I gave The Finals a good faith try in September 2026. I first tried team deathmatch, where I got put in a village where my choices were basically between sneaking around trying not to be seen and then getting red marks on my screen indicating being shot at from somewhere unknown immediately whenever i peaked my head anywhere, or if I stayed mobile I would have some invisible dude sneak up on me and kill me before I could do anything. I read that staying together with your team is the counter to the invisible enemies, but you respawn at a random location, so you can run to your team but you'll likely get killed on the way by an invisible opponent. By the way, during the absolute hell that was Fortnite with medallions for over two years (chapters 5 and 6), the most frustrating medallion powers were those that granted invisibility so you couldn't even see who you were fighting against. Finals TDM was very reminiscent of that dark period in Fortnite.
Next I tried Power Shift, 5v5 with a platform moving around the map that you need to control and defend. Whether playing Power Shift or TDM, each match seemed to consist of one strong player on each team getting 20-30 kills, and the rest of us. Reading about this phenomenon it was advised I turn crossplay back on to get more reasonable matchmaking, with indications that I shouldn't face the same overtuned aim-assist that exists to make 80% of Fortnite players happy who use a controller. Turning on crossplay made zero difference; each match had a player or two that clearly didn't belong with the rest of us, often with a TTV in their name. In my last match, the TTV player wasn't playing the objective at all, just getting kills. I was playing the objective, and our team was winning by a massive lead. But then all of a sudden the tide shifted? I thought maybe that was just the ebb and flow of the competition, but then I realized two of my teammates had left. No backfill ever occurred, I was just sent there to be a lamb to the slaughter for several minutes while all of my objective work was undone. I read that when my teammates leave I can leave too without a matchmaking ban, but I will lose all progression from the match, so if your teammates want to turn any match into a complete waste of time for you for any reason, they can and will.
So my takeaway is The Finals is yet another solid foundation of a game that is ruined by an utter lack of effective matchmaking, be it because it is implemented poorly or because it is easily defeated. It seems like the Rocket League of FPS experiences, where most of the time you will be playing against people finding one way or another, more or less, to cheat without using software to do it.
Is it too much to ask for there not to be difference of 5x the kills between the person with the highest kill count on each team and everyone else? I'm talking the MVP on the other team got 30 kills, and I got 6. If you're playing The Finals, yes, it is a bridge too far.
