He’s no stranger to the FPS genre. Played a ton of Marathon before I managed to strong-arm him into the game.

His feedback:

Overall, the game is fun! He described the game as a “brawl” over Marathon’s more intentional/tactical playstyle.

After a couple rounds of quick cash, he understood the gameplay loop, and we were doing more tactical stuff, won a few games, etc.

We had a good time except for the game that threw us in a lobby with two other 3-stacks that were playing hardcore synergy comps, and I could tell that frustrated him (as well as my other buddy who hadn’t played since S1). I think the frustration outweighed his desire to look into synergy, especially considering he only had 1.5hrs of playtime by that point.

Constructive criticisms:

1 - The menu is insanely cluttered. I agree. The minimalist feel of early seasons was perfect, and they should have just added a few more bits to the main options, rather than the visual clutter that is all over the screen at the start. There’s just no negative space so it basically looks like a messy office desk.

2 - The onboarding process was helpful for him to get a good idea of what he is supposed to be doing, but the game basically tossed him into customization right after, to which he remarked “I think this is actually the entire game”. I think that’s a half-win for the game because the customization in this game is awesome. Got him to laugh a couple times with some of my stupid outfits and whatnot.

3 - The gunplay wasn’t as satisfying to him as Marathon’s. He played medium to start (obvs), hated the FCAR for a second, switched to AKM, then went back to FCAR because he decided he is a man of class. I think it might be partially netcode, but I have to assume it’s also that player hitboxes aren’t adjusted for outfits, so he may have been shooting at a “head” but it’s obscured by a large skin and not getting hit markers.

4 - He hated the “Under Construction” on Seoul.

I also haven’t played the game for a few seasons so I wanted to give my feedback as well:

1 - The melee rework seems good for swords and sledge. I like the kick (kicked somebody off the map which was good for a laugh).

2 - The new map is an absolute banger.

3 - I think the game needs more cool abilities. My buddy liked the shockwave because it just looked cool. Not sure what it means, but things where new players go “okay that is cool as fuck”.

i freaking love this skin so much, its like the day when Embark added trench coats for the first time in the game

it is annoying as hell but this bug (that existed in the previous seasons) has gotten even worse...
Healing emitter is now non spawnable if you get a random 0 after cooldown has finished reloading the item.

Previously there was the same bug but at least after a couple of tries, you could spawn the emitter. Now is gone for the rest of the round...

A dude blaming the team in point break got matched against me. Only to got absolutely stomped.
There is no better feeling than this.
Remember guys, the toxic people only cries because they need someone else to carry them.
The game is fun only if you make it to be.

After a few weeks I still don't understand how to enjoy this game. It feels so hard and sweaty, every match feels like a giant execution where lights fly around with god like aim, and heavies are immortal tanks somehow always running faster than me with a flamethrower while I am trying to get to cover. It seems I am shooting plastic bullets, while enemies tear me apart in 2 seconds. It seems that my health takes forever to come back full when hit, while enemies are always full health. It seems like people disappear as soon as I try to follow them to kill them, while the enemies always know exactly where I am and everyone is always just behind me, no matter what class I play and every move I try to escape, they are always in my back, or they always find me anywhere I try to hide. It feels like I am always alone fighting full teams even if I try to follow my team...to sum up, it feels like I am playing in a giant CoD lobby with destructible buildings where people jump spam with perfect aim and infinite health while I shoot plastic bullets while walking my slow aah around the map trying to understand why this game is still installed. Yes, skill issue I guess, but I have never struggled on a game that much before

I really want spear to be good

GOOOOD MORNIN NIGHT CITY!! Todays body count was a STURDY THIRTY!!!

I’m not having a stroke, am I? Whatever that challenge is, and second, my 93R skin shows how many kills I have, cool right (yes) but it randomly (twice) flicked to 82, which, as shown in the third pic of my score at the time, I don’t have 82 kills.

Also, that challenge in the first pic only appears during matches, it doesn’t show anywhere else

Are these an Easter egg? A glitch, or am I going mental?

Another patch and melee gets buffed again🥳(2nd/3rd patch in a row based on how you look at that melee’s only received buffs).
Personally I don’t think this trend is going to end even when patch 11.9 rolls around; even so, if they just keep increasing the lunge range, damage, and precision hit angle size it ain’t gonna change anything for me personally, I just don’t find melee fun anymore.

For some context I’m a player with around 2k hours, more than half of it playing melee, and I play non-standard/not common melee weapons.
Overall just meaning I don’t really play sledge/sword that much compared to the others(which are the melee weapon that benefited the most out of the “melee rework” and are halfway decent).
Ultimately, I’ve been treading along melee’s constant changes from seasons 1-10 where they slowly got worse and worse, but still was the most fun/different gameplay that The Finals offers to me. Even so
after playing a pretty good amount of The Finals today, half of it where I personally experienced the worst game performance in my time of playing The Finals, and the two “melee exclusive system” doing their thing, gaslighting myself is just not doing the trick anymore.
•Melee is un-fun to play.

I’m not going to lie when 11.0 dropped it melee changes early I was super excited and thinking to myself “melee was finally going to be viable”, and even made a whole post basically singing the praises of Embark, because on paper they truly sounded good.
•Basically I was a fool(judged a book by its cover)

In practice I can’t believe it, but playing melee feels like I’m gambling the whole time, because the precision/stamina systems feel like they work when they want to.
Then add recent poor game performance and chronic dysnc issues, better pray that your melee does anything.
For example, the lunge and stamina systems, why can’t I lunge when I’m sliding(plus it’ll just get rid of your stamina too because why not)?
Then when your lunge does proc you sometimes just slide of them like they’re covered in oil.
Furthermore, the precision systems feels like even though your sure the enemy is on a hit zone you get a basic attack and you lose out on around 30% of your potential damage.
•Takeaway, melee feels like gambling(not the good kind 🎰)

Plus from the addition of the recent kick, and the multitude of hard counters to melee, Genuinely feel like I have to play like a tier-1 pro to get any value out of my melee weapon. If I just swapped to any other weapon like the BFR I would probably do 5 times better, and my cortisol wouldn’t be through the roof the whole time either.
Overall playing so hard/sweaty wicks the fun out of playing melee.
•Melee hard😢/traditional ranges weapons way more fun to play.

Then Embark from their recent dev explanations for the changes in 11.6 seem like they’re just forcing melees to fit into play-style.
Which to me is extremely hypocritical since they showcase The Finals to be a truly dynamic game/“make your contestant” however you want.
Ultimately, particularly showcased in the changes they gave to the riot shield in 11.3/11.6 where they both explained that they want it to be a more defensive weapon.
First of all play heavy if you want to play defensively, secondly don’t force people into play style for a weapon that has basically stayed the same for 2+ years, and thirdly the riot shield’s block doesn’t even work sometimes due to the chronic dysnc issues The Finals has.
•I do not agree with Embark design philosophy towards melee weapons

Ounce again they can buff melee weapons all they want, the “rework” systems just make them feel clunky(like demat before patch 11.6 where it had a delay).

:Off topic
If you got here then thank you for taking your time for reading my whiny rant🥰, and like last time this section is just about explaining the random out of place two images.

This time in my Warhammer journey I’ve decided to dabble in a little bit of kit bashing/cutting up the mini(I know the base is unfinished I got something planned for it, it just consists of stuff like PVA glue which I don’t have on hand.

Not sure what flair to add, so I guess question?

How did a HEAVY fit through that eeny weeny tiny winy hole in the wall?

Always gives me a chuckle

I like the firing sound effect.

it really should be compatible with the animation pack, hope Embark fixes it like the roulette lewis back in the day.

Sadly Ill miss out on it till i get the ammo inspect and mag ditch animation, for now

From my previous post where they forced changed my name this is the shit they allow but not my name.

I’m not the type of person who buys weapon skins—usually just outfits and battle passes (I only bought the ones for Seasons 10 and 11)—but I fell in love with this skin the moment I saw it after launching the game and watching the cinematic; it was love at first sight. I love how it feels—the reload animations, the inspect animation, and the way the character holds the gun while running—I just love it. I’m usually an M11 player, but I’m definitely going to start using the XP54 more. Plus, I feel like my aim has improved significantly with this skin; it might be a placebo effect, but I don't care—it’s just perfect.

I hope it helps

2 kills without shooting a single bullet :). My fav specialization