The Steam Controller is up for pre-orders and coming to stores next month. So we have a look at what it has to offer and how it will affect PC gaming.
Visual Trickery
First let us talk about the appearance of the controller. The controller looks like a commander of all the Xbox controllers out there- crude, simple, sort of traditional and authoritative. It looks a bit absurd considering the fact that only one analog stick is sticking out of its of face and the Haptic interface has recently been a target for many memes. The controller is broad and fits well in the hands. The ABXY buttons have directly been taken from the Xbox controller but their position is not the same as can be seen in the picture above. The Haptic D-Pad does not look modern, but let’s not get deceived by looks. The center of the controller is occupied with the Start, Select and the Steam jewel. The triggers have a new twist to them as the generally bigger LT & RT are smaller than the RB & LB. Many of you might be thinking that it will be a problem but don’t worry, the angle of the triggers is such that there will not be much difference. As for the back of the controller, it has two grips which seem like the upcoming Xbox Elite controller, the only difference being that it’s much more easy to use.
Hands-On
Coming to the usability of the controller, we’d say that though it is weird, it has it’s own charm and benefits. The controller has a new layout from what we have been using for the last generations of consoles and hence will take some time in getting used to. The ABXY setup has been a problem with those who are testing it because, you always have to remove your thumb from the haptic pad and your thumb may press a button you did not initially want it to. This can be especially annoying when playing games like Batman and Dark Souls in which the attack buttons are the ABXY. As for shooter games, it is an ideal controller and we feel that it’d do much better than the Xbox and PS controllers. The touch pad is like controlling a mouse on a small mouse-pad and feels much better than an analog stick for aiming and the bottom grip is used for precise aiming which helps a lot. But there is the problem that those who are accustomed to lower aiming sensitivity might face difficulties in navigating because of the small area of the touch pad. The best thing about the controller is its high customizability. Every game’s controls can be changed or control layouts can be downloaded from the steam page of the game. The community can upload control schemes for any game—control schemes that can be voted on by the rest of the game’s players. So now you are not limited by the controller’s rigidity and can put your controls wherever you want.
The main question arises here “Is it worth Pre-ordering?”. Well, to that we can’t give an appropriate reply, but we can say for sure that it’ll be a new experience and will certainly not disappoint since it’s coming from Valve.
We’ll have a review on the controller as soon as we get hands on it in November. Till then stay tuned for more news. Let us know in the comments below what you think about the controller and its pros and cons. Adios.