THE FINALS is climbing again, and its own anti-cheat is the loudest complaint

What is this game?

THE FINALS is a free-to-play, team-based shooter wrapped in a violent game-show premise: squads compete to grab cash vaults and bank the money, while the maps themselves are almost entirely destructible. Blow out a wall, drop a floor, bury the other team. It comes from Embark Studios, a team stacked with ex-Battlefield developers, and that pedigree shows in how good the demolition feels. Since its 2023 launch it has survived on a steady drip of updates.

Climbing again, on a familiar engine of updates

The reason it's back in view is that Embark keeps shipping; the latest store update is only days old, and the cadence is enough to pull lapsed players back and push the game up the charts again. That's the good-news half. The problem is what those returning players write once they reinstall.

"Less cheaters on Tinder"

The recent reviews are dominated not by the gunplay but by trust. Cheaters are the first complaint, delivered with gallows humor, in one veteran's entire verdict:

you will find less cheaters on tinder

The sharper grievance is the cure, not the disease. Players describe an automated anti-cheat that bans first and explains never:

Their anti-cheat is AI-served, it gives you permanent ban for something they won't tell you. And you won't have any chance to talk with human to appeal.

Verdict: addictive, if you can stomach the trust problem

If you want a shooter that feels different, with destruction as a core mechanic rather than a gimmick, THE FINALS is free and genuinely moreish, and the people complaining loudest are often the ones with hundreds of hours in. Go in clear-eyed: the matchmaking is rough and the anti-cheat's false-ban reputation is the real risk to your time, not the price. ⚠️