The Finals took the FPS world by storm when it launched late last year – hitting nearly a quarter million concurrent players on PC-alone. Why? Well, it helped that the game slipped out at a time when the usual big-hitters like Call of Duty and Battlefield fumbled the bag somewhat. Making a great first impression, it was clear that unlike various other live service games before it, The Finals was going to stick around for a while.
Fast forward to today, and it’s still going strong. Anyone who looks at 20k concurrent PC players at the dead end of a season and feels concerned is drunk – those are damn good numbers. But even these daily-grinders and cosmetic farmers are looking to the future. Luckily for them, the future is bright. Season 2 of The Finals feels like a remedy for some of the game’s rougher parts, exciting new pieces to fill in its gaps, and L33t H@X0r hacker aesthetic that does more than just slap a wacky coat of paint on the game.
I’ll start with one of my personal highlights – Power Shift is damn fun! It’s a new 5v5 mode that has you and four other randoms play a tug-of-war style battle over this floating platform, which moves across the map and straight through buildings as one team hunkers down and tries to defend it. Power Shift is quick, obviously casual in intent, and engaging as a hilarious distraction from the standard game modes. It’s a lot like Overwatch 2’s Push, but with a far better FPS around it.
