Why do people want it to be worse? It’s not overpowered.
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Halo Infinite’s aim assist debate continues to rage, with many now claiming the mechanic is “busted” after one fan outlined the gap in performance between high-level players on controller and those on mouse-and-keyboard.
The not-so-surprise early release of Halo Infinite’s multiplayer offering was met with near-universal praise — and, for many, outpaced competitors CoD Vanguard and Battlefield 2042 as the top FPS release of the 2021 holiday season.
Despite an exciting debut, the title hasn’t been without its issues. As players continue to slam developer 343 Industries over the game’s battle pass system and in-game cash shop, another issue has also reared its head: the never-ending aim assist debate.
With personalities like Dr Disrespect already calling out Infinite’s aim assist, the player base was shocked by the revelation that the top 100 controller players (per their stats recorded by Halo Tracker) far outpaced their counterparts on KBM when it comes to accuracy.
On November 27, Halo Infinite fan ‘u/Alfphie’ shared his research into the accuracy stats for the top 100 controller and top 100 mouse-and-keyboard players — and fans on Reddit were dumbfounded by the apparent gap in performance between the two groups.
“I went through Halo Tracker and gathered accuracy stats for [the] top 100 players in the KBM/Controller-only playlists,” Alfphie explained. “[The] differences in median accuracy [were] 16.4% between [the] top 100 KBM/Controller players,” they shared.
Then, Alphie revealed what many found to be the most shocking stats of all: “Interestingly, there was only a 3.1% difference between the top 100 KBM and 50th percentile Controller players. The highest accuracy KBM player was about level with a median Top 100 Controller player.”
For many fans, this was a clear indication that aim assist in Halo Infinite had been over-tuned. “This is actually a staggering difference,” one player replied, with others slamming the developer over this news: “What a joke.”
“This graph really gives some credence to my position of being staunchly opposed to being forced to play versus [players with] aim assist,” another fan commented. “It’s bad in the MCC and it’s bad in Infinite.”
“So, it’s not just me that sucks with aiming in this game with a KBM?” a third player remarked sarcastically.
It remains to be seen whether 343i will tweak Halo Infinite’s aim assist values moving forward, but for many players, these stats seem to be the turning point when it comes to the debate about shared input playlists — and the strongest reason yet to call for their separation.
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With “every pro” at the highest level using a controller, no different from previous Halo titles, the developers simply “can’t nerf aim assist,” Snip3down explained.
“[343 Industries] knew that there weren’t going to be any mouse and keyboard pros,” he said during a recent Twitch stream. “But they did what they needed to do and they made it so mouse and keyboard has its own playlist to keep them entertained and involved.”
Without these separate matchmaking pools, he claims the top mouse and keyboard players would “want to quit” due to being “dominated by controller players all the time.”
If the developers were to implement a hefty nerf, the exact opposite would occur, according to the Halo star.
“You can’t nerf aim assist hard because it will make all the average and below-average players suck to the point where they don’t want to play. They are the majority of your player base, so nothing is going to happen.”
Not only would an aim assist nerf have a drastic impact on the casual player base, but with the pro season already underway, its ripple effect could drive the top competitors away.
Which is why there needs to be Kbm tourneys.
Simply giving them their own playlist isn’t gonna keep them entertained. Especially, with the way they implemented said playlist.
The fact you can’t queue up in a 4 man fireteam without being forced into crossplay is -Yoink-ing nuts.
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Many perspectives like to blame aim assist for controller players out-performing many good m/kb players, but there are other factors that they ignore. As the saying goes, “stats don’t lie but statisticians do.”
Other factors are differences in movement styles which compliment reticule position and also throw off opponents’ aiming, flick aiming with bullet spread specifically with BR, TTK requiring multiple shots in sequence, etc. Weapon to weapon, the differences can vary between m/kb and controller. When you decrease TTK, the benefit goes back to m/kb, too.
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M&K players got the message loud and clear: Play with a controller or GTFO. Guess which route they took?
I’ll give you a hint:
| Name | Current Players | 30-Day Avg. | 30-Day Gain | 30-Day % Gain | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Halo Infinite | Halo Infinite | 7,588 | 23,518.8 | -28,370.5 | -54.68% |
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“Is aim assist bad?” Is a loaded question.
Yes, it’s bad. It’s also not bad, because it makes controllers useful. But that in turn is bad because it gives controller players an advantage in certain types of engagements, which is bad in general due to the discrepancies it causes between the two most popular input types— controller and MNK.
And we’ve only lightly scratched the surface of the rabbit hole. Definitive answer though? There isn’t one.
The game handles like crap with a controller. Just split the damn player bases and make it actually usable.
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This is why you can’t tweak the Aim Assist and players like Snipedown are correct. These below average players would leave the game very quickly if you tweaked the aim assist down.
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Of course it’s not overpowered it doesn’t even work half the time. Doesn’t work when shields are broken, becomes 50% weaker when firing a weapon, doesn’t work when jumping, and doesn’t work after a melee.
343 literally made these design choices to “even” the playing field but it didn’t work. Why? because the vast majority of Halo players play controller and Halo from a fundamental design stand point is designed for controller and not M&KB
It’s also not like M&KB players don’t have an advantage anyway. They have an advantage with movement, technically an “advantage” at aiming , and have an advantage with input latency.
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Because rather than practice and learn to aim well they want the game to do it for them. They are alot of the same people that complain about “sweats” when they lose and actually think mouse is better on this game.
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Mice are harder to master than controller. It’s always been like that so I don’t see why you’re complaining.
Maybe you should practice what you preach and, well, practice. I surely wasn’t hand held through my venture into counter-strike.
Y’all are lucky that you even get bullet magnetism. But that’s neither here nor there. The problem is, 343 have done a piss poor job of keeping kbm entertained and engaged in the multiplayer experience.
Instead of holding separate leagues for each input, they mashed them together and just hoped for the best. It doesn’t feel good to know that you’re being cast aside. Halo is may be a controller game by heart, but it’s a game where everyone should feel welcome.
Crossplay stomps on that idea because both inputs weren’t designed to play against one another. Yet, the tourney organizers seem to not get this idea.
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huh? there is literally an accuracy skew that is bias to controller players. Ur making no sense mate. Even the top 100 kbm players struggle to keep up with the top 100 controller players. Mind u they are also veterans of halo.
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To respond to OP, Aim-Assist when playing a controller on PC is VERY different from Aim-Assist when playing on Xbox Console.
PC they turn Aim-Assist up to very high since you will be more likely to pair up with PC players that typically have the advantage of using M&K, which makes them masters at accuracy weapons and spin-around at speeds faster than controller players can.
Whereas Aim-Assist on Console is as it has always been in Halo : lightly-tugging your targeting reticle as a player passes by IF your weapon is in ideal range.
As a result, players on PC are more often plugging a controller into their PC Tower and getting to play with aim-assist that is pretty much how aim-assist works in Call-of Duty, which is borderline aimlock onto the guy’s head.
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That’s a population count, my guy. At least some stats from it.
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Idk man I’m playing on console and the aim assist is the weakest I’ve ever played. Literally feels like I’m playing splitgate
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What I mean is that Aim Assist in Halo Infinite functions like it did in every other Halo game.
It lightly tugs at your reticle if it is pointed at the enemy hitbox within a certain range, allowing you to move around and keep your reticle on target a bit more easily.
Unlike how Aim Assist is like in other games such as Call of Duty or Fallout 4, where just going ADS locks your aim on target center or target head.
Sure it might not be as strong as it was in previous titles. But then again, the joysticks of the modern Xbox Controllers compared to the classic joysticks of Xbox and Xbox 360 are different. They move more smoothly and with less resistance.
That and camera controls in more modern games have aim-acceleration and deadzone you can adjust. Classic Halo doesn’t do that.
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I know what you meant. I’m just complaining that it’s too weak. The whole having to adjust deadzone settings thing might have to do with it. Not sure why these games are implementing this now
Aftermarket controller support.
My afterglow controller and my Xbox Series X controller have different specs where it counts. And as for the Elite Controllers, I dunno about them and their joysticks.
Plus it might also be a way to prevent controllers with damaged joysticks from being tossed out. Adjust the deadzone on the camera joystick to be different than the movement joystick to fix an issue of a busted right joystick, and you end up solving a problem instead of tossing a controller and buying a new one.
Only issue ends up being is playing with the settings for literal hours and never finding one that feels right. I’d rather just buy a new control in that case instead of wasting my free time not enjoying the game partially because aiming is so messed up
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