The Finals

[cptwhite_uk]

I've been playing the beta for the last 3 days, sadly it’s now ended. I'm calling it now, this is game of the year for me.

I guess I don't play many new games anymore. At a ripe age of 42 finding something that genuinely makes me laugh and grin ear to ear is very rare these days. However, this game did exactly that. There’s plenty of ‘tubers raving about the game, and the videos look manic and confusing, that’s because the game is fast paced (but not too fast, by 42 year old fingers were keeping up fine).

The premise is that you are taking part in a “virtual” arena, teams of 3, and you’re fighting to “bank” as much money as you can. This involves rushing to a vault, opening it, grabbing the cash pot and then running to a Checkout (deposit) point and defending the checkout point until the timer counts down. Other teams can steal the checkout at the last second and steal the full amount, so it gets very frantic.

Que chases through the fully destructible map – Sonic style jumps, zip wires, mirror’s edge style parkour, canisters you can throw that explode, gas bombs, fire bombs, toxic bombs, smoke, foam cannisters that explode to create temporary barriers. …and no fall damage….so refreshing!

The game has a class system – light / medium / heavy, with benefits to each from health points, speed, weapons choices, play style etc.

The game runs like a dream on all but the lowest of systems – even a GTX 1060 6Gb can fit 140fps on 1080p low with FSR Quality.

The constant AI commentary is well implemented, the variety of play styles, the level exploding around you and the constant chasing of the money lead to some magical gaming moments – it’s gorgeous to look at using Unreal Engine 5, and is just a barrel of laughs. The UI is clean and effective, the gameplay is addictive and I can’t wait for the full release.

Best of all, it’s going to multi-platform and free. If you like competitive online FPS shooters, it’s an absolute MUST.

There’s also a fantastic tutorial and some hand holding to get you into the spirit of the game before you start, all in all, it’s very well thought out for beginners.

If you haven’t seen it yet, or tried playing, you really ought too once it’s released.