The Finals is, without exaggeration, the best live service game out right now. It is such a breath of fresh air and I don't have to excuse exploitative monetisation to justify the great game underneath. If you haven’t played it, watch any of the trailers as they actually accurately convey the experience of playing the game. If it seems interesting, give it 3-5 hours before you have THAT game. Everything clicks and it is so tense, so fun, and you’re simply awestruck after it is done. For me this happened during the closed alpha, and ever since then I have been a massive fan (If you don’t like reading, skip to the last part).

The live service game fatigue is very real currently and I feel this has caused people to write off The Finals as another bland retread of old concepts, which couldn’t be further from the truth. It is one of few live service games that are actually fun, a bar surprisingly hard to clear it seems. It has good gunplay and movement built upon with the seemingly simple concept of a fully destructible environment, a genuine technical marvel that also contributes greatly to a fresh experience featuring a dynamic objective that is actually fun.

The main mode Cashout works great since it is dynamic. If you start a cashout, you’re a defender. If someone else got it first, you have to attack the cashout station the other team is defending. What makes it better is that the station isn’t “stationary” because of the destructive environment. Simplest example is a cashout station in a multistory building, where if you don’t want to face the defenders head on you simply blow a hole underneath the box and drop it down to the floor below, creating a dynamic multi floor fight and also pressuring the defenders to act and not just wait for their traps and gadgets to do the work.

The Finals uses three different builds: light, medium and heavy. Within these you get a choice of one weapon and three gadgets. Weapons are everything from your standard assault rifles and shotguns to some more fun choices like throwing knives and melee weapons. While the builds are essentially roles to play, how you do so is very much up to personal preference, and there is no real right answer. If you choose a loadout of gadget heavily focused on defense you naturally sacrifice the ability to steal other cashout stations in progress and vice versa. This leads to personal choice of which weapons and gadgets benefit your playstyle and with a dizzying variety I can’t really understand the complaints about the repetitiveness. Being a boring meta player is thankfully a choice, not a requirement in this game, and you can get a lot of mileage from off meta play with some teamwork and creative build construction.

Also the soundtrack is really good.

While I said there aren’t any excuses it would be remiss of me not to mention the use of AI. The two commentators, June and Scotty, are two actors who were contracted to provide samples of their voices to be used with an AI to create new voice lines when needed (as far as I know they were aware of this). This may be a sore point for some since it could be seen as a move away from actual voice actors and into AI being the norm to use, but I don’t mind it. The commentators spew very bland puns and commentary that I frankly don’t see benefitting from actual voice work. It’s a vehicle to convey the game show theme, which it does, but I also don’t think Embark is the kind of studio to use it out of ill-intent.

When you open the game for the first time you might dread seeing the words “Battle Pass” and “Store” on the main menu. Rest assured, The Finals is one of few live service games that does this in a very good way. The battle pass earns you back the premium currency it costs to purchase. The free tiers in the battle pass isn’t just stuff like sprays, but some weapon skins and outfit pieces. On top of that you have a free progression path giving you clothing items regularly, and weekly missions, called circuits and circuit stages, that also give cosmetics for free. The best part is the cosmetics in this game look really good and since the outfits are separated into pieces you get to mix and match to create your own look. This includes the free stuff and even though the store bought stuff may be more vibrant, there isn’t a clear ♥♥♥♥ tier reserved for non paying peasants. As someone who has paid a few bucks, I regularly mix in the free stuff when making my outfits.

In short, The Finals is fantastic. The current landscape of live service needs a game like this that stands out and has varied and innovative gameplay with non exploitative in-game spending. If you give this game an honest chance, you will feel this and maybe even wonder why more people aren’t playing it. I wholeheartedly recommend anyone to try it and with the new season just around the corner there isn’t a better justification. So I ask you one last thing:
Can you reach The Finals?