When it comes to custom game controllers, Scuf pretty much has this on lock. They’ve been around for a very long time now, and are a preferred choice to profesional gamers out there. Their latest offering, the Scuf Gaming Impact, mimics that of the PS4 Dual Shock 4 controller, but has seemingly improved upon Sony’s design in every way. Including the colour palletes.
The Scuf Gaming Impact PS4 controller is not short of design choices. The cheaper options lean more towards your solid colours like blue, green, yellow, pink and chocolate. But if you go up to their Signature range or even the Designer range, you can find some pretty interesting offerings like a cheetah pattern, an army camoflague pattern with overlayed honeycomb design, a pink nebula, or neon dragon scales. I was given a yellow Japanese style controller with blue almost 80s landscape grid pattern at the bottom. It looks extremely funky. Although I can’t find my design on the Scuf website.
The most notable section that has had an overhaul is the rear. The handles are covered in a rubber like grip texture to make it a little easier to hold. Round the back, you’ll also notice the inclusion of paddles, which can be assigned to in-game actions, and are there so gamers don’t have to remove their thumbs from the thumbsticks, and by default, take on actions that you’d generally find on X, O, Triangle and Square. There’s also a custom remappable button that attaches to your controller using magnets. It’s a bizzare feature, but could be welcome if you needed more than four paddles on the back. The paddles cam be removed by the way if you’re not using them all and want to avoid misclicks.
Overall though, the controller is a little bigger than Sony’s official offering, and wider too. The thumbsticks are still in the centre, which personally, I’m not much of a fan, and prefer the layout of the Xbox One controllers, but having that slightly wider berth, the Scuf Gaming Impact feels a lot more natural to hold.
Another change Scuf Gaming have implimented is the adjustable trigger control system. It reduces the amount of travel distance needed to perform an action in-game, and these can be adjusted on the fly too. The blocker is a plastic semi-circle and can be twisted around to three different positions. Flat side down, curved side down or on its side completely, which will offer the least travel distance.
In Call of Duty Modern Warfare for example, I prefer a lower travel distance, where as if I was playing Forza Horizon 4, a full travel distance is needed as you need to be more accurate with the amount of throttle or breaking pressure.
Overall though, buttons feel great, the whole controller feels like it’s been constructed very well and the triggers are well positioned to get my pinky and third finger hovering over them ready to be pressed. The controller starts at £119.99 depending on your design and features, which is double the price or more of the Dual Shock 4 controller, but it’s definitely worth it.
