Halo Infinite developer 343 Industries has officially acknowledged problems with aim assist. During the first weekend of Infinite’s second technical preview, many players experienced issues with tracking and aim assist while using a controller.
On September 29, Halo community director Brian Jarrard took to Twitter to address a commonly heard complaint in the latest beta regarding a lack of aim assist on controller. The post reads in part, “There are known issues in this pre-release build but this is an area the team is monitoring and will dig into once we have more data from this flight.” This should come as a relief to players who felt their inability to properly track was just indicative of their deteriorating gaming skills.
The post concludes with an assurance that 343 will have more to say at a later date. Jarrard clarifies in a subsequent reply, “Once it’s wrapped and we’ve all had time to process, we’ll put out a flight outcomes blog similar to last time to share the team’s perspectives on key feedback themes.” It’s likely 343 will have an update on aiming and aim assist improvements at this time, but the issue will probably persist for the duration of the second preview.
While aim assist is somewhat controversial in gaming circles, a small amount of tracking assistance is typically necessary to create parity with mouse-and-keyboard (MNK) accuracy. Thumbs are inherently less precise than wrists when making fine movements, and while some controller users are skilled enough to compensate, most controller users require a minimum amount of aim assist.
Even when not playing against MNK, a lack of aim assist often makes players feel there are inherent problems with sensitivity, player health, or weapon-damage output where no problems actually exist. Hopefully 343 resolves this issue in a way that helps players on controller without making aim assist overpowered.
Published: Sep 30, 2021 11:17 am