Marathon alpha players surprised by heavy aim assist on mouse and keyboard, and Shroud really hates it: 'PC players would rather improve their mechanics than have an assist'

The Marathon alpha has only been live a day, but the slowly expanding player pool has already ignited its first major discourse. It's an evergreen topic among FPS enjoyers, and a personal favorite to complain about until someone tells me to shut up: That's right, baby, we're talking about aim assist.

Marathon has aim assist for controllers, which is entirely normal for an FPS launching on PlayStation and Xbox. What's not so normal is that mouse and keyboard also gets aim assist, and it's extremely noticeable. In the alpha's settings it's called "Aim Magnetism," and it's on by default.

You would think there's nothing controversial about giving all platforms the same assist options, but you'd be hilariously underestimating PC gamers' strong opinions about skill expression and the sanctity of pure, unadulterated cursor movement. On the Marathon subreddit, alpha players are sounding off:

"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," wrote user Carmelo_v.

"Now that we have actually seen the aim assist being used in the closed alpha, let’s call it what it is: soft aimbot. This is absolutely insane to have in any serious MnK game and I think there’s no debate about it needing to be removed," added Luh3WAVE.

"Feels like garbage. I don’t think I’ve missed a shot the entire alpha so far," wrote user suffishes.

On one hand, it's nice to get a taste of the generous magnetism that's helped controller players perfectly aim-track me in Call of Duty thousands of times. How do you like it?! On the other hand, the current assist is so heavy-handed that I feel like I'm barely contributing to the fight once I ADS-snap to players' torsos. I'm with Shroud on this one:

"They need to just remove the mouse aim assist shit," the streamer said while playing the Marathon alpha yesterday. "I get that [Bungie] is trying to balance between PC and consoles for crossplay, but it's only going to ruin the PC part of the game… PC players would rather improve their mechanics than have an assist."

"Ruin" might overstate it, but aim magnetism is one reason I'm bored by the alpha so far. There's not much tension once bullets start flying, and it doesn't help that everything in Marathon moves so slowly. NPC robots just stand around waiting to get shot and, at least with basic gear, I don't have the mobility to react to an ambush. That means most fights begin and conclude with two squads standing still while shooting at each other (and rarely missing). It's FPS on autopilot.

Marathon MnK Aim Assist from r/Marathon

To be fair, aim assist is nothing new for Bungie games: These are all decisions designed around comfortable console play, which is understandably a priority for a Sony-owned studio. This isn't even its first mouse shooter with aim assist: Destiny 2 has aim magnetism and "bullet magnetism," which essentially makes near-miss shots hit the target, and there's some magnetism baked into the PC versions of Halo as well.

But Marathon represents new territory for Bungie. It's the studio's first exclusively PvP shooter, and it's an extraction shooter to boot, a genre dominated by the PC-only Escape From Tarkov. We take first-person shooting pretty seriously around these parts, and when assists encroach on our precision aiming instruments, it's not just pride talking: Aiming is the fun part of shooters, and you lose something huge when it's too easy.

The good news is Marathon's aim magnetism can be turned off, and according to gameplay director Andrew Witts, mouse aim assist is just something they're "trying out" in the alpha.

"It's something we're trying out as a lever to keep the parity close between mouse and keyboard and controller. We want to get it out and get a feeling for it right now. We don't think it's in the most perfect spot or anything," he said.

"We're not trying to have it be this must-pick kind of thing. So if folks feel differently when they play, we're looking to get that feedback and tune aggressively."

The Marathon alpha is live now and runs through Sunday, May 4.

Hands-on with Marathon: We played three hours
Marathon: Everything you need to know
Marathon proximity chat: Why it isn't happening
Marathon is a story engine: Bungie hopes dying won't feel punishing
Marathon animated short: Bungie hired an Oscar winner to make a pretty ad