The Finals Season 2 offers up plenty of reasons for players to come back

13.03.2024 - 16:45 / digitaltrends.com / Tomas Franzese

The Finals made a big splash when it launched at The Game Awards 2023, and it has maintained a healthy player base in the months since. Tomorrow, The Finals Season 2 begins and it brings new weapons and gadgets, another battle pass, a new map, and the Power Shift mode with it. Although I dropped from off playing The Finals a few weeks after its release, my early taste of Season 2’s new content was more than enticing enough to draw me back in.

New season, new content

As expected, The Finals Season 2 offers up another 96-level battle pass for players to make their way through. This season is themed around a hacker group called CNS and all things digital, so many of the cosmetics are inspired by that faction and video games like Street Fighter and Minecraft. During a presentation prior to Digital Trends’ Season 2 playtest, Embark Studios confirmed it does not plan to change the battle pass’ pricing, nor put any new gameplay-related content behind a paywall.

It also teased a new Career Circuit challenge-based progression system that will give players more specific goals to work toward throughout the season and a new matchmaking system for The Finals’ ranked mode. Like any lasting live service game, The Finals is offering new ways to keep players engaged as the game gets further out from release. I’m glad it is because The Finals Season 2 introduces a new map and new weapons and gadgets that will shake the game up.

SYS$HORIZON is a new map with an intentionally glitchy look and feel. It’s one of the most colorful maps I’ve seen in a mainstream first-person shooter, but it still features the intuitive, yet destructive level design that makes The Finals flourish. Of the new weapons (the Light build’s 93R machine pistol, the Medium build’s FAMAS assault rifle, and the Heavy’s KS-23 shotgun), the FAMAS became my favorite to use.

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What I liked even more were the three new gadgets and new specialization that The Finals Season 2 brings. Medium-build characters can now have the Dematerializer specialization, which allows them to erase almost any physical surface on the map. If you don’t have the explosives to destroy a wall or ceiling, using this ability does the trick just as well. A nail-biting last-minute win happened because I used this ability to drop my team’s cash-out station several floors, and I can see how plenty of other entertaining and emergent moments could arise from the use of the Dematerializer.

On the gadgets front, the Anti-Gravity Cube creates a zero-gravity