The aim assist in Call of Duty has been a hotly debated topic in the community for years. With Black Ops 7, the developers want to tweak the controversial feature to ensure that players must aim actively.
Why is the aim assist so controversial? The aim assist is an aiming aid that is only available to controller players. It automatically pulls the crosshair slightly in the direction of an opponent, making aiming with controllers considerably easier.
For controller players, the system is almost indispensable. For many mouse and keyboard players, however, it is a red rag, as they often feel the assistance is too strong, claiming it gives an unfair advantage that negates skill.
Treyarch wants to close the gap between players
In a YouTube video, Treyarch developer Matt Scronce explains the adjustments the team made after the beta of Black Ops 7. They have evaluated the gameplay data and now want to specifically address the strength of the aim assist.
Here are the concrete changes to the aim assist: Scronce explains that the data showed that controller players win melee fights slightly more often, while mouse-and-keyboard players have a slight advantage at long distances. The goal of the adjustments is to close this gap between players.
To do this, they are primarily scrutinizing the rotating aim assist. This is the part of the aim assist that slightly moves the crosshair when opponents are in motion. In the future, the right stick will need to be actively moved towards the target for the aim assist to engage.
Previously, it was sufficient to aim near an opponent. The aim assist would activate even without players actively aligning the crosshair on the target. This is now changing, and the aim assist will only engage when you actively move your crosshair toward the opponent.
This specifically means: It will no longer be enough to just aim near an opponent, but you must really aim actively.
What else will change? In addition to the changes to the aim assist, Treyarch is also refining other gameplay elements. In the beta, players had to equip the “Dexterity” perk to aim with their weapon while sliding, vaulting, and wall jumping. Treyarch wants to enable this without the perk, allowing for smoother movement. The perk itself will still exist, but will only speed up the process.
Other changes:
- The volume of footsteps in multiplayer will be slightly increased.
- Slide speed and slide distance will be reduced.
- The animations for climbing and pulling up will be revised, as they previously felt too sluggish.
- The perks themselves will also receive a rework – both in content and in their slot positions.
Many CoD professionals are accustomed to playing with a controller. In Call of Duty, most professional players rely on controllers as the strong aim assist facilitates precise aiming. In other shooters that do not feature aim assist, players must aim completely independently with a controller. And this often leads to surprising results: A professional who has over 8,000 hours in Call of Duty tried another shooter and showed that he actually cannot aim at all.
