The Finals Season 2 Turns The Deadly Game Show Into The Matrix

Highlights

Season 2 of The Finals introduces new hacker abilities, like removing walls and altering objects, enhancing gameplay for all build types.
Medium builds gain the most benefits from new hacking tools like Dematerializer and Data Reshaper, offering unique strategic advantages.
Alongside hacking abilities, Season 2 also brings a new game mode called Power Shift and new map SYS$HORIZON for more thrilling gameplay.

Team-based online shooter The Finals is gearing up for its Season 2 update, which will bring a lot more exciting features to the free–to-play game. Season 2 brings with it an all-new five-on-five game mode, a League System that will better match players and teams by skill levels, and new rewards for progressing through the ranks.

But perhaps the most exciting part of the launch of Season 2 is that it will bring with it a new style of play that will let you alter the battlefield to your advantage, no matter which type of build you choose to play with, in a way that sounds reminiscent of something you’d see in The Matrix.

The Finals Player Combats Cheaters With Ingenious Troll

Not the hero we deserve, but the hero we needed.

Hacking Apart The Competition

As detailed by the developers on the game’s Steam page, the new Hacker Playstyle comes with a bunch of new tools and tricks that players will use to take the deadly in-game game show to even further extremes. These skills include the ability to remove walls (fitting for a game reknowned for its destructible environments), burrow through obstacles for a better point of attack, and break the laws of gravity, all through the use of cybernetic equipment tailored to different builds.

Medium builds seem to be the group getting the greatest benefit out of this future-tech upgrade, as they get double the number of new skills and the other two. First, there’s The Dematerializer, a new in-game item that will let you wipe away surfaces like walls, ceilings, and even goo, from existence, albeit only temporarily. However, despite the non-permananant nature of the device’s effects, it can be used as a great way to create a passage through the battlefield that can then be closed back up to prevent enemy teams from running you down.

In addition to the hacking tools, you’ll be able to make use of a variety of weapons, one for each build.

Continuing the augmentation theme, medium builds will also get access to the Data Reshaper, which can alter the state of being of objects in the game, including enemy fortifications. It’s not yet clear just what possibilities there are for transforming different objects, but the examples given by the developers include transforming a turret into a table or a mine into a chair. (Wabbajack, anyone?)

Light builds will be able to pull an old trick out of The Orange Box, as they’ll now have access to a couple of portals that can be deployed in the field of battle, allowing easy teleportation between two locations once both portals have been activated. Unlike the tunnels created by the medium build’s Dematerializer, anyone can use the portals once they’re active, but you still won’t be able to shoot through them, which adds a little more safety to your escape strategies.

Finally, heavy builds get a versatile new trinket in the form of The Anti-Gravity Cube, which will lift both players and objects in its area up off the ground. From what the developers are saying, this could be handy as both a means of getting around the battlefield or as a way to make your enemies more vulnerable, but it’ll be up to the players to figure out how to make the best use of them.

New Game Mode And A Whole Lot More

If all of those hacking abilities aren’t enough to get you excited for The Finals Season 2, the game is also getting a new five-on-five play mode, called Power Shift, as well as a new map, titled SYS$HORIZON. In Power Shift, your team will be accompanied by a platform, which you’ll have to guide safely through the battlefield, and attacks from your opponents can either make the platform change its direction of travel or stop moving altogether.

What’s more, the new map makes the game’s concept just a little more meta, as it takes place in the game’s “loading realm,” a neon-tinted city full of intentional glitches and floating, geometric shapes that you can use to traverse the new arena.

In addition to the hacking tools, you’ll be able to make use of a variety of weapons, one for each build. Medium builds will get a FAMAS burst assault rifle, light builds will have access to the 93R burst-fire machine pistol, while heavies can make use of the KS-23 slug shotgun.

The Finals: 10 Best Weapons, Ranked

Looking for the top meta weapons in The Finals? Here are the best 10 weapons ranked!

When Does The Finals Season 2 Launch?

You’ll be able to jump into Season 2 of The Finals on March 14. If you haven’t yet dived into the fun and chaos of The Finals (which we highly reccommend), you can play it for free through PlayStation 5, and on Xbox Series X|S, or PC via Steam or NVIDIA GeForce Now.