John Larson, associate live balance designer for Apex Legends, has stated that Respawn Entertainment will “continue to evaluate” whether aim assist is currently too powerful in the battle royale.
Larson has shared his thoughts on the ongoing community debate surrounding M&K (mouse and keyboard) versus controller balancing in Apex Legends, which he calls “One of the spiciest topics in Apex“.
The balance designer opens by clarifying that “Across MMR, levels, rank, you name it, the difference in weapon performance is not nearly as great as some would believe. Pred [Predator rank] level controllers are not being out pred level MnK with Prowlers in close range at any sort of crazy rate”.
MOVEMENT TECH AND MOBILITY IN APEX
Read: https://t.co/IW7hy1bh3j
— John Larson | JayBiebs (@RSPN_JayBiebs) September 1, 2021
Outside of the data, however, Larson has taken note of “legitimate concerns” from professional Apex Legends players that users are feeling forced to switch inputs for an advantage and is currently meeting with CGE (competitive quality), weapons and analytics teams to see if this is currently the case.
Although Larson admits “perfect gameplay parity” is impossible while both inputs can play against each other, he identifies that aim assist is a feature that should improve accessibility without causing any issues with difficulty or imbalance and confirms that it’s “only prudent” for Respawn to “continue to evaluate whether or not aim assist is ‘too good’”.
The debate surrounding controller aim assist versus mouse and keyboard is not just restricted to Apex Legends, either. Earlier in the week (August 31), Warzone streamer JGOD called aim assist “broken” and claimed it makes it hard for players to commit to using a keyboard and mouse when it would take “years” to achieve the same result that aim assists allegedly gets.
In other news, New Zealanders aren’t happy with Call Of Duty: Vanguard for turning a national war hero Australian, claiming the decision is “at best, it’s ignorant; at work, it’s a giant middle finger to us all.”
The post Respawn is “evaluating” the power of aim assist in ‘Apex Legends’ appeared first on NME.
