How does one review a game that isn’t really a game, but more of a training exercise? This question has been on my mind a lot after I agreed to take a look at Aimlabs, a tool that is designed to turn the player into some kind of FPS pro by application of various training programmes.
It’s been put together by those at State Space Labs, and having been apparently “trusted by 40 million players on PC”, it is finally our turn. But is the world of Xbox ready for this? Am I? Will I be able to find enough words to describe this utility to satisfy the editor?
These and other questions may well be answered in the course of this review!
My normal approach to reviews won’t work here, clearly. There will be no paragraphs about the narrative of this title, and neither is the presentation anything to write home about. Yet never fear, dear reader, I will find something to chat about. Starting with the way the “game” is presented – I think fairly basic but entirely functional, pretty much covers it.
When you first start Aimlabs, you are asked about the game you are trying to get better at. Sadly, in my case, there isn’t an option for “all of them!”, instead leaving us with Call Of Duty Modern Warfare III, Apex Legends, Rainbow Six: Siege, Fortnite and a more generic option focusing on flicking, switching and the like, just in case you don’t play any of those listed…
After selecting the game that you wish to get better at, you are taken straight into specific training sequences, and the training begins. This normally starts with a couple of videos to watch, while someone talks to you about the skills you are about to acquire. After watching said videos, we are then tasked with repeating what we have seen, in a live fire exercise.
Now, it’s about at this point with which I have to talk about the interface for Aimlabs, and here the port is not great, to be honest. One of my biggest complaints about PC to console ports is how they deal with the whole “mouse pointer” thing, and here it is exactly that – a pointer that you have to control with the left stick. This feels clunky, and it also moves incredibly slowly. You don’t need me to tell you that is a bit of a shame.
The first set of videos covers something called “flicking” which is a way of quickly adjusting your aim to flick from target to target – hence the name. We have to partake in a couple of exercises to pass this module, first with stationary balls, and then with balls that move about. As you will no doubt be unsurprised to learn, shooting still targets is a lot easier then ones that are zooming about the screen. However, following the example shown in the training videos, I was able to replicate results – my aim percentage increased from 59.7% on the first attempt all the way up to 74.6% in subsequent attempts, so it does actually work.
Now, obviously, flicking is only the start of the journey, and Aimlabs will then go to teach and test you about tracking, where a target moves and you have to stay focussed on it while shooting. This apparently replicates what happens when you are going one-on-one in these games – the other player will duck, dive and jump in an attempt to stay alive, and you need to be able to adjust your aim accordingly. One thing I found odd in all these exercises is that the guns we are given to train with have infinite ammo. Not reloading doesn’t feel right, somehow, and obviously in the games we are training for, you’d have to refill the magazine, so why not replicate that in the training?
Anyway, once you have mastered flicking and tracking, lastly we have to master switching – where we have to switch between targets to keep shooting. Again, the exercises are tricky and do stretch you to try and improve.
It’s good then that the results screen at the end of each training module is full of useful information, and digesting this properly before trying again will help you up your percentage. My results basically said “git gud, scrub”, so I tried my best! I have seen an improvement in my scores on the tests, but whether that all translates into more kills online is a subject for another day. It’s just a shame that there is no setting for Destiny or Gears, but I do feel the general aim improvements should help.
Aimlabs is a very difficult game to score, mainly because it’s not really a ‘game’ and nothing else like it exists on the Xbox. If you want to get better at shooting, the exercises will help, as will the ping of achievements, something that Aimlabs is quite generous with. But this is far from something that you will fire up just for the heck of it.
It’s good that Aimlabs is free to play, but in order to get the most out of it you’ll have to decide as to whether you want entertainment or an education.
