In the second half of 2017, my friends and I chased a new badge of honor: the chicken dinner. As PUBG shot to unprecedented (and still unmatched) levels of popularity on Steam, we scrambled to prove we were worthy of this new mega-hit, posting our successes on social media deep in the throes of this freshly re-emerging genre. A few months later, as Fortnite cemented the battle royale's relevance, the cycle repeated itself.
Much has been said about why the battle royale craze captured the collective imagination quite as it did, but for me it's always been about the blend of ability and tactics. It's no good being the best shot in the lobby if you're rushing into a gunfight that sees you sniped in the back from half a mile away. Couple that with the thrill of coming out on top of an ever-shrinking pool of players, the chances of victory growing tantalizingly larger with every new development, and it feels shocking that the formula had gone so underutilized before 2017. Since then, of course, the battle royale hype has waned, and it would be years before a game felt like it offered the same heart-in-mouth blend of tactics, tension, and ability… when I stumbled upon The Finals.
