Final Exam takes four old friends on the worst possible drive to their high-school reunion: a crash leaves them in a town packed with monsters. You and your friends fight through it in a 2.5D side-scrolling brawler, combining melee weapons, guns, explosives, and acrobatic attacks. The PC game supports two players in local co-op or up to four online. Those are separate routes: a local pair cannot join an online session together.
A campaign built around objectives
The campaign spans eight monster-filled stages, from tunnels and industrial rooms to a fairground and other locations around the town. A handful of settings return with altered objectives, so the stages vary more in their routes and tasks than in a completely new backdrop every time. Most action stays on a single side-view plane, but levels open into connected areas with doors, stairs, platforms, and branching paths. You can push toward a marker, search a side route for a weapon, or climb to a higher platform while the rest of the group keeps fighting below.
Stages mix crowd clearing with tasks such as carrying an object, collecting parts, escorting someone, or holding off a wave until a countdown ends. Some goals pull attention away from the nearest monsters: carrying an item through an area where enemies keep arriving brings combat directly into the objective route. An “approaching pack” warning signals that a fresh horde is closing in, so even a detour can become a fight. Boss encounters cap some missions, and brief arcade-style diversions change the rhythm between longer brawls.
The stages give you more room to roam than a straight hallway beat ’em up, but exploration still serves the score and upgrades rather than a sprawling world map. Objective markers point toward required tasks, while weapons and collectibles in side rooms reward looking around. Some missions send you back through familiar areas as you gather the pieces needed to move on, so a stage can feel like either a focused sweep or a longer trip between objectives.
Four fighters with different strengths
You choose among four characters, each with their own starting attributes and a character-specific skill tree. Brutal Joe leans toward close-range strength, while Nathan’s character is associated with explosives; the others have their own stat profiles and special abilities. These are starting points rather than rigid co-op classes. You can invest points into health, damage, or other attributes and develop a character beyond their initial specialty, then unlock stronger attacks and passive bonuses as you progress.
That choice gives a returning group a reason to try another character, especially if someone wants a different balance of melee, ranged weapons, and explosive damage. The game does not assign one person to healing or another to tanking. Everyone fights in the same crowded spaces, picks up what they find, and contributes to clearing the next objective. Special moves become available as your character builds up their combat meter, turning a well-timed attack into a wider burst against nearby enemies.
Combos turn the brawl into a points race
Melee and aerial attacks build a combo, while dodges and jumps help you stay mobile and connect further hits. Keep landing attacks without taking a hit and the counter grows; mix in a firearm or explosive when the crowd closes around you. Weapons such as pipes, bats, shotguns, and explosives give you different ranges and impact, but ammunition is limited for guns and grenades. Enemies arrive in waves and include tougher variants, so the screen can fill quickly while you are still trying to keep a combo alive. Guns and explosives require more than tapping the melee button: you aim them into the crowd and watch the ammunition count while closing distance for the next string of attacks. Some enemies can take more punishment or interrupt a combo, and an incoming pack can force the whole group to switch from exploring to fighting in a moment.
Co-op shares some of that momentum: partners contribute to a common combo counter, so a string of hits from either fighter helps sustain the group’s streak. The stage score, however, still has individual rewards. Carrying a key item to its drop-off point or landing a finishing blow can award extra points to the player who does it. When the stage ends, score and objective performance determine who earns skill points. You are working toward the same mission finish while also keeping an eye on your personal total.
That tension shapes the group dynamic. Large stages spread the action across different connected areas, while players also race for dropped ammunition, health items, and objective bonuses. When a player loses their last life, a teammate can revive them, turning that setback into a brief rescue rather than an automatic exit from the action. The score chase adds some friendly one-upmanship to the cooperation, though it can also make supplies feel scarce when everyone reaches for the same drop.
Character growth rewards scores and searching
Final Exam ties progression to both combat performance and exploration. High stage scores earn skill points for each character’s tree, where you can improve attributes or unlock new active moves and passive benefits. Hidden items and weapon caches add another reason to check upper platforms and side rooms. Some weapons need to be found in a stage before a character can use them, so a detour can change the tools available for the next fight as well as the final score.
Your group can revisit completed stages to improve a result, locate missed pickups, and build up a different character. That makes the campaign more replayable for friends who enjoy chasing a better score or trying a new loadout. It also means advancement is uneven if one player earns far more points or finds more of the stage’s rewards. This is not a shared class progression system where every friend automatically develops in the same way; each character grows through their own points, choices, and discoveries. Weapons found during a run broaden the options a character can take into a later fight, while skill-tree purchases can make melee, precision, or explosive play more effective. Because the four trees are separate, a character switch changes your build, weapon unlocks, and available moves rather than only the costume. Cassy, Sean, Brutal Joe, and Nathan also give the reunion group four different personalities to carry through the same monster outbreak.
The main route is a compact sequence of missions rather than an endless co-op campaign. After completing it, a timed survival challenge adds another score target, and higher difficulty gives a practiced group a reason to revisit the brawls. Leaderboards make those scores visible beyond one run with friends, while the campaign itself remains the main place to find new weapons and abilities. The core loop stays familiar: move through the level, handle the current objective, fight the next crowd, then return to the character screen with points and new options to spend. If you want a long story campaign with branching decisions, this is a narrower arcade structure; if a group likes replaying action stages for cleaner runs and higher scores, the progression gives those attempts a purpose.
Horror colors, arcade humor
The town’s abandoned streets, tunnels, subway spaces, and fairground give the game a pulpy horror setting. Monsters are grotesque and the action is messy, but the character banter and exaggerated effects lean toward dark comedy rather than serious survival horror. The bright comic-book palette makes characters and enemies stand out against shadowy backgrounds, while the dense crowds keep the screen in motion.
The mood is consistent across the campaign, and so is much of its combat vocabulary. Hordes keep returning, many objectives ask you to find or carry something, and environments reuse visual themes. Different enemies and occasional set pieces break up the pattern, but the game is built around repeated brawls more than a steady stream of new mechanics. The screen can get hectic when enemies arrive from both directions, especially as a group tries to navigate platforms and protect a character carrying an item.
What your group needs to know
If you are playing in the same room, local co-op supports two players on one shared view. Online co-op supports up to four players. You cannot mix the modes by having two people on one PC join an online group; choose a local pair or an all-online session. The PC version supports controllers, and combat includes fast melee inputs alongside aiming and firing ranged weapons. Online play requires an internet connection, while local play gives two friends a way to tackle stages together without using the online mode.
Final Exam fits friends who want a noisy, score-driven brawler with stages to explore, weapons to scavenge, and individual characters to build. Its co-op is not a quiet puzzle of fixed roles: everyone shares the enemy crowds and the combo counter, while stage points and pickups keep a little competition alive. Expect repeated objectives and busy fights, plus the occasional scramble to revive a teammate or grab the last useful drop. A local pair or a four-person online group can take on the same kind of mission-based monster run, with the score screen waiting to decide who carried the most weight.