How to bring back players:
- Start tuning the gameplay to center more around raw gunplay/movement instead of just ability/gadget usage.
- Start rewarding kills more (not the measly $200 that we have now).
- Stop punishing teamwipes so much (and instead, consider rewarding the teams who DO the teamwipes with cash).
- Rework the gun balancing and HP values so that the tradeoffs between classes actually make sense. Light should always kill faster than Medium, Medium should always kill faster than Heavy, and every class should be able to face each other in a 1v1 and have roughly even winrate among L vs. M, M vs. H, and L vs. H.
- Rework gadget balancing, through power adjustment and cooldown/charge adjustment, so that their tradeoffs actually make sense (ex. why would I take Pyro Mines or Motion Sensor over RPG and Dome Shield?)
- Rework Heavy to be an actual skill-expressive, and specialized class that doesn't do 90% of the things that are necessary for winning Cashout/Tournament mode.
- Replace frustrating abilities like Cloak, Healing Beam, and Mesh Shield with interesting, skill-expressive abilities that are unique to the world of THE FINALS (and not cause Overwatch tank/support GOATS meta all over again, which practically killed that game).
- Give all classes some easy access to destruction, perhaps through a universal Impact Grenade that deals heavy structure damage in a small AoE.
- Add or rework progression systems to be longer-winded and more challenging (why are there still only 50 levels? why is the "Pro Circuit" so underwhelming in difficulty? why aren't we signing contracts with sponsors to earn rewards from them and build loyalty with 'em? where are the leaderboards for each individual class/weapon like in the Battlefield days?).
Everyone talks about lack of content or lack of marketing being the reason for this game's terrible player retention. None of that is true. Games don't need that much extra content if they're already fun, deep, and replayable without it. This game also had enough marketing to garner 200k+ peak player counts, but more than 90% of them have dropped the game.
The reason why THE FINALS is suffering is because, to put it simply, it's a "bad game" to the mainstream FPS audience. It's a confusing and frustrating shooter where low-effort cheese constantly dominates the meta in some way, where the lack of understanding of the game's mechanics is way too punishing (hence the solo queue experience being worse than Overwatch/Apex), and it doesn't even reward what's being marketed in the first place: killing and destroying everything.
As it is now, this game neither caters to casual due to its complex/punishing nature and having almost nothing to work towards, nor does it cater to competitive due to how cheesy and unbalanced the game is, and how inconsistent/random the Cashout + Tournament modes are due to TARGETED third-partying and bad spawns. It's in an awkward spot where it caters to the minority of FPS players that "get" the game (and even then, many of those players are frustrated with the game's poor balancing), which is not good enough for bringing in players, or even keeping content creators happy with an engaged audience (hence the YouTube/Twitch scene for this game drying up, with previous creators trying other games instead).
I love this game, but at this point, there are so many issues to rectify that it probably won't be until Season 4 when this game pops off with AT LEAST a strong, niche audience again. Despite all of these problems, I'm with you until the end, because this game is STILL the most unique and refreshing FPS that I've played in the last 7 years, and if it fizzles out to the point where matchmaking doesn't work, then I'm not sure what else I'll play.