Hands-on: The new Steam Controller shows promise for tinkerers

The Steam Controller hit shelves the same day as Fallout 4 and yet people are more curious than excited about the new device. When I first told people I had pre-ordered it, they seemed cautiously interested, much like a deer in the woods meeting a person. It was because of this interest that I decided to share my first-hand experience with the controller thus far.

Before deciding to buy the Steam Controller, I used an old trusty Xbox 360 controller that I had since the days of the old, fat, white 360 Arcades. To me, that was a controller perfectly shaped for my hands. The triggers felt great, the buttons were a perfect distance from each other. I almost never hit a button I didn’t intend to. But its time had come. Half the time, leaving the left stick in a neutral position made Mr./Mrs. Protagonist drift to the left. My controller was ready to retire. That was when I looked into new controllers and as a PC gamer with no consoles but a Wii U, I decided to give the Steam Controller a try. That’s when I did research and eventually pre-ordered.

Fast forward to release day, I went to my local Gamestop where I picked up my controller. I wasn’t able to go home right away to give it a try, so I had to carry the box around with me all day. At one point, I took the controller out of the box just to see how it felt in my hands. The ergonomics alone felt different, yet familiar. The attribute that a lot of non-first-party controllers get wrong is the weight. They’re usually too light, making the controller feel much like a toy as opposed to a tool. The Steam Controller however got this just right. It was a little lighter than the Xbox 360 controller, to relieve some wrist stress, but not enough to make it feel like it would fly away at a moment’s notice.

The next thing I noted was the button layout. This was hard to do without a computer in front of me, but I pulled the left and right triggers, which felt great, the bumpers had a nice click-y feeling without being too obnoxious, and the lone, left thumb stick was absolutely perfect. What I didn’t really like was the D-pad. It didn’t feel as good or fluid as other D-pads out there, in fact it’s the worst part of the controller. Something more akin to the Xbox 360 D-pad would have been more appropriate, even though most games don’t use it much today. However, I couldn’t test the biggest wonder/worry of mine, the weird track-pad/right stick, without a computer however. I had to do this when I got home. But before doing that, I let a few friends hold the un-powered, un-tested controller just to gauge their reactions. They all made faces of confusion as they held it, comfortable with their already set opinions on the controllers they had already used for years. Never-the-less, I still felt validated on my purchase of this new experiment.

Later that evening, I took the controller out of the box and took a closer look at it. I looked on the back and saw two buttons on what I would call the “palms” of the controller. You could hit them easily with the fingers that would other just rest on the controller, adding two more buttons to the already standard layout. The only real disappointing feature I noted before giving the controller a proper spin was the fact that it did not include a rechargeable internal battery like the Playstation consoles. This meant I would have to buy batteries, and I have not been able to properly test the longevity of batteries in this controller. However, it did come with a micro USB plug that goes from the computer to the controller, so a wired connection is available with a standard input, so not all was lost.

Moving on, I plugged the USB dongle into my computer, which acted as a receiver for the controller, and launched a game. I started with Witcher 3 on GOG Galaxy. It didn’t work. Some of the buttons worked the way they were intended to, but the thumb stick wouldn’t move me. Well, I did start with a game on GOG Galaxy the day that the controller was released, maybe I should have expected that.

To make a fairer assessment, I decided to test a game I thoroughly beat the tar out of previously: Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain on Steam, the proper client for which the controller was built. As I opened Steam, it informed me that I should launch in Big Picture Mode to get the full controller experience. I did that and into the game I went. Snake handled beautifully with the left stick. The buttons were matched identically to where they were on the Xbox 360 controller. Lastly I tried the right track pad/stick. Honestly, it started pretty clumsy on my part. I wasn’t used to it. It was quite precise, feeling like a mouse in a way, responding faster than I was used to for a controller. This seemed like a problem that could be fixed over time. The weirdest part is that I usually play with an inverted Y axis with controllers… somehow this controller broke me of this. I suppose I subconsciously thought of the pad as a track pad more than a control stick. There was tactile feedback for every movement made with the right stick, buzzing ever so slightly with each degree moved. This seemed to save the day in terms of making it feel more “real” as opposed to it feeling too detached.

Possibly the best feature of the controller is the community Support. In Big Picture Mode, players can press the Steam Button (Much like the Xbox or Playstation buttons) and a menu comes up where there is an option for controller settings. There were TONS of customizable settings that go far beyond button mapping. Stick sensitivity, Right track pad sensitivity, Track pad drag, whether or not holding on the edge of the pad would cause the camera to coast or to stop in that position and countless more. This was when I realized who this controller was for: Tinkerers. Some people want to just plug in and play, while others want to customize every detail. The PC is honestly the best market for this controller, as PC players tend to prefer options more than anything else.

For those who aren’t tinkerers, or something between casual and an architect, there are easily accessed set-ups from the Steam community within this same menu. They’re even listed in order of popularity and have descriptions on what they change. Simply clicking one sets your controller to that set up, ready to be tested. It could have easily been a mess, having everybody forced to create their own layout, but Steam did what it seems to do pretty well; it created a community. This community just happens to love controller layouts.

Overall, the controller is different and new. It will take some time to get used to. I can’t say I would play Call of Duty with it quite yet, but the controls don’t seem to lack precision, it’s just a matter of the player getting used to a new environment.