Recent reviews by pvman

now i can fail to live out my dream of being a content creator all over again

THE FINALS is extremely fun, and on an upward trajectory towards greatness. don't sleep on it.

hi.
i'm not an expert at writing. i don't really know anything about anything. i'm just a gamer who gets passionate about video games so i wanted to share some thoughts.

also i could rant about my take on video game monetization and battlepasses for hours, but that's not really in the scope of this review. we live in a society where most new games will either be Free-To-Play with premium options, or cost money to purchase and still have premium options, and that's just how it is right now. ok now that i've gotten that out of the way,

let's talk about the game's free & premium models, the gameplay loop, and the developers.

as far as F2P (Free-To-Play) models go this is a great one. there is no pay-to-win. it is easy to unlock more equipment and weapons (the only unlocks that affect gameplay) without much playtime and no real money is required. in fact, i don't think there's currently a way to use real money to get more equipment currency at all. you just have to play the game.

the only thing tied to account level is free cosmetics, and you level up your account at a decent pace just by playing. the premium battlepass (BP) is very generous: it pays for itself with some premium currency left over (at the time of writing: the BP costs 1,150 multibucks and returns 1,575 multibucks if you complete all 96 levels). there's even a "free" Season starter pack in the shop. if you're going to buy the BP, buy this first: it costs 1,150 multibucks and gives you some weapon skins, a sticker, and your 1,150 multibucks back.

there are some free BP rewards. some of them are stickers, some are 75 multibucks, some are cosmetics, and all of them are fairly solid as free rewards. can you complain about what's free? sure. will it matter? not really. i buy BPs for games i enjoy and will play often as long as the pass pays for itself. you can pay $10 once and never spend money on THE FINALS ever again and get every single BP. that's pretty "lit" as the kids say.

okay but i don't have ten bucks, what else is free? well there's ongoing limited-time events that run all season long and come with challenges to unlock cosmetics, and now Season 2's introduction of the "Career Circuit". my understanding is that this replaced Weekly Challenges, which used to just give XP. now it gives XP and free gifts (so far i've seen 125 multibucks and a charm for finishing the initial "Rookie" group of challenges), and allows players who started the season late to start from the beginning and "catch up" to finish the BP in time. in Season 1, once you missed a week it was gone. i saw a lot of players commenting on how bad this felt, so it was nice to see it got changed.

overall, 10/10 monie models. the career progression doesn't take too long and honestly some of them are stupid good cosmetics. at level 24 you get the cow plushie and his name is Moolah and now i don't give a ♥♥♥♥ about anything or anyone else, so GJ on that one Embark.

the gameplay loop is incredible. i mean ♥♥♥♥ dude, the game is just fun. nothing else scratches the itch that THE FINALS originally gave me back in closed alpha/beta, and it's only gotten better with time. it's got a unique feel from the moment you boot it up. the gameshow theme was a total headshot, the music is S-tier, and everything Embark does to build upon this world they've created just feels like a step in the right direction.

the multiplayer FPS genre has grown a bit stale as of late with a lot of games borrowing from each other with minimal changes, and THE FINALS isn't a complete exception. however, i can't really say the class-based and dynamic-map systems of THE FINALS feel super repetitive, or are even directly comparable to any other game in the way they're deployed. it's familiar enough that the game doesn't have a steep learning curve, but quickly feels like a breath of fresh air once you start learning how things actually work. i think what first grabbed my attention is the destructible environment, and how it's server-sided. at first it seemed impossible to pull off with how much lag the game had in Alpha, especially when entire buildings started collapsing, but by the time Open Beta came around i was thoroughly impressed with the improvement to framerate when ♥♥♥♥ hits the fan. there are times even post-release that it feels like the server or your computer is chugging as frames take a dip, but i only expect this to improve with time as they continue to optimize the game and as hardware continues to get more and more powerful. i can post my specs if anyone's curious. i don't think it's relevant though. idk maybe it is. i spent too much on this PC okay?

oh, and when ♥♥♥♥ hits the fan it sprays all over. the destruction is physics-based, so if you destroy all the pillars of a floor you bet your ass it's gonna come down and stay that way for the rest of the match. if you destroy a sky-way connecting two buildings so there's now a big gap in the middle: good job! now you have to find a new way to the objective. even the way you destroy matters. there's RPGs, frag grenades, breach charges, sledgehammers, and more; all of them warp the map differently and completely change how you interact with the objectives and with other players. i generally don't do a great job of explaining the satisfaction of this mechanic and how goofy it can get to other people, so all i can say is try the game. see if your computer can run it and if you enjoy this feature. it's a big part of how the game plays from match to match, and it's honestly really fun how different each game can feel on destruction alone.

as far as classes go there's Light, Medium, and Heavy. it doesn't sound like a lot but i think there's a contestant/loadout for everyone to enjoy between these three and all the equipment they each get. try a game on each one. i honestly enjoy them all but find myself sticking to Medium because the Jump Pad is OP in most cases and - more importantly - very fun to use. i didn't even talk about movement but i'm almost at my word limit so i'll save that for someone more qualified, or something.

the dynamic map system means weather and time of day are different per match, and there are modifiers to change the core loop: Map Variants & Gameshow Events. Map Variants might be something like "Up Down Left Right" where the cashout stations are suspended or on the move. Gameshow Events usually happen halfway through the match and range from things like Low Gravity to Alien Invasions . gets a little crazy for sure.

Embark does a great job patching the game consistently to try and balance everything as best they can, and there's some of QoL (Quality of Life) changes that don't end up in patch notes. that shows they're working hard behind the scenes to make the game feel good to interact with, even in the menus. some people will always complain about balance. some will always say the devs don't care. it's the nature of gamers & live-service games, and i don't see that changing anytime soon. but ignore all that garbage and what you have is a game that gets regular updates and is fun to play. and games should be fun sometimes, right?

the constant events all season long with free rewards, the rotating gamemodes, the buffs/nerfs to balance and to keep the meta fresh, and we're not even 4 months in. i don't use the term "passion project" loosely. THE FINALS feels like one; a true testament to the FPS genre as a whole. to set an example of how video games and developers should be in every aspect. from the external content they put out (YouTube trailers, BTS videos on social media, the "CNS" ARG to hype up Season 2) you can really feel it in and out of the game: they love THE FINALS and they want it to succeed. and so do i.

great googly moogly

-Campfires heal you
-Players can leave signs to give you "advice"
-You die a lot

Best souls-like game out there, refunded Elden Ring today