The middle of September saw the team vs. team FPS The Finals bring back Cashout mode for Season 3, albeit with a few adjustments to the mode. So how have those changes affected the mode overall? Allow design director Matt Lowe to provide some incredibly granular insight.
Lowe’s dev blog provides multiple charts and graphs that showcases how updates have reduced third-party teams swooping in to kill weakened teams, made objective-based play more valuable versus simply chasing team wipes, and gave more focus on cashing out vaults instead of chasing combat. By Lowe’s reckoning (and the metrics provided), adjustments to Cashout have granted the precise benefits that developer Embark wanted, with closer matches and far less emphasis on third-party fights being the primary method of winning.
While the report is generally sunny, Lowe does point out that there is still an issue with team respawns that are generally pushing players toward third-party killing, so the devs are working on a smarter respawn logic to help. Overall, though, it would seem like Cashout mode is money.
Meanwhile, The Finals kicked off Season 4 last week, bringing with it a new stadium map, three new weapons, and several new features including the ability for players to take on (fake) sponsors for rewards, alternate sights and scopes, a new ranked mode, updates to its tutorial, and variant rules for Cashout in ranked and world tour play.
