Final Sentence Review (PC)

It’s as if I’m fifteen again, sitting my final exam in a room full of students who, at least from what I recall, couldn’t care less if their grades were bad. But this time it’s a little different. Here, in Final Sentence, it isn’t just the thought of a low grade that concerns me; it’s the fact that, if so much as a single word is mistyped, a bullet will eject from a revolver and claim me in a heartbeat. I have absolutely no room for error. The chamber is loaded, and the room is depressingly silent. A hundred typists share the floor, yet only one of us will walk out. It’s all or nothing, and already my fingers are beginning to ache something awful.

If Final Sentence was a simple typing exercise, then I wouldn’t have too much to complain about. However, Final Sentence isn’t a simple, much less relaxing gig; it’s a tooth-and-nail typologist’s worst nightmare — and in Battle Royale form, to boot. It doesn’t teach us anything about how to construct a paragraph; it tells us what to write, and how quickly we should do it. If we fail to do as we’re told, then we’re automatically given the lowest grade conceivable—an outcome that, true to the spirit of Battle Royale games, usually ends in mass slaughter and ruin. Yet there’s a small hint of hope: you don’t need to be the quickest in the room, just a little quicker than the person sat next to you.

A Typist’s Worst Nightmare

If you haven’t guessed it yet, Final Sentence is a fast-paced typing game that unapologetically pits up to a hundred players against one another over a series of witty and oftentimes jumbles exercises. With a gun against your head, you more or less have the job of typing commands in an efficient manner, and doing all in your power to ensure that you survive till the bitter end. And by bitter end, I mean the morbid climax where all but one typist remains afloat in a sea of sweat, blood, and broken typewriter keys.

The good news here is that, if you have played a typing game before, then you should, provided that your keyboard isn’t shattered into a dozen or more keys, be fully equipped to tackle Final Sentence. Unlike your typical typing excursion, however, Final Sentence doesn’t slap you on the wrist for missing a letter; it throttles you, forces you to stare at a red label, and then proceeds to unload a bullet into your temple for being incompetent. Aside from that, though, the same rules apply: a room of typists input words and random codes into their typewriters, and the folks who fail to string together the correct word get the penalty—a death penalty, that is.

It goes without saying at this point, but the truth is, Final Sentence isn’t the type of lesson that you would happily throw yourself at without acknowledging the consequences beforehand. Moreover, as it’s a Battle Royale game with morbid penalties and brash rules, it’s also rather competitive, too. That isn’t a bad thing, though I’d be a fool to recommend it to anyone who’s actively looking to mold their muscle memory and learn how to type at a steady pace. Sadly, this isn’t that sort of gig. No major surprises, but it’s worth noting all the same.

No Room for Typos

The core gameplay is as simple as one might expect from a traditional typing game with consequences and competitive battles in which multiple players duke it out for grammatical hierarchy. In short, it sees up to a hundred players collectively hacking out words and other nonsensical wordplay combinations in short four-minute bouts. Naturally, if a player successfully makes a word without encountering any major errors, seconds are added to the clock, whereas if a mistake is spotted by one of the vast henchmen who judge your work, time whittles down. It’s simple, for sure — but boy is it an intense process.

Of course, Final Sentence doesn’t exactly reinvent the wheel for typing games. Having said that, it does add an additional element that we haven’t seen before. And not just that, but an added incentive to keep newcomers from retiring the keyboard too early—a feature that comes in the form of a ranking system and stepping stone-like benefits among other leveling perks. See, Final Sentence isn’t so much of a one-and-done ordeal as it is a slow-burning process that favors gradual improvement over instant success. Like a lot of multiplayer games, it paves its path with a litter of grading systems—WPM, time, efficiency, mistakes, and accuracy, for example—as well as a quest list that allows players the opportunity to develop their skills and earn additional XP along the way.

With all of the above said, Final Sentence is still in its infancy, and so, while it’s evident that it contains all of the staple qualities of a typing protege, there are still several things that could alter its course in future updates. For the time being, however, I’m willing to give it the credit it deserves and say that, for a typing game that doesn’t do too much to bend the blueprint, it manages to capture a surprisingly good gameplay experience.

Verdict

Final Sentence is, without a shadow of a doubt, one of the most unnerving games of its kind. It’s unnerving, not necessarily because it involves having a gun held to your head, but because it waxes nonsensical jargon and tongue twisters with a Battle Royale formula. The concept itself is still rather simple, but the actual act of mindlessly bashing a keyboard in the hopes that a single mistake won’t be your self-induced haymaker is honestly quite the challenge.

To echo, Final Sentence isn’t a soothing affair with forgiving challenges; on the contrary, it’s a painfully demanding exercise that requires a steady hand and a willingness to act on impulse. However, if you can comb over the caveats, then you should be able to find quite the thrilling typing experience here. It’s a little on the basic side I’ll admit, but if you’re easily swayed by simple ideas that wax multiple layers of the same fabric, then chances are you’ll enjoy sweating bullets over a typewriter in Final Sentence.