I bought this when it was on sale for $35 almost 2 years ago. It broke, so I figured I'd review it.

I'm going to write this from the perspective of someone who has tried to use it to play fighting games and twin stick shooters. I will first talk about the way it plays games, then the way it feels, then I will talk about a notable Engineering flaw.

The Steam controller is a little bit weird to people who are used to other controllers. It's asymmetric, which is strange to someone who came in from having used Playstation's DSX/3/4 controllers, and the layout is radically different from the XBox style controllers. The layout takes a non-negligible amount of getting used to. It's not great if you're trying to use it for a twin stick shooter - the asymmetry works against it.

It's of note that instead of a D-Pad and a second stick, Valve has opted to use two trackpads. The trackpads are, for what they are, very well built. However, for someone who wants to play a fighting game, the lack of a proper D-Pad is sort of...terrible. Moreover, for someone who wants to play twin stick shooters, the lack of a second stick is terrible.

From my experiences gaming with it, the Steam Controller appears to be a "jack of all trades, master of none" type of controller. If you want "a controller to play every game with," it's perfect. If you want "a controller to play fighting games with," go pick up a fighting stick. If you want "a controller to play twin stick shooters with," go pick up a PS3 controller. To be flat, if you find yourself playing the same one or two genres of game all of the time, this is not the controller for you. If you play a range of games and want only one controller for it, then...keep reading.

One could argue that the Steam Controller "feels" nicer. After about 6 months, I got used to the feel of it, and hadn't thought much of it, but now that I am forced to pick up my old PS3 controller, I cannot help but feel that I like the feel of my old PS3 controller much better. The Steam Controller is weighty, and it is designed to fill your hand - the "haptic feedback" is a draw of the Steam Controller, and Valve must have wanted your entire hand to feel that. You have a distinct feeling of "holding something" while using the Steam Controller. Whether or not this is desirable is up to the user, but the feeling of "not quite holding something" appeals to me more.

I should also mention that I have large hands, to the point where I often win thumb wars through the sheer gigantic-ness of my thumb. The Steam Controller more or less filled my hands up when I was using it. This is probably not a controller for people with smaller hands.

My major gripe: The plastic is not amazing. I am not saying it is cheap - the plastic is what you'd expect out of a controller or keyboard or mouse. This is not usually an issue with the functionality, but it is a serious problem for *this* controller - the right and left bumpers work by bending a piece of plastic slightly.

In other words, the plastic needs to be something that can be deformed repeatedly without breaking.

This is a terrible design choice, and introduces a rather obvious point of failure - if the bumpers are pressed too often (which they *will* be, because they are the bumpers, which is a major button), the plastic will break; it is hard plastic. This is what happened to my controller. It would have been better for the bumpers to function by hitting a spring or switch *directly*. From even the most naive of engineering standpoints, this is an utterly baffling design flaw.

If I had not taken the pain to attempt to fix the controller myself (my warranty had expired, and I actually had the tools to open up the controller...I imagined a spring had just come loose, so I thought I might have luck), I would have considered repurchasing the Steam Controller. The Steam Controller feels OK, and it plays most of the games I want to play well enough that I would be OK using it for a few more years. Unfortunately, I simply cannot recommend this controller due to this particular breaking point.

If I had been aware of this design flaw before purchasing, I would have spent a few more dollars on a second PS3 controller, even while the Steam Controller was on sale for 30% off.