Marathon's aim-assist on PC is annoying closed alpha players
Marathon’s closed alpha kicked off April 23 and will go on till May 4. It is an upcoming extraction shooter by Bungie that aims to carve a space in a genre dominated by games like Escape from Tarkov, Hunt: Showdown, Delta Force, and the likes. However, a lot of gamers, including pro players, who jumped in to try the game are annoyed by the inclusion of aim-assist on keyboard and mouse. Some even stated that they will not play the game till the ‘feature’ has been removed.
Bungie seems to be getting some kickback for its extraction shooter which is meant to release on PC and consoles. With the idea of assisting PC players against console players who have aim assist, Marathon has a setting called Aim Magnetism, and it’s turned on by default. The implementation seems to be quite heavy and jarring for some players, to the point where they don’t want to play the game anymore.
Shroud, a popular figure in the gaming space, tried the game on PC and had a similar disappointment with the aim assist mechanics (via PCGamer). He stated that while he understands that Bungie is trying to balance between consoles and PCs for crossplay, PC players would rather just improve their mechanics to go against console players, rather than have a system like aim assist.
On the dedicated Marathon subreddit, a “Aim Assist on Mouse and Keyboard” thread has gamers expressing their disappointment with the mechanic. “As someone who plays games like Counter-Strike, I will not be playing this game come launch unless MnK aim assistance is removed and controller players' aim assistance isn't egregious,” a user shared.
Another user wrote, “And just now when I tried it out, it's even worse than I expected. It's not just friction/slowdown. It genuinely pulls your crosshair as you strafe with no input. It's rotational aim assist. On mouse. What the f***. Alt F4-d.”
While this feature can be turned off, it would give PC players who choose to leave it on a significant advantage over those who don’t. This would make the game unfair for those relying purely on their reflexes and skills.
