The latest update to competitive FPS The Finals tackles a long-criticised feature: controller aim assist. A first.
It’s one of the most popular multiplayer FPS games around, and it’s free: The Finals has attracted no less than 10 million players since its official launch on December 7. And this is just the beginning for Embark Studios, made up of former DICE developers (Battlefield) and EA: updates follow one another in line with player feedback.
And obviously, the studio now has its sights set on a very controversial feature of PC shooters: aim assist on controller (or aim assist). The latest update of the game reshuffles the cards for controller players.
The Finals reduces the impact of aim assist
In multiplayer FPS, and in particular cross-platform titles between PC and consoles, players with a controller are confronted with players with keyboard and mouse. To counter this imbalance, controller players have long been able to enable aim assist, which, as the name suggests, helps players place their sights on the enemy to a certain degree.
But certain settings often seem to favor controller players, notably with automatic rotation or aim snapping parameters, viewfinder behavior which could be similar to automatic aiming. The rumble has been felt since the launch of the game and the latest update 1.4.1 seems to meet players’ expectations and even beyond:
- The angular speed of Zoom Snapping is now capped, preventing rapid and unintentional 90-degree turns.
- Camera magnetism will be reduced from 50% to 35%, making the player’s aim less sticky and decreasing controller accuracy.
- Zoom Snapping time will be reduced from 0.3 to 0.25 seconds.
- The “Zoom Snapping” feature will be removed for the SR-84 Sniper Rifle, Revolver, LH1, and all Shotguns, as it buffs them more than other weapons.
- Aim assist will ignore invisible players, which fixes an existing system bug.
- Customers using key remapping programs on PC will not have access to aim assist.
Aiming assistance should therefore return to an acceptable level while prohibiting another criticized practice of this type of game: controller spoofing. With these programs (notably reWASD), some players can actually make the game believe that they are using a controller when in reality they are playing with keyboard and mouse, thus enjoying the best of both worlds.
Call of Duty players want a similar update
Obviously, the players of Call of Duty want the same thing for Warzone. In a Reddit post published over the weekend, shortly after the announcement of The Finalsplayers are demanding the implementation of such an update in Activision’s free-to-play.
To compare the two titles: The Finals just reduced camera snap to 35% while Call of Duty setting is at 60%. And if you thought that turning off crossplay was enough to protect yourself from playing against such opponents, that’s not the case, as many PC gamers play on a controller instead of the keyboard/mouse combo.
But just like The Finals, Call of Duty is also plagued by many players exploiting controller spoofing programs like reWASD, making it the perfect cheat solution. Note that this use does not seem to have been planned by the developers of the program, which also helps many players with disabilities. Here it is in action:
Knowing that The Finals is the first game to take concrete measures against these misuses, and frankly detrimental to the health of the game, we would like other studios to take inspiration from it too. Follow our gaze.