For Christmas, among many other banger gifts, my partner got me a gift card for SCUF, a high-end, competition-centric third-party controller manufacturer. Seeing as how fast I manage to devour over-the-counter PlayStation controllers, I was pretty excited to see what the high-end market would produce. These things start at more than twice the price of a first-party PS4 controller, which means they should also do my taxes and comb my hair, right?
The bad news is that my new controller neither does my taxes nor combs my hair.
The good news, however, is that it feels like an incredibly solid, well-made controller with a couple of really snazzy features that I just had to gush about. If you’re already familiar with SCUF’s offerings then this will probably only be a refresher for you, but if you aren’t, then buckle up, bucko, because we’re going for a ride.
One of the standout features is that you can design either a PlayStation/PC controller or an Xbox/PC controller — SCUF isn’t exclusively in the PlayStation business. Of course, I went with the PlayStation/PC model, as I do a majority of my gaming on my PS4 Pro and the rest on my PC. At this point, my Xbox One is just collecting dust.
You can customize pretty much every feature of the controller, from the color of the shell (both font and back) to the color and style of the buttons and analog sticks. You can also choose between different styles and colors for the D-Pad. There are options for rear paddles that allow you to add two additional buttons, as well as an addon that allows you to program these buttons instead of just relying on the default setting, which, depending on the game, could be a mirror of any of the face, trigger, or L3/R3 buttons.
I found the programmable paddles to be a big help in games like Cyberpunk 2077 or Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, which map the sprint button to L3. I think it can be cumbersome to click L3 to sprint while simultaneously using the left analog stick to move your character, so adding this to one of the rear paddles frees me from this annoyance and, I would hope, helps uphold the integrity of my analog sticks.
An available feature that I didn’t feel necessary is that you can have more pressure-sensitive hair triggers and even larger trigger buttons for more competitive twitch-style shooters. Those sorts of games aren’t really my speed, but I can only imagine that this might be beneficial for people who are into those types of games.
The one feature that I really like — which is almost a selling point in and of itself — is the ability to remove and replace the analog sticks. Seeing as how those are usually the first thing to give out for me on controllers, it’s great to not have to shell out for a brand new controller simply because the rubber on the analog sticks has worn down. SCUF also offers analog sticks of differing heights, in case you need longer or shorter stems than what you’d find on first-party controllers.
So was it worth paying almost three times as much as the cost of a basic first-party controller? I feel like… kind of yes, pretty much maybe? Only time will tell, I suppose.
But I will say this much: The anodized silver buttons, D-Pad, and triggers on that army green shell with the black rubberized back grips? All of that looks friggin’ awesome, and it feels even awesome-er.
