THE FINALS (Playtest)

Menus

Menus are fairly easy to navigate, settings are legible, but in the beta, push-to-talk didn't function as intended, working when it shouldn't, but only in pre-lobby, with friends, so it cause too many issues. The other thing is when buying a new piece of equipment in the shop, you have to first exit the shop, then into Contestants, and only then you can customize the purchase. Sometimes friends would appear offline, even if online, but a simple restart fixed that.

Gamemodes

There are two main modes, quick cash and bank it. Quick Cash has you grab a vault and carry it to cashout, where other people may try to steal it. Once the cashout is complete your team is awarded a sum and another vault spawns. Bank It has a similar formula, but instead of vaults dropping a little box, it drops coins, which individual players pick up and have to bring to cashout, a player with coins leaves a trail and they will drop their coins when killed. I personally found quick cash more enjoyable because it is more reliant on teamwork, since in Bank It a teammate could run off by his lonesome, drop 12k and win someone else the game. There is also Tournament mode, and it operates like Quick Cash, but with two vaults at a time. It also features an elimination bracket, first round has two games of four teams each, top two advance, then it's just one game of four teams, top two advance, then it's a one v one. Haven't made it past the second tier.

Gameplay

As expected of ex-Dice employees, the gunplay, the gun-feel, the choice, is stellar. Instead of giving you three flavors of modern optimally customized ARs, the first class you unlock, the Medium, has you choose between two weapons, a barebone AK or a Magnum, same with the Light, either a Mac 10 or a bolt action light sniper rifle. Heavy follows suit offering you an M60 or a literal Sledgehammer, and melee isn't a gimmick, every class has a melee option, Light has the dagger and the infamous sword, capable of doing extreme damage while retaining mobility. Medium features an even more infamous Riot Shield.

Each class also features specialization, an ability so to say. Each has three, and one unlocked by default. Light has a grappling hook, cloak and dash abilities. Medium has a medi-gun, turret and wall hacks. Heavy can charge, deploy a shield or goo gun. Speaking of goo, each class has the option to use Goo Grenades, Goo deploys a destructible wall of Goo akin to Prey (2019). But, it's flammable, so careful placing them all over.

Speaking of flame, (daring, I know) each class has a pyro grenade and Heavy has the flamethrower. There are a lot of AOE options, from explosives, to fire, to gas. Each also features a barrel. Explosive, flammable, poison gas, goo and smoke. Every AOE has it's own associated color so it's not hard to distinguish them. I personally made it a habit to carry an explosive barrel between objectives, as in, when en route to a battle, pick one up and chuck into the action.

Whenever one of you regrettably dies, you will drop a statuette, which your teammates can either revive you through manually, which takes around five seconds, or defibilirate which takes a fraction of that. Also, if you died out in the open, your statuette can be picked up, carried to a safe place and treated. As you expect, you cannot pick up enemy statuettes.

Destruction also cannot be omitted. Light has a Breaching Charge, Medium has a Pump GL, Heavy has the Charge and RPG. Each building is destructible, and can very easily be turned into a pile of debris after a hot engagement. The only things that aren't destrucble are ambient buildings, the ground floor and elevators, everything else can and will be destroyed. A cool strat is to blow the floor below a cashout and ambush a barricaded team.

Note that there is friendly fire, so careful chucking gas or pyro grenades, and barrels.

Mobility

All maps feature zipines, to buildings, from buildings, to area, from areas and the Medium can unlock a custom placed Zipline. Light has a grappling hook like that in Titanfall, and evasive dash, which can help them jump from place to place or scale to the second story. Medium can place Jump Pads, which can also be found throughout all maps. A cool strat is to jump onto a map placed pad, then put down a jump pad when you're about to land, prolonging your bounce. There is obviously the slide and sprint. You can scale objects and buildings. Jump Pad can also be placed in doorways to obstruct entry for the enemy.

Final Rating - 94/100