The Finals makes it a month after release, what CoD fans have been waiting for years

In modern shooters, there will always be certain aspects that players do not like. The Finals has now weakened such a controversial feature after criticism from some players.

Which feature is it? The aim assist. Embark Studios released patch 1.4.1 on January 11, making a deterioration in aim assist.

For example, the magnetic effect that pulls a player’s crosshair toward the opponent has been reduced from 50% to 35%.

What is aim assist? Aim assist is an aiming aid that can only be used by controller players and is supposed to help the player aim with the sticks of the controller. The player’s crosshair is automatically pulled in the direction of an opponent.

Aim assist is intended to compensate for aiming with a mouse, where players can be more precise by using their entire arm than controller players can be with their thumbs.

Also, part of the CoD community has been wishing for years for a deterioration of aim assist – especially among “mouse and keyboard” players.

Players believe that aim assist is too strong. Especially in the past weeks and months, the topic has come up repeatedly (via Reddit). Recently, a clip even circulated in which the aim assist targeted a player who was in a house – behind a wall.

In The Finals you can live out your destruction rage – Trailer for the Open Beta

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What other changes did The Finals make to aim assist? In addition to the reduction of the magnetic effect, Embark Studios made further changes to the aim assist in The Finals.

Here you can see an overview:

The zoom snapping¹ time is reduced from 0.3 seconds to 0.25 seconds.
Players using programs on PC to remap buttons should not have access to aim assist.
Aim assist will now ignore invisible players, fixing a bug in the existing system.
The zoom snapping rotation speed now has a cap to prevent unintentional quick 90-degree turns.
The zoom snapping is removed from the SR-84 sniper rifle, the revolver, the LH1, and all shotguns, as it buffs these weapons more than others.

The Finals receives praise for the change – except from controller players

How do players react to the change? On social media, there are some players, especially controller users, who do not like the change. For instance, the user Fadeaway2000 writes on X.com: “Uninstalled. There are other games. I need aim assist to compete against PC players.”

On the other hand, there are users like Vadasz, who writes on X.com: “Any first-person shooter that has issues with aim assist should take this direction! You made me a fan of this game for life!”

But the aim assist nerf is also being noticed in other gaming communities.

In the CoD Warzone Subreddit, it’s written: “If I were a ‘mouse and keyboard’ player, I would switch to The Finals. Get the CoD developers’ attention through player numbers.”

Respawn and Apex Legends were also mentioned on Reddit when the aim assist nerf of The Finals came up: “Embark has just done what Respawn has failed to do for more than 4 years, and that in less than a year.”

Even in the esports of games like CoD, Apex Legends, and Halo, many play with a controller because the aim assist is so strong that a good controller player can outperform a good “mouse and keyboard” player.

However, playing with a controller can also quickly affect health, according to a former CoD pro, as games like CoD and Apex Legends require many inputs due to their demanding movement: Ex-pro explains why streamers are quitting CoD Warzone – The risk of injury is too great