So, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is available on the market right now and the most disputable topic this week would definitely be the aim assist attached to it. Or, to say it differently, it is the absence of that feature which has ignited the controversy. The developers made a significant shift in the rotational aim assist, and trust me controller players are feeling it… really feeling it. The modification is so significant that various players are terming it as a nerfing, while the grapevine has it that this particular change will soon be applied to Warzone later this year. So, if you are a Warzone player who relies on the sticky aim, better be up to date.
So, what was the update? The most major change was the rotational aim assist, which is the amazing power that helps your crosshair stay on a moving enemy. It’s like having a complete guide hand in your shots. But in Black Ops 7, that hand looks like it’s on a holiday. Gamers are recognizing that the “stickiness” is significantly less, especially at longer distances. One gamer, ‘raj’ was pretty straight-forward in saying that the aim assist feels either fully on or completely off with no gradual transition in between. He also pointed out that it is much much weaker than in the past Call of Duty titles even beyond the 10m mark. This leads to a difficulty in tracking enemies because it is not clear when and where the assist will stop or start. It is like driving a car with an intermittent power steering which cuts off-you will be all over the road.
How about the responses from the community? This is again a totally mixed bag, as usual. A group of players are having a really hard time and starting to lose interest. Player ‘xezthetix’ put it succinctly by stating “It is impossible to shoot that close with controller.” Others such as ‘IRONxADDICT’ also report shared experiences and he states that the change is one of the reasons he has been seeing so many players in his lobbies just aimlessly moving around “like they have no idea how to aim,” and he is even wondering if he just happened to be in bot-filled matches. The skill floor seems to have been raised to a great extent and some light-hearted players are being exposed without that powerful aim assist crutch.
However, on the opposite side of the argument, some of the players are saying, “Oh, come on, it is not that bad.” User ‘Lucky_-1y’ commented on the news saying, “The Aim Assist change isn’t as crazy as people are making it surface to be honestly.” And ‘Squatch’ shared that view calling it a change but “not by much,” mentioning that the stickiness is lower but you still possess “pretty good aim assist.” So it is not a total removal but rather a reduction. For some, it is a welcome alteration that widens the skill gap. A user ‘WafflezHR’ got into a lengthy online debate over it, practically claiming that this just divides the good players from the great ones, asking another user if they were “upset that the skill gap has become larger.”
This whole scenario inevitably brings back the never-ending pc vs console war. The aim assist debate is never just about aim assist; it is really about the balance between mouse and keyboard and controller. ‘S13mopar’ came up with a comparison stating that it is also never fair between PC and console and that using a controller on PC is “like putting a cork in the bat at a homerun derby.” He mentioned problems such as input lag and lower FPS on consoles as inherent disadvantages. But ‘WafflezHR’ retorted by saying that blaming your console is “just an excuse,” and he noted that he has a high-end PC and his friend on PS5 is also a highly ranked player. It is the classic debate: is aim assist too strong to make the controller OP, or is it a necessary tool to eliminate the advantage of mouse precision? Black Ops 7 seems to be going to the latter side, making life harder for the controllers.
The whole topic even lingered over the game doing things right and wrong. A user known as ‘Reticle Ronin’ made a pretty solid list. He on the “Right” side praised shared progression, various PvE modes, gunplay, movement and campaign boss fights. But the very first issue on the “Wrong” list? You guessed it: “Nerfed Aim assist (especially with Omni movement).” Therefore it is evident that for a big part of the player community this is the one and only major problem with the game at present.
What’s the future going to be like as a result of all this? If the same goal of aids philosophy is implemented in Warzone, the game’s going to witness a great deal of changes.
