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The Finals has been constantly improving over its recent seasons, focusing on the new player experience and quality of life changes that make playing the game all the more enjoyable, and with Season 11 recently being released, I can confidently say the game is in the best place it has ever been – not only the newcomer but the competitive player, too.
This new season brings many quite big changes that were a very welcome and pleasant surprise before the large Season 12 update, which Embark has alluded to.
Season 11 brings a new cashout arena, a whole rework of the melee system, and my favourite, personal performance being taken into account during ranked tournaments. This season has had me play The Finals in a very different way, and I think it is an amazing display of Embark doing what they do best: listening to the community and improving on feedback given.
First off, let's talk about the stunning new arena that is just out of this world – literally.
Galaxy Estates is the newest addition to the cashout arena pool, and will have you fighting inside a Gundam-esque space colony, equipped with residential homes, tall zero-gravity towers, and an all-new component: speed floors, which can be found around the centre of Galaxy Estates. These let you run at previously unseen speeds while also carrying the momentum gained to create some really amazing movement techniques.
From my experiences with this map, it has a very varied and fresh feel, offering a substantial amount of areas that play and flow differently. The combination of zero-gravity and the new speed floors makes for not only a fresh map, but also a very distinct space feel – which is right on point for this season and was exactly what I was hoping for.
Moving on to what is possibly one of the biggest and best changes we have seen in a while: the melee system rework. All melee now has a universal “lunge” when attacking enemies, balanced by the new stamina bar.
I realise how “stamina bar” sounds, and many of you probably let out a disappointed sigh reading it, but with The Finals, the melee stamina bar only restricts when you can lunge – no damage reduction, no movement reduction – which makes it not punishing, but more of a gate to account for the increased power of melee.
Along with this, melee weapons have had their damage numbers changed, with many now above those in Season 10. These buffs, however, are counteracted by the addition of a reticle when playing melee: if you aim at an enemy to land a direct hit, you deal maximum damage; if you strike slightly off target, the damage is reduced.
This addition aims to add a layer of skill to melee that was not present before, letting people who excel at melee shine, while weapons that used to be an annoyance, such as swords, will be less oppressive. This rework is amazing and introduces a new melee playstyle that makes it feel much more viable in competitive tournaments, bringing it more in line with ranged strategies.
Embark seem to be on a balancing spree this season, and I cannot complain. Ranked has been tweaked slightly in the latest update, so your personal performance in ranked tournaments will now be properly taken into account when calculating your gain or loss at the end of the match.
After playing quite a few rounds, I can confirm that this change is noticeable, and I believe it is what ranked needed for solo queue to be not only viable, but fun, and it checks both of those boxes now. So if you have been deterred by the quite difficult experience with The Finals ranked in the past, perhaps it's time to jump back in and give it a go.
Another small addition is the introduction of being able to play cashout with bots, which is a great way to learn the game without being crushed by the good players in quickplay.
This season includes many small patches and tweaks to the game that weren't covered in this overview, so if you are interested in many of the smaller balance changes, see the official patch notes here.
How are you enjoying the new season of The Finals? Has this game found its ways onto your online multiplayer rotations? Let us know below.