Best Game Drop Of The Year. The Finals Is Tons Of Fun
Welcome to my first article covering the finals. So right off the bat. I didn't play the beta and basically just completely overlooked this game initially, but once the full game launched and I saw my friends playing. I couldn't help but install it right away. I was pretty surprised by the 18-GB download for the finals.
I mean, most games nowadays are like 85 gigs, so I found it nice to get a free crossplay game that doesn't take up all the space on my PC. It was a small thing, but I thought it was a nice win before I even opened the game. The final so far has been incredible to play. It takes great aspects from games like Battlefield, Apex Legends, and Overwatch and combines them into its own individual experience.
Even though I see certain aspects from other games, the finals are 100% its own game, and I love that, in my opinion, the modern-day FPS genre has just been disappointing over the past several years, so to have a functional free-working FPS game on day one has been a breath of fresh air for many players, including myself.
Above all else, I find the finals to be incredibly fun, and that's something I have not felt since Apex Legends launched back in. In 2019, it's been a challenge trying to play games with my real-life friends for years, and that's now changed since the finals were released. We have a new game that we all enjoy playing together, and I think that says a great deal about the finals; it's creating social aspects and elements that really have been absent, in my opinion.
I'm curious if any of you have had similar experiences reconnecting with longtime friends, so let's talk about how this game works. The finals take place in a stadium, almost like a game show. It really gives me Hunger Games vibes. When you have contestants putting on a show and competing for a main prize, starting off, you pick your class: light, medium, or heavy.
Each class has different weapons and gadgets to choose from that make your experience more unique. The light class is going to have faster movement, high-damage weapons, and stealth options, but it also has the lowest health and can be eliminated quickly. The heavy class is the exact opposite slower-moving tank character that can eat bullets and explosives for breakfast.
The heavy class is an absolute menace for destroying structures, defending a position, or shielding the weight for the rest of your team to push through. Objective, last but certainly not least, is the medium class. A nice balance of light and heavy with a little more focus on a support role that can heal and revive teammates so they can get back in the action as fast as possible.
Each class will choose one weapon with a specialist ability that is particular to the class you are using, and lastly, three gadgets from which you have a wide pool to choose from. Gadgets can range from jump pads to grenades. Shields, or a range of other gadgets, I personally like to mix up my gadgets, so I have one for mobility, one for defense, and one for team play.
The different classes and gadgets allow me to approach each situation differently and create this really engaging gameplay loop. Each match ends up playing completely different, and that's one of the things I love about this game. It's not just rinse and repeat; you have to adapt to every unique situation that presents itself in the finals, and I really love that.
So I want to talk about how to win in the finals. What is the objective here? There are two different game modes you can play right now: Quick Cash and Bank It. Both of these modes involve eliminating hostiles from grabbing cash and protecting it so you can make the deposit. Quick Cash is the mode I will focus on since that's the mode you will play for tournaments and ranked.
Quick Cash essentially spawns a vault with $10, 000, and you must retrieve the vault while fighting off the other teams and take it to the cash-out station. From here, your team must defend the cash-out station while the other teams try to stop you and steal your cash. If you are eliminated, you can respawn and try to fight back, but the winning team must score 20,000, which is the same as depositing at two Cash Out stations.
So just to summarize again, grab the vault of cash deposits in a cash out station and defend the cash out station until your team finishes the deposit. Achieve two deposits to win the game. Tournaments play the same way but have some extra depth. You can compete in a bracket with other teams and progress through three total tiers until you reach the finals and play a 3v3 match against the other best team in the tournament.
It's a pretty fun way to prepare for ranking since it's the same format but without the extra stress of rank play. What about the maps? The finals feature four maps from Las Vegas Soul, Monaco, and Skyway Stadium. So far, all of these maps have been very enjoyable to learn and play. I'm about 20 hours deep, and I'm still experiencing new things every time I load.
Starting off as a new player, it can be a little overwhelming at first, but after some time, everything starts to come together. You have all these tall structures and buildings everywhere, maybe some moving platforms. Bridges, jump pads, zip lines, and the list goes on. The finals have done a great job taking real places and converting them into these unique playable arenas, filled with fast-paced action and incredible destruction.
Some of the maps feature floating platforms for the Cash Out stations, and while this may seem like an impossible scenario to overcome, the finals give you all the tools you need to defeat the enemy team and steal the cash. Yes, you could take the zipline or jump pad, but I think a little creativity goes a long way in this game.
Instead of trying to fight your way up to the platform, why not just bring the whole thing down with an RPG? The finals present you with these intense situations that you have to overcome, but at the same time, if your team has the right tools and works together, it's incredible. What kind of plays are the finals capable of?
I see this game popping off in the competitive community, and I sure hope I can be a part of it. So how about the gadgets? I'm going to start off by saying I haven't used every gadget in the finals, but I do have enough play time that I've experienced almost everything this game has to offer, and I'm pretty impressed.
The finals provide some interesting gadgets that really allow you to get creative, along with more familiar items such as the frag grenade or zipline. I'm going to skip the explosive gadgets since those are pretty self-explanatory: you throw a grenade, shoot an RPG, and boom, you deal damage and blow a hole in the wall.
