The Finals is easily my favorite underrated game right now.
If you’ve never heard of the game, which is pretty likely, The Finals (usually stylized as THE FINALS) is a free-to-play team-based and class-based FPS game, developed by Embark Studios.
If you aren’t familiar with them, they’re the same developers of my 2025 GOTY, ARC Raiders. The game is presented as the “world’s greatest game show,” where contestants compete in a virtual arena for fame and fortune.
One of the main things that sets The Finals apart from other games in the genre is its main game mode, “Cashout.” In this mode, multiple teams fight over bringing a “cashbox” from a randomly located vault to a randomly located “Cashout.”
The Cashout can be stolen at any time from whatever team claimed it first, and whoever has kept it by the end of the timer claims the cash.
While that might sound somewhat similar to game modes seen in a few other games, it really doesn’t play like anything I’ve ever experienced in another FPS game.
Since the game’s release, they’ve also added numerous other game modes. Some of these are familiar from other games, such as Team Deathmatch, while others like Power Shift and Point Break, are completely new takes on some other familiar objective-based game modes.
As I mentioned before, the game is also class-based, with three different classes to choose from. The choices are the Light, Medium and Heavy, each with its own set of weapons, gadgets and specializations to choose from.
If all of that doesn’t already sound good enough, every single one of the game’s maps feature a fully destructible physics-based environment. While similar systems are used in the Battlefield series of games, The Finals takes this destruction to a much higher degree, creating a level of strategy and unpredictability I’ve never really seen before.
The maps themselves are also a great part, as many are based on real-world locations from various time periods, or fictional locations specific to The Finals universe.
Outside of just the gameplay, the game’s overall retrofuturistic style is also very unique. Despite the game’s changing themes across each of its seasons, the style still stands out in the visuals and music.
Many players have pointed out similarities in the game’s style to the acclaimed game Mirror’s Edge, which makes complete sense, as many of the developers formerly worked on that title.
With each new season, the developers also add in new music, and it’s almost always good enough that I even end up adding the songs to my main playlist. It might even be one of the best game soundtracks I’ve ever heard.
The game also features some pretty ridiculous, but also well-designed cosmetic items, and while I know some players aren’t huge fans of cosmetics affecting a game’s overall style, it actually works well in The Finals. Considering the game is framed as a digital, game-show-style arena, the over-the-top cosmetics feel like a natural fit.
Despite all of this, The Finals has never been able to reach or maintain the same level of popularity as other FPS titles.
There could be a number of reasons for this, such as poor marketing, the game’s relatively high skill ceiling, concerns about its balancing and even disputes over its use of AI voice acting. But none of those feel like strong enough reasons for the game to be as overlooked as it is.
Back in 2023, I tried the original open beta for The Finals, and immediately loved it. When Embark Studios surprise-released the game during The Game Awards later that year, I downloaded it right away.
Ever since then, I’ve consistently played the game every season and have rarely been disappointed. So much so that it has become one of my most-played games on PlayStation, my main gaming platform.
With The Finals and ARC Raiders, Embark Studios has proven they can make some truly great games. But while ARC Raiders has been getting a lot of attention, I just wish more people would give The Finals a chance, too.
Whitford can be reached at [email protected].
