Here's the thing. I've put about 10 hours into the game at the time of this review. During that 10 hours, about 3-4 things stand out to me that really makes me want to not recommend the game, and possibly stop playing all together. I'd probably continue though, cause I have friends that still play it, but it won't be something I'll play on my own...unless something changes. And if that does, then I'll update this review. That being said, let's get into the reasons:

1) Characters
I feel like the characters in this game are almost balanced...almost.
Each of the characters offer their own set of abilities and skills and feel somewhat unique to the game itself; you do not really get the feeling of that one character's ability is another character's ability but <insert reason here>. There is no leveling in the game, but there are loadouts a la Paladins, Paragon, etc. in which you can create a loadout of 3 modifications. Each one affect either your stats, such as increasing your max HP by 100, or affects an ability, like giving an ability lifesteal or a slow. You can also choose 1 of two ultimates that each character has at the start of the match. However, there are three characters that stand out as the most ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ annoying and ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ in the game: Buttercup, ZeroCool, and Maeve (Tank, Support, and Damage respectively). This is because if any (or all) of them are on the enemy's team, then it's pretty much a guaranteed win, assuming they don't play like ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ potatoes. Buttercup cannot be unmounted (btw there is a mounting system in play a la HotS), can isolate anyone on your team to get butt-♥♥♥♥♥♥ because she has an obscenely long-ranged grab, and has a huge ass lingering AoE ability that slows you by 50% (80% if you have a mod for it). Plus she has an ultimate which is an instant cast knock-up that is also one of the fastest charging ultimates in the game (it is also her best ultimate). Not only that, but she was buffed shortly after the game launched, DESPITE BEING RIDICULOUSLY STRONG!!!!! Essentially, if you want to guarantee a win, you have to have her in your comp. ZeroCool is a support that whose main schitck is healing, and boy does that little ♥♥♥♥ heal like a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥; he is basically unmatched (despite the other two being good picks as well). Essentially, you have to kill him any time he leaves his base because if he is left unchecked he will prevent anyone on his team from dying. I would go more about this annoying gamer, but that is gonna tie into another point I want to make later today. Finally, there is Maeve: probably the most annoying damage dealer in the game. Like Zero, there is something about Maeve that I'm gonna save for later, but right now I'm just gonna talk about her most ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ability: her cage. Maeve has a form of CC which is just a cage that she drops on a person and prevents them from moving; the problem with that is that it is the fastest ability in the game and you literally have no way of avoiding it outside of luck. Like, I've been hit by that damn thing around 100 times and it probably missed me like 4 times, and that was because I was trying to dodge someone else when she used it. Speaking of dodging...

2) Lock-On
This game uses the Lock-On mechanic for practically everything. It is also not the best, as sometimes you will, for example, target someone behind you and do an 180 despite looking at an enemy that's in front of you. There are more inconsistencies with the mechanic, and it is basically a crutch for any ranged character since you even hit anyone if you don't lock-on to a target. However, there is a range cap to a lot of things which means that your only way to dodge ♥♥♥♥ is to get the ♥♥♥♥ outta range ASAP...because...everything is guaranteed to hit you. Also, even though I don't like lock-on to this extent video games, I still wouldn't have had a problem if it wasn't for the next thing I'm gonna talk about: dodging and staggering.

3) Healing
I know I said in the previous point that I was gonna cover Dodging/Staggering next, but as I was typing this I realized that I should cover this first. In this game, there is no anti-heal (except for one mod, don't remember who it was for though), and you pretty much need a healer to win team fights. It even says it in the tutorial...the same tutorial that tells you to kill the healer when you see them (the same tips that mock you for straying too far from your healer, not protecting your healer, or not killing the enemy healer). This is because they pretty much decide every team fight, and every fight usually ends up with everyone trying to hard dive the other team's healer (and praying that they kill him/her fast enough before their own healer dies). Like I've been in matches where the other team would be like "♥♥♥♥ it" and just run after me, despite one of my teammates being an easier kill. Oh, if it wasn't obvious enough, if you play a healer you better be used to being focused and bullied...it's gonna happen all game.

4) Dodging/Staggering
Now to my main gripe with this game. In this game, every melee hit staggers you because there is not any way for melee characters to stick to targets. This would prevent you from attacking if you didn't recover before the next hit lands and also casting abilities. Melee attacks would also interrupt your abilities and sometimes the casting animation (which of course still eats the cooldown ;)). The only way to counter this is to dodge, which will free you from combos and put some distance between you and your attacker (or close the distance between you and someone running away). Every character can dodge, except maybe 2-3 of them, and is charge-based: you will get 2 or 3 charges of dodge, depending on the character, and each charge will regenerate after roughly 7 seconds.
Why is this a problem? Well the way it is currently implemented does not, imo, fit well into a team-based game. If you get hit by a melee attack you would need to dodge away to not be combo'd to death. If you do that, they can dodge to close the gap to combo you again and it becomes a dance of managing your dodges better than your opponent (on top of managing your abilities). Same goes for range characters: you can dodge to escape their attack radius, but they can dodge to put you back into it. Again, it becomes a dance, but that is not the main problem. You see, that's a 1v1 scenario, which rarely happens in the game. If you get rushed down by 2 or more people, you are guaranteed dead if you don't have any form hard CC (which there is not a lot of) or your teammates nearby. This is because if you dodge the attacks, they can take turns dodging to catch up to you and locking you down while their partner catches up. You could attack that person first, but just like you can deny them the ability to attack their partner can do the same thing to you. I said earlier that healers are a focal point in the game and have to deal with this ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ a lot, but anyone can be subjected to this at any point. Oh, and if you don't have any charges left...

Honestly, there are a few more problems that I have with the game but this is what bothered me the most to make a review about it. I also probably didn't describe precisely the main problems of the game for me, but if you do decide to buy the game and play it you'll see exactly what I'm talking about quickly. As I said earlier, I'll probably come back to this later and update the review, but for now I wouldn't recommend it to anyone right now. The game is also kinda dead right now, but that's mostly due to the game not even being marketed properly.

Honestly, this is one of the better shooters that I have played in a while. The gameplay loop is fun, movement is reminiscent to that of Apex and Overwatch (if you are familiar/skilled w/ a lot of movement tech in either of those games then you should have no trouble transitioning over to this), and the classes, weapons, and gadgets feel balanced w/ a few outliers. It is free with no gimmicky P2W BS (as of the writing of this) and the devs (based on my knowledge and experiences w/ them) are transparent and engaged with the community.

The game currently only has 2 quickplay modes, Cash Out and Bank It, alongside a Tournament mode w/ a ranked version. Cash Out has 3 teams of 3 open vaults to deliver to "Cash Out" stations. You then defend those stations until the timer expires or attack them in an attempt to steal the money from another team. There is a lot more to that, but this is the simply gameplay loop and what looks to be the premiere mode of the game. Bank It is just a modified version of Grind[callofduty.fandom.com] from CoD Ghosts, except you can also open vaults for extra cash which you would then take to deposit at Cash Out stations.

The tournament mode is supposed to be a more competitive version of the game and take elements from both the QP modes. There are 3 total rounds, 2 knockout rounds and a final, rule change round. There are some more restrictions and harsher penalties in this mode, but from what I've seen and heard it seems to be a very balanced and competitive mode.

The map diversity is very limited in the game, with there only being 4 maps as of now (Monaco, Seoul, Skyway Stadium, and the newly added Las Vegas), but there is a variant/event system in play to make each game feel different from the last. The modifier system includes both a time/weather forecast and a modifier which changes up team comps and strategies. You could be playing in Seoul one game in the middle of the day with clear skies, then play on the exact same map the next one but it is now night time. You could then play it again, but there is now more suspended buildings in the air or a moving platform around the entire map, both of which can house Cash Out stations. It isn't much, but sometimes those little things can make or break games if you aren't ready/paying attention. The event system, on the other hand, is just another modifier that goes live shortly before the halfway point of a game and lasts for like 3-4 minutes. The event are designed to shake up the normal gameplay loop and provide players with new ways to win--or lose--gunfights and engagements. One event might reduce the gravity in the game allowing for longer jumps and easier trickshots; another event might make it so that every person that dies explodes, discouraging close range options and punishing those that don't think. One even might just make it so that you get struck by an orbital laser for staying in one spot too long w/o moving...to punish players camping on rooftops w/ snipers.

The maps are also fully destructible in a way similar to the Battlefield series. Each and every building can be destroyed/brought down, and every map has at least 1 crane with a wrecking ball capable of doing some serious damage as well. All classes have gadgets capable of blowing holes into stuff, with the heavy class having the most options of causing damage akin to that of a domestic terrorist. There are also barrels of many types scattered around the map that can do a variety of effects to destroy/build areas, control zones, or just straight up troll...if you are in to that.

This game does have some downsides, some of which may be dealbreakers to a lot of people. The Finals tend to crash often (roughly every other play session in the beginning, though it has settled a bit as of late) and when it crashes, it crashes EXTREMELY HARD. Sometimes I'll get a crash that will literally slow down the response time of my mouse that the only way to fix it is to Ctrl+Alt+Delete and force close through Task Manager (and this is because opening Task Manager normally will take forever to do).

There is also a bit of a cheating problem w/ a decent number of them coming from China--this is based from the ping spikes and Chinese characters (which non-Chinese players are also using to make banning harder)--as the game isn't region locked. However, I have played roughly 125 games (at the time of this writing) and can count on 1 hand the amount of cheaters I have played against. There is also the outliers of the game's balance, but to be frank this would only have an impact depending on which class you gravitate to/main. Shout out to my boy Void eating them RPGs like its a buffet.

The maps themselves can be a huge pain point, especially with how some are designed and with the variants/events. I personally dislike Seoul due to the fact that there are multiple ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ death holes around the map where if you don't know where you are going--or in my case charge through a random wall--you can and will spend most of your time in the respawn screen instead of playing the game. Monaco/Skyway Stadium are sniper heavens as there are plenty of open areas w/ no immediate cover. And Las Vegas...well let's just say that there are 2 variants that are unique to that map and both of the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ suck. Also, if you ever hear the crack of a sniper, make it a goal to destroy every crane you see lest you want to be spending most of the game running from cover to cover...assuming that cover hasn't been demolished yet.

All in all, I honestly see myself playing this game a lot and even spending a bit more money on it in the future. There is a high potential for this game and I hope to see it flourish better than other shooters in the market right now. I am aware that a lot of what I have said barely touched the surface of the game itself (I didn't even mention the classes, weapons, and gadgets), but I honestly think that you would get a better feel by playing it. With that being said, I hope anyone that reads this gives it a try on their own and decide for themselves if it's worth playing

Hope to see y'all in the arena, and may the best man win!

Sincerely,
Luci