GOTY 2023 NOMINATION - The Finals
Boom goes the ting.
By Jonathan Garrett
01/01/24
The Finals has the distinction of being one of the most feature complete betas we’ve ever experienced, followed by the smoothest shadow dropped launch in recent memory. It has come out of the gate in a fantastic state, in spite of its Jonny One Note A.I. commentary (Hey Scotty! What do you think Scotty?!). As both a lone wolf impromptu and co-op squad go to, we haven’t been able to put it down.
The destruction mechanics are best in the biz, the classes are extremely well balanced with meaningful choices required to build your loadout, and the blueprint is there for future seasonal updates. Smartly, Embark have opted for approximately 3 month long seasons, which mitigates Fortnite bloat by allowing the meta to settle before introducing meaningful change just when things will need freshening up.
Going forward, it also sets a bar for franchises like Battlefield to really up their game; this is the most technically polished, physics rich shooter we’ve played in nearly a decade. All eyes on DICE to see if they can meaningfully course correct the disaster of 2042. At this point, and for the forseeable, The Finals is the one to beat.
TARPS?
At the bottom of some of our articles, you’ll see a series of absurd looking images (with equally stupid, in joke laden names). These are the TARP badges, which represent our ‘Totally Accurate Rating Platform’. They allow us to identify specific things, recognise positive or negative aspects of a games design, and generally indulge our consistent silliness with some visual tomfoolery.
