The Finals players want the devs to stop changing this stat to balance weapons

When it comes to competitive gaming, balancing weapons, items, and abilities to ensure nothing is too overpowered or too weak is a never-ending tightrope that developers must try to stay on. Sometimes they get it right and other times they get it drastically wrong. Throughout competitive gaming history, we’ve seen this, with games such as Fortnite having long periods where the game has catered to a specific play style to try and balance things out, such as buffing aim assist and SMG weapons to make controller players more competitive. As a competitive gamer, this is something we all understand that we have to deal with and to take the good times with the bad times. When it comes to The Finals, it looks like the game may be entering its first bad time just months after its release. 

Users on Reddit have come together to complain about Embark Studios’ method of balancing weapons, which in some instances is by changing the recoil of the weapons. We have weapons such as the FAMAS enter the game in an overpowered state, before eventually having its recoil nerfed to the point it is difficult to use by the average player. It is worth noting that the FAMAS did receive a recoil buff after the developers went too far, whereas some weapons haven’t been so lucky. Unfortunately, this just becomes a game of cat and mouse because once players learn the new recoil patterns, they can adapt and the weapon becomes just as effective as it did before. For example, there are detailed diagrams for games such as Counter-Strike that show the recoil pattern for every bullet fired, allowing players to build the recoil pattern into their muscle memory, it would be possible for The Finals players to do the same.

Taking a look through the comments on the post, many users share the same sentiment in that nerfing via recoil is the wrong move in the vast majority of cases, with u/PrecipitousKites saying “I’ve never agreed with a post more.” and u/Mendezllk stating that “This is killing me as a casual player. I can’t keep relearning these guns. The game no longer feels satisfying to play.” So far, this hasn’t seemed to affect the player count of The Finals, with it still hovering between 25,000-35,000 peak concurrent players each day since the Season 2 hype died down. But, if the mechanics keep being nerfed to the point the game isn’t fun to play anymore, players will just move on to a new game such as Helldivers 2, Call of Duty, Fortnite, or Apex Legends. 

The main problem with nerfing via recoil changes is, that more casual players don’t spend the time trying to learn recoil patterns to master a specific weapon, they just like to jump on for a few games with their friends, and these changes can put them at a significant disadvantage. There are also many anti-recoil devices and aim assist tools which, despite being banned from most competitive games, still fly under the radar and often avoid detection. By nerfing the recoil for players who follow the rules, it allows players that take advantage of these tools and devices to become too dominant which puts players off returning to the game. A solution to this would be to nerf recoil patterns as needed, but apply most of the nerfs and buffs to DPS, bullet drop-off, range, magazine capacity, etc. 

Despite the game suffering from recoil issues, it is still an incredibly fun game to play and it has a lot of potential. If you’re a competitive gaming veteran you will know that games go through ebbs and flows, so with the game still being fairly new now would be a good time to try it out. To have the best experience, we highly recommend checking out our The Finals best light builds guide, best medium builds guide, and best heavy builds guide to figure out the best weapons and abilities for your particular play style. The Finals accommodates different play styles well but it can take some time to figure out your role in the squad.