The first major content update for The Finals is imminent with the forthcoming Season 2. This competitive shooter impressed us in our review with how the destructible environments and tools combined to create jaw-dropping moments, and it looks poised to expand on that with new gadgets, a new level, matchtype, and more. After a few hours playing with all the new toys, one thing is abundantly clear: The Finals are just getting started. The upcoming Season in The Finals is centered around CNS, a hacker collective that infiltrated the Finals game show. Their “what the ‘80s thought a cyber-future would look like” aesthetic fits in perfectly with the digital American Gladiator vibes, and is infused throughout the new content, whether it’s the stylish new outfits for characters, or the cool new tools heading to the arena. Every class gets a new gadget that focuses on hacking the battlefield, and testing them out in our hands-on preview showed a lot of potential for some fun and creative strategies. Our gameplay session began with several games of Quick Cash, the classic 3v3v3 mode where teams vie to score points by stealing and backing a vault of digital coins, in the new SYS$HORIZON map. Its cool polygonal aesthetic stands in sharp contrast to the clean cityscapes of the previous levels. With two other players at my side, I set out to put the new gadgets through their paces.Inspector Gadget First up was the Heavy, a class that trades mobility for durability and firepower. Another team had already captured the bank, and we needed to retake it in order to score. One of my go-to moves in this situation is to get below the bank and steal it by dropping it through the floor. This time, however, I opted to give the Anti-Gravity cube a go. I opened a hole in the ceiling, gave the cube a toss, and presto, instant grav lift. That sort of vertical movement is something the Heavies have lacked, and I can’t help but smile thinking about what went through my opponent’s mind as I levitated up through the floor, spewing fire all around from my flamethrower.Next I tried out the Light class’s new Gateway gadget, and honestly I love it. This lets you toss out two ends of a portal and instantly travel between them. It’s fantastic for getting the drop on unsuspecting players, and is a really handy tool for traversal when you throw one end somewhere hard to reach. At one point my team was locked in a fierce battle for the bank in a burning office building. Rather than risk a head-on charge that surely would have ended with my exploding in a hail of bullets, I planted one end of the gateway outside, then threw the other right in the thick of the enemies, allowing me to instantly appear behind them with my sword swinging. Bamboozling the other team really never gets old. The Gateway gadget lets you toss out two ends of a portal and instantly travel between them. The Medium build has a double dose of hacking tools thanks to the Data Reshaper gadget and the new Dematerializer ability. The former took me some time to really figure out. It transforms objects like tables and chairs into other more useful things, like explosive canisters. Or, on the flipside, it can turn explosives into useless objects that aren’t going to hurt your team. It’s entertaining, but it was hard at first to know exactly which objects it worked on, and because its use is so situational, I’m not sure I see sacrificing one of my gadget slots to bring it along too often. The Finals Gameplay ScreenshotsThe Dematerializer, however, is extremely useful. It’s your classic wall-hack, turning any wall, floor, or ceiling into a decidedly un-solid surface anyone can run and shoot through, until you decide to turn it back. It’s great for escapes or stealing a bank, and led to some really funny situations. One memorable moment saw me playing as a Heavy, rushing a wounded enemy to finish them off with my Charge ‘n’ Slam ability, only to have them erase the stairs with the Dematerializer and send me crashing into the wall below them instead. Those moments that come out of the unscripted chaos have always been one of the best parts of The Finals, and the new equipment seems to fit that mold perfectly.Fight the Power(shift)Once we finished those matches it was on to the new gametype called Powershift. This 5 versus 5 match has two teams vying for control of a hovering platform. It’s kind of like king of the hill meets tug of war. Whichever team has the most players on the platform will see it traveling on a course towards their goal, smashing through buildings like it’s the Juggernaut as it goes. First team to reach their goal, or the furthest along when time expires, wins. We played several matches, and the mode left me cautiously optimistic. The action is constant, and the fast respawns do a great job minimizing downtime. You can change your class between lives, which is really handy. I found out early on that my sword-wielding Light character was just too fragile to get up close to the action, and using a ground pound from a Heavy was a much more effective way to introduce myself to a platform full of the other team. My one concern is the balance between offense and defense. That’s not to say there isn’t a role for lighter characters. One of the most effective strategies is to put a few guys on the platform and surround it with long range shooters on top of the nearby buildings. We found ourselves on the wrong end of exactly that in one game, and a speedy and aggressive Lightweight was the perfect counter to it. Being able to cloak myself and sweep the other team off of those rooftops was just as useful as holding the objective, which really emphasizes the multilayered strategy that comes with games like this. My one concern is the balance between offense and defense. There are a lot of strong defensive abilities in The Finals, and the value of playing extremely defensively in the other modes is limited by the objective appearing in different locations. In Powershift it’s always on the Platform. Once a team is entrenched and starts throwing up Barricades and Dome Shields, it becomes extremely difficult to dislodge them. Several of the matches I was in were decided pretty early on by whoever took control first. Ensuring a competitive back and forth will go a long way towards determining if Powershift becomes a destination mode, or just an occasional palate cleanser. Season 2 of The Finals seems to be doing a great job of adding new options across the board, whether it’s tools for each of the classes to use on the battlefield, a unique new map, or a brand new mode. It has all the markings of a solid second act, and has me excited to jump back into the fray with friends when it arrives tomorrow, on March 14th.
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