Marathon, Bungie’s new extraction shooter, has already made a significant change in response to player feedback. The studio has decided to remove the controversial aim assist feature for mouse and keyboard users on PC. This move comes after a wave of criticism from the community, who felt this feature gave console players an unfair advantage and made aiming feel artificial.
The game is currently in its Closed Alpha phase, with limited access granted to thousands of players while many more watch streams online. Despite the excitement around Bungie’s fresh FPS project, some core gameplay elements have sparked debate, prompting some voices within the community to call for a delay so that improvements can be made.
Marathon Devs Pull Aim Assist From PC
The developers confirmed in their upcoming Week 2 patch notes for the Closed Alpha that “mouse magnetism” (a term used internally to describe aim assist) will be completely removed, along with all options allowing PC players to toggle it on or off.
— Marathon (@MarathonTheGame) April 29, 2025
This change aims at creating a level playing field where mouse input relies solely on player skill without artificially nudging crosshairs towards targets. No more “magnetized” shots helping land hits you wouldn’t usually get otherwise.
This update closely follows comments from popular streamer Shroud, who criticized Bungie for favoring console players with aim assist settings that left mouse and keyboard users feeling disadvantaged. He went as far as saying, “Mouse and keyboard players feel like sh.” It’s clear Bungie took these concerns seriously and acted quickly to address them.
Marathon Closed Alpha Week 2 Patch Notes
The removal of PC aim assist isn’t the only tweak arriving soon. Here are the official patch notes for version 0.5.0.2:
User Interface and Experience
- Fixed an issue where players’ Bungie IDs were not showing correctly in player tooltips.
Combat
Runners
- Runner’s base health has been increased from 100 hp to 120 hp.
- Shield hp has been decreased by the following amounts:
- Standard (Grey) – Reducing from 25 hp to 20 hp.
- Enhanced (Green) – Reducing from 50 hp to 40 hp.
- Deluxe (Blue) – Reducing from 75 hp to 60 hp.
- Superior (Purple) – Reducing from 100 hp to 80 hp.
- Prestige (Gold) – Reducing from 100 hp to 80 hp.
Weapons
- Removed mouse magnetism and aim assist on PC and disabled the setting to toggle it on and off.
Long Shot
- Increased Longshot sniper damage by 11%.
Overrun AR
- Increased damage by 10%.
Stability
- Fixed an issue causing crashes when using certain GPU hardware configurations.
- Fixed an issue where players pressing the sprint key while in ADS could cause a crash.
- Fixed issues that could cause dedicated servers to crash.
The decision shows Bungie’s willingness to listen when parts of their game don’t sit well with fans early on, which might help build trust during development moving forward. Marathon now feels closer aligned with traditional FPS gameplay standards on PC: your skill with aiming matters first above all else!
