Battlefield used to be fun.
2011’s Battlefield 3 and 2013’s Battlefield 4 featured vast playgrounds of chaos. Players were given loads of tools of destruction and told to just go nuts. Compared to Call of Duty's reaction-based run-and-gun multiplayer, Battlefield offered a breath of fresh air with its sandbox of creativity.
Players ejected out of jets to shoot a rocket launcher at an enemy jet before landing back in their own jet. They strapped c4 to the front of a jeep and abandoned it as it drove into a group of enemies, complete with a perfectly timed explosion. They drove an agonizingly slow forklift around just for shits and giggles.
Back then, the developers at DICE were in on what made Battlefield fun. Lile, they added an achievement for getting a kill with the stupid forklift! They featured that silly forklift in advertising! The developers really seemed to GET what was so fun about the Battlefield experience.
But with each new entry in the series, it's become apparent that DICE has completely lost touch with what made those Battlefields fun. Instead, DICE has focused on forcing the Monetization Tactic of the Year in each new entry.
Battlefield 4 introduced loot boxes, and not the fun ones. Battlefield V featured a battle royale mode that no one asked for. Battlefield 2042 removed the series-defining class system to replace it with Operators. No one wanted those.
To be fair, we can't know whether it's the developers at DICE or the executives at DICE making these decisions. It could also be considered unfair to compare the modern Battlefields to the Battlefields from the “good old days.” It's almost certainly true that most, if not all, of the developers from Battlefield 3 and 4 aren't even at DICE anymore.
But regardless of who's to blame, the current state of Battlefield is in a dire place.
In steps The Finals, developed by Embark Studios.
Embark is a studio made up of former DICE developers who worked on Battlefield 3 and 4. They partnered with Japanese super-publisher Nexon to fund the game.
Any players who spent time with those two games can see the Battlefield DNA in the finals. The movement of the characters, the snappiness of the gun play, the sound effects of gunfire and grenade explosions. If you ignore the style and setting, The Finals could easily pass AS the next Battlefield game.
But The Finals is not the next Battlefield game. It's an evolution of the Battlefield fun-formula. It takes the best parts, the FUN PARTS, of Battlefield and distills them into a smaller, tighter package.
In short, The Finals is a spin on a squad-based extraction shooter. Teams of 3 duke it out in various small-scale cityscapes, collecting cash boxes or coins from defeated players and depositing them in drop boxes that sometimes need to be defended. Matches are timed to not last more than 20 minutes, but almost never reach the time limit.
One of the biggest evolutions from Battlefield is in how The Finals handles player roles. Traditional Battlefield games have a class system that limits what weapons or gadgets you can equip. Think medic being able to heal, recon being able to snipe, assault being able to replenish ammo, etc.
The Finals has three “class” choices: light, medium, and heavy. Each role has specific weapons and gadgets to equip, but there's some crossover between them. Specific to each role is a special ability. For example, lights can turn invisible or deploy a grappling hook.
The amount of customizability in loadouts is impressive. Each role can equip one weapon and three gadgets. There are over a dozen different gadget options to choose from. It's really fun to mix and match gadgets to fit a particular play style.
Personally, I have a Medium build that focuses on defending, with a turret, mines, and gas grenades and a Heavy character focusing on destruction, with a sledgehammer instead of a gun, an RPG, and an explosive mine.
One surprising thing that the devs have removed that's traditionally been a staple in Battlefield games is weapon customization. There are zero options for changing sights, muzzles, magazines, etc for the guns in the game. Each gun is the same for everyone. In another surprising change, there are NO secondary weapons. There are no pistols or revolvers to switch to when you run out of ammo in your main weapon. Your only option is to wait through the reload animation or switch to a gadget.
In the same vein, the time to kill in The Finals is noticeably higher than other modern multiplayer shooters. Players REALLY have to land their shots or stick with their teammates to take down enemy players, especially Heavys who have more health than the other roles.
Speaking of teamwork, lone wolfing in the Finals DOES NOT work. Teamwork will always win out. This is because of the aforementioned time to kill and because of the frankly obscene number of gadgets each player has. Mines, grenades, c4, rocket launchers, turrets, etc. Cooldown management is just as important as accuracy and reflexes.
All of these lead to needing to rewire your brain to how combat works. The Finals is a different beast that requires different tactics and strategy.
This all leads to one of the absolute best features of The Finals: destruction! Every surface in The Finals is totally destructible. Every wall, every floor, every building can be blown to smithereens. Don't want enemy players to climb up the stairwell to your location? Blow the stairs up. The enemy is guarding a cash box on the roof of a building? Tears the walls down and cause the whole building to collapse.
The destructibility isn't just neat eye candy, it rewards creative thinking. This destructibility is one of the features that will almost certainly make it more difficult for me to go back to any other multiplayer shooter. After experiencing the destruction and chaos of The Finals, everything else looks so … boring and tame.
What all these features build up to is a game that, like the old Battlefields, is a sandbox for fun and creativity. The game has only been out for two weeks, but I've so many creative clips from other players.
People attach three turrets to a chair and carry it around like some miniature Metal Gear. I've seen someone attach mines to their teammates' revival statue and chuck it at enemies, complete with a perfectly timed explosion. There's no forklift to drive around yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if they add one within the next year.
The Finals provides such joy in plotting stupid ideas, implementing them, and seeing them succeed. It's not nearly as big or grandiose as Battlefield, but the Fun Factor has far surpassed it. It has that it-factor vibe that I've been searching for for the past 15 years, and I can't wait to see how the game continues to evolve and grow.
