In a sea of recent live-service struggles, The Finals has been a relative bright spot. Fighting hard in a genre long-dominated by the exact games that its former Battlefield devs used to make, The Finals' twists on the FPS formula seemed enough to garner hard-fought attention. That attention waned over its inaugural season, but the sense has been that repetition, not apathy, was a significant factor in that gradual decline. Now, with Season 2, The Finals is aiming to bring players the new content they've been craving - as well as a more surprising new addition.
Put simply, the headline change in The Finals Season 2 is everything that players have been asking for. Every class is getting a new gun - a FAMAS rifle for Mediums, a machine pistol for Lights, and a mean-looking slug shotgun for Heavys. In addition, each class is getting new gadgets or specializations intended to patch up the holes in their relative arsenals, or counter particularly potent enemy strategies.
The long-suffering Light class, for instance, is getting its first support gadget, a throwable portal tool through which anyone can travel seamlessly. To help with traversal, the Heavy is getting an anti-gravity cube, capable of helping the bulkier class get around more easily, but also acting as another tool in its defensive arsenal, capable of boosting cashout points into the air. The Medium gets a reality-rewriting double-whammy, with a new specialization that offers some destructive capability by temporarily deleting terrain, offering a gap for players to shoot through. In addition, a new 'data-reshaper' gadget transforms items; if an enemy team covers a cashout in traps and turrets, the new tool allows mediums to transform those items into far more benign alternatives. Having experienced some of these tools used by other players, it seems they'll take a little more getting used to than the turrets, mines, and grenades that make up several of the game's current loadouts, but they're all begging to be used in truly Finals-style heist shenanigans.
Go Go Gadget Gravity Cube
Beyond the players, The Finals devs have plenty of other changes to make. A new Battle Pass adds new items, but there's also the addition of the 'Career Circuit', a set of weekly challenges that will offer rewards but also encourage a wider variety of playstyles for those who want to complete everything. Changes to Ranked play are coming, with the caveat that these will likely be subject to further testing as the community gets involved. Private matches - apparently one of the community's most-requested features - are also being introduced.
A new game mode, a more casual 5v5 mode called Power Shift, allows for a more flexible experience. A Payload mode that shows off The Finals' destruction tech better than any gadget I've seen so far, Power Shift will allow players to change their class more easily, adapting to the needs of the team and the situation they're facing. Finally, a new map completes the community shopping list, but that's where one of my biggest Season 2 question marks arises.
*Hacker Voice*
The new map is called Horizon, but while The Finals' other arenas are based on real-world locations like Monaco or Seoul, this one seems to have been made from scratch. That's because it's been constructed from assets stolen from the creation of The Finals' virtual arenas by an in-universe hacker group called CNS.
Eagle-eyed Finals lore hounds have noticed CNS lurking in the background, but they'll be a far more tangible influence on Season 2. Horizon will push players' parkour skills to the limit, with glitches and floating geometry promising a very different approach to the far more solid foundations of other maps. With their impact being felt directly on the game, it seems that The Finals' showrunners will be scrambling to try and shut down these rogue broadcasts.
New maps, modes, weapons, and gadgets are exactly what The Finals needs. Power Shift offers the best new game format so far, and the new map and new gadgets in particular show how different even a relatively minor set of new toys can make the experience feel. But I'm torn on CNS. It was the destruction tech and the Cashout game modes that drew me to The Finals, not its game show framing. The idea that there's a deeper story lurking behind that framing seems like something that might appeal to some players, but I don't think this is a game that warrants an exploration of some deep lore. As Embark Studios promises that Season 2 will show us how much The Finals can grow and evolve, I hope that evolution focuses more on gameplay than on storytelling.
