When you kill someone in The Finals, they explode in a shower of coins, their body scattering across the ground like a tub of popcorn dropped by King Midas. As with much else about the Finals, this wowed me when I first saw it. What an ingenious way to depict death in a multiplayer shooter, I thought. It’s spectacular without being grisly, satisfying without being gross. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a sicko for virtual gore. But this seemed like a smart, clean alternative.
The Finals reviewDeveloper: Embark StudiosPublisher: Embark StudiosPlatform: Played on PCAvailability: Out now on PC (Steam), PS5, Xbox Series X/S
The longer I played the Finals, though, the more its glittering corpses troubled me. The Finals is explicitly a game about exchanging death for money, a free-to-play multiplayer shooter where you compete in teams for virtual cash prizes, and pay real money to give your tracksuit-wearing competitor a snazzier outfit. Its smash-n-grab gunfights are satisfying in the moment, with sleek movement, precision-engineered weapons, and an exhilarating destruction mechanic. Look closer, though, and you’ll spot an emptiness behind its contestants’ eyes, one that speaks volumes not just about The Finals, but of modern multiplayer shooters in general.
We’ll get to all that in due course, but first, let’s give The Finals the credit it deserves. The premise is intriguing and unusual – a multiplayer shooter that blends the cooperative heists of Payday with the explosive destruction of Bad Company 2. The Finals offers three game modes to choose from, but the one you’ll probably play most, Quick Cash, sees three teams of three players competing to grab Vaults filled with coins, then transfer them to cashout points to gain the funds. The first team to successfully cash out twice wins.
But ah, a twist! The vault can be “stolen” by another team at any point, whether you’re waiting for it to initially unlock, transferring to the cashpoint, or during the cash out process. The result is a rolling game of attack and defence, with the vault constantly changing hands in frantic three-way battles.