfaces and props in the arenas, in addition to all of the contestants' weapons and equipment. All of the free cosmetics unlocked by leveling up your career rank bear the show's logo as well.
- Sniper Scope Glint: Applicable to the SR-84 sniper rifle, though the glint is more of a flashlight's glow than a light reflection. Nonetheless, observant players can look out for this glow to pinpoint a sniper's location.
- Static Stun Gun: Light players have access to the Stun Gun, which temporarily slows an affected enemy's movement speed to a crawl and prevents them from using gadgets and abilities.
- The Turret Master: A Medium player can use the Guardian Turret ability to create an automated turret which has a reasonable damage output and can be placed on walls and ceilings, but suffers from a limited field of vision. They can also employ the APS Turret, which targets enemy projectiles instead.
- Unorthodox Reload: An alternate reload animation can be unlocked for the AKM which has the user toss a fresh magazine upwards, then eject the old magazine and catch the new one with a single sweeping motion before inserting it.
- Video Game Flamethrowers Suck: Not entirely. While the Heavy's flamethrower has a pathetically short range and less-than-stellar time to kill, it has much potential as a utility weapon, neutralizing gas clouds and making short work of goo barriers like any other fire source.
- Virtual Paper Doll: Contestants can wear a wide variety of cosmetic items on a wide range of slots. You can either equip a full outfit set on them, or mix and match different items that you've unlocked or purchased.
- Virtual-Reality Warper: The gadgets and abilities introduced in Season 2 allow for players to do this. The Data Reshaper, for instance, lets users transform hazardous objects into harmless props and vice-versa, while the Dematerializer can temporarily delete physical surfaces in the arena, creating new angles of attack that can be strategically sealed up afterwards.
- Viva Las Vegas!: The first season introduced a map set in Las Vegas, with the action unfolding around an area modeled after the Fremont Street Experience. The rewards in the season's battle pass followed suit, including an Elvis-esque getup, a boxer's outfit, a gambler-themed item set, and several items that take cues from nearby Area 51 through their alien and conspiracy theorist themes.
- X-Ray Vision: Recon Senses, a Medium specialization which permits the user to see enemies through any obstacles. It was removed from the game outright in Season 2, with the Dematerializer added in its place.
