Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is not making drastic changes, but one important issue that is being talked about is that of rotational aim assist. Did you ask the developers to reduce that feature’s effect? Or were they the ones who decided to do it? In fact, the responses vary to such an extent that it is very hard to arrive at any kind of conclusion concerning the issue.
The news about it leaked out via a tweet that said “Black Ops 7 nerfs rotational aim assist”, and the community was divided instantly into five separate groups. While some players are celebrating, others are becoming worried, and still, many are just pondering what will this mean for their gameplay.
By the way, to get on the same page with everyone, rotational aim assist (RAA) is a kind of invisible support that keeps your crosshairs on a moving target. An exception to that is happening in Black Ops 7 – this kind of aim support is only available if you are using the right stick to aim. Before, RAA could be activated by moving with the left stick, which is called strafing. The status is now changed that you have to be tracking movement with the right stick for it to be effective.
The including the reactions of RAA have been very varied. One player ZionMunson1k was quite casual about everything and wrote, “Bro all it is, is that you gotta use your right stick ( like most people do anyways ) for RAA to kick in , which how it should have been all along 🤣”. Thus, the majority of gamers consider this to be just the way things should have been all along. It forces players to aim accurately, no room for error.
However, there are also gamers like ThatBoomer who do not agree with the above viewpoint. According to them, “Nothing will change in this regard since it will be across consoles, Most people enjoyed the ease of CoD’s aim assist and now it’s nearly gone”. This indicates a bigger issue – that the classic, accommodating Call of Duty experience is being altered to the detriment of the customer. He even predicted “a huge loss in player base” to be the direct consequence of that.
And of course, right away the long-standing debate about the use of controller versus mouse-and-keyboard was reignited. A user by the name of Daniel stated flatly, “MnK players just got a little bit aroused after reading that”. It is no wonder that many PC gamers have been claiming that the presence of aim assist gives a controller user an unfair advantage, especially in close-range fights. This move seems to be a direct response to that perceived imbalance.
But is it really a nerf? Another player, Hex, thought about the situation and remarked, “this sounds more like a slight buff than a nerf”. This is the point where things get a little tricky. Other sources say that the aim assist might be stronger at longer distances now. A scenario is being created where easy, passive assistance is withdrawn up close but you may be given more precision for long shots. What is happening is a rebalancing, not just a straight-up weakening.
The conversation even went to the bizarre realm of… cheat devices? A user called OwnageTheGawd made this remark: “nerf it all you want this zen gonna bring it back”. The Zen, which is synonymous with a device that allows players to have the strongest possible aim assist or any other cheat, is the one referred to by Ownage. So his claim is that regardless of the situation, the cheaters will always find a way around it as long as they are smart enough to offset the official settings.
There is also a faction that believes that Activision is sabotaging their interests. One player, going by the name of OnedayillDi3, commented, “It will change back as soon as the game is out. It’s probably all talk”. It is quite common to think that the announcements of pre-releases are merely for marketing purposes and that nothing will actually change after the game is released and the players’ reception is noisy.
Some of the more perceptive comments have been analyzing the actual gameplay implications. The user Owen put it nicely, saying that with the old left-stick RAA you were allowed to get help everywhere while you were able to strafe. Now the right-stick RAA “requires you to really track and follow the enemy rather than just deciding on stick movement.” Therefore, it raises the skill ceiling. It is no longer enough to just move to the right place and get your aim on point; you have to really guide the crosshair.
Memes come next. The user iam_illogical quite simply put it this way: “Mfs that can’t aim boutta get exposed”. This is probably correct. Players who relied heavily on the game’s aim assist will now have a harder time to be as successful as PlayStation and Xbox players.
