THE FINALS

While playing the game, you gain levels. It gives you various cosmetics items etc. It also impacts the matchmatking. At high levels (I'm 140, my friends are 100+), game turns into a ♥♥♥♥ and ball torture, especially from monday to thursday. First of all, you get paired with the same people multiple games in a row. Im saying, sometimes even the same teams. And secondly, you get the sweatiest, most tryhard players. I'm talking all Emerald ranks (the highest rank in casual mode) or Ruby (top 500 worldwide in Ranked). Of course, they're metaslaves, using the meta weapons, wiping the floor with you at all steps. Yes, I'm a casual player, tho I do have quite a bit of experience in this game and shooters in general. But this is simply frustrating - seeing the same sweats time after time and losing. So much for a relaxing session of gaming. As of game balance - it's mediocre, seems like Embark is vibe-balancing and often making odd or straight up dead on arrival changes - the melee change, which made THE worst weapon in the game (Spear) even worse. I don't know how they managed it, but just wow. They seem to be pushing really hard towards Esports. I personally don't care one bit about Esports (again, I'm a casual player). This however, brings some changes dictated by either pro playing scene or proplayers themselves that also affect the majority of playerbase. It is a slippery slope that I've seen many times in gaming and it never ends well. But oh well, we'll see. As for the artstyle, graphics, cosmetics and music - 10/10. The monetization model is really good. All in all, fun until you hit a certain level. And no, I haven't and will not smurf. More of a mixed review, but man I DESPISE LIGHT AND RUBIES WITH EVERY FIBER OF MY BEING.

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Like all competitive games, hacking has ruined another good one.

Game releases limited time event then becomes completely unplayable with crashing every single game

GOOD GAME

Very fun, very different than other FPS that I've tried. I love that battlepasses arent gone forever; I do hate how long it takes to earn rewards from them, though. gameplay is refreshingly new there is enough weapon variety to find something you like for any play style. The cosmetics are amazing . The arenas are fun, and the modifiers keep them from being stale. The announcers are a fun touch to allow you to be better immersed. I do hate how their AI voices thow...

Fun game overall until you realize the player population is struggling because the ruby/top skill players with >70,000 kills are plaguing low ranks im low gold at best going against the top players.

every update makes it worse. the guns are unbalanced, the meta is way oppressive. the melee rework seemed good but now all the melee manages to leave everyone on one hit or just you cant reach them. The flamethrower is just unfair and the TTK is either super slow or instant.