Despite being free-to-play and offering Battlefield-style destruction alongside tight shooting, The Finals lost the vast majority of its players after a very strong opening. Those numbers have finally stabilized for the last month or so, meaning we’ve likely found what the game’s dedicated player base will be, but with the launch of Season 3 tomorrow, could it surge in popularity again as old players return to see what’s new?
The Finals will be entering Season 3 on Thursday June 13. This is coming with some big changes for the reality TV-inspired destructive FPS game. The current ranked mode, Cashout, has four teams of three competing to earn in-game cash by killing players and getting a vault to an extraction point — essentially capture the flag. This mode makes use of the game’s destruction mechanics, with buildings turning to rubble as players fight over vaults and around their extraction zones. The new mode, Terminal Attack, is more like Counter-Strike or Valorant, where two teams of five take turns attacking and defending two objectives. The attackers have to get a key to a terminal, the defenders have to stop this happening.
Terminal Attack isn’t simply being added to the ranked playlist, it’s going to be the only ranked mode for Season 3. At 13 rounds, it’s more like Valorant than the rapid matches The Finals players have gotten used to. Making this the default ranked mode could be good for attracting players from Counter-Strike 2 and Valorant, but it seems to be alienating existing Finals players, who are unhappy on the game’s subreddit.
“Tournament once it was set to three rounds struck such an amazing balance and was such a good showcase of the gameplay in The Finals. Terminal attack really doesn’t conjure up the same destruction and adrenaline inducing gameplay,” one player writes. “It very much feels like objectives just plopped down in maps that were made for a very different game,” another criticizes. “The name of the game is literally The Finals, referring to the tournament system, so it seems extra weird to not at least have 2 separate ranked playlists,” another writes.
As well as the change to ranked, there’s a new map coming to The Finals. Kyoto 1568 is an arena set in the lush Kyoto Valley on a steep mountainside. It will have 16th-century temples, bamboo forests, and gardens, offering a contrast to the more modern arenas The Finals players have been used to so far. All builds are also getting new weapons inspired by the setting. A recurve bow, dual blades, a spear, winch claw, and a thermal bore.
There are plenty more multiplayer games for you to try out if this doesn’t sound like enough to being you back to The Finals. If you want something a bit more tactical, why not try out some survival games instead?
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