The Finals may be a new game on the market following its surprise release during The Game Awards, but the conversations surrounding the game are anything but. The developers, Embark Studios, have already taken aim at skill-based matchmaking as well as a surge in cheaters that coincided with the game’s rising popularity, and now players are asking the creators of The Finals to take a look at input-based matchmaking and aim assist next. Both of those are common sources of heated discussions when it comes to competitive games like The Finals, though unfortunately for players who are now passionate about this game, it’s unlikely a perfect solution for the situation will be found.
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Discussions about aim assist and the advantages of using a controller over mouse and keyboard and vice versa have been raging in the subreddit for The Finals as well as in the game’s Discord server. In the former, there are posts after posts addressing the topic where people point out that the aim assist in the game is admittedly a bit egregious at times. The clip below showing a controller user’s ability to snap right to an enemy’s head with a rifle is one that even die-hard controller defenders may have a hard time sticking up for.
Aim Assist in The Finals
Redditor awhaling shared the clip above showing what this snap-like aim assist looked like when practicing for a match in The Finals. Of course, it’s unlikely that you’d see someone standing so still in a match unless they were interacting with the Cashout box, so these sorts of results wouldn’t be typical, but another clip showing a very different scenario where someone used the double-barrel shotgun from the Light class shows a bit of a more realistic interaction where the weapon can quickly lock onto people close by.
Those posts are largely saying “Hey, this might be something worth looking at,” which is a totally reasonable stance to take on the matter. Some of the other posts, however, are less practical. Some players are advocating for input-based matchmaking which could work in theory since it’s been toyed around with over time in other games, but in any game where that happens, you immediately split your player base which leads to longer queue times and a different source of frustrations. Then there are those who say that aim assist should be removed altogether which will of course never happen in a game like this.
So, what’s the solution then? Games like Apex Legends have long grappled with aim assist debates, and it’s accurate to say that in that scene at least, many pros have gravitated towards controllers now while embracing the strength of aim assist. After a relatively quiet launch as far as communications go, Embark Studios has started ramping up its interactions with the community through more frequent posts in the game’s Discord and on other socials, so if there’s something to be said about aim assist and input-based matchmaking, we’ll likely hear about it after the holidays.
