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The Finals has tremendous potential, but it’s being dragged down by a few key problems. That’s frustrating, because the concept is solid, and it’s built on some incredible tech. There are few shooters with better environmental destructibility and even fewer that are free-to-play. Unfortunately, a few design flaws and balancing issues are holding the game back from the greatness it might otherwise achieve. It just officially launched during The Game Awards 2023, so there’s plenty of time for the developer to fix the game. The Finals needs these changes to be outstanding, so let’s hope it gets them.
Shorter TTK
Every shooter is balanced on a spectrum. On one side are games like Escape from Tarkov, Hunt: Showdown, and the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series in which a single bullet can kill. On the other side are games in which you might as well be plinking Omni-Man with a .22 for all the good it does. One of the trickiest elements to balance in any FPS is the Time T0 Kill (TTK). If it’s too short, players might get one-shotted over and over again without ever even seeing their opponent. If it’s too long, enemies become bullet sponges, slowing down the game and defusing what would otherwise be tense gunfights.
High TTK shooters can be great, rewarding your weapon skill more than map knowledge and situational awareness. That’s not the case with The Finals. During some firefights, you can get stuck needing to reload multiple times, even if you’re hitting your shots. It’s a problem that reverberates throughout game, messing with its overall pace. A few high DPS weapons don’t suffer this problem, but that doesn’t justify how pointless other weapons feel. Lowering the TTK would massively benefit The Finals considering how large a role the destructible environments play in your strategy. A low TTK would better reward map knowledge and strategic flexibility.
Shorter Respawn Timers
No matter how good you are, you’re going to die eventually. In hectic 3v3v3 matches, there’s always a grenade you can’t dodge in time or a third-party gank you don’t see coming. Whereas games like Valorant and CS:GO only give you a single life, The Finals lets you respawn, returning to join your allies in the fight. Even if your whole team gets wiped, you can eventually all come back for another shot at nabbing the stash and filling your vault. That’s a great idea, giving players plenty of time to play around an ever-changing map. The problem is the respawn timers are too long.
If your squad gets wiped because someone didn’t create the right build, you have to wait 30 seconds before returning to the game. 30 seconds might not sound like much, but it’s a painful, boring wait, even if you don’t die often. The long wait respawn timer exists for a reason, of course. The Finals pits multiple squads head-to-head to secure coins from a vault. If the respawn timer were too low, you’d be getting interrupted and third-partied even more than you already do. When you combine the sizable maps, clumsy movement, and long respawns, however, getting back to the action is dull. Though balancing respawns is tricky, this problem is a potentially easy fix.
The Finals Needs These Changes
The Finals has the potential to provide a unique and exciting FPS experience, but if it wants to be outstanding, it’s going to need these changes first. The game already distances itself from the likes of Destiny 2, Apex Legends, Valorant, and others vying for players’ attention. All the developer needs to do is fix some balancing issues and questionable mechanics and it could be something great. Whether the developer pulls that off is an open question, but every FPS fan should be hoping they do. The more competition in the genre, the more other studios will have to step up their game. Until then, grab a sledgehammer. We have some reconstruction to do.
The Finals is available for PC, PlayStation 5, and
