SCUF Infinity Xbox One Controller Review

I will admit I’m not well versed when it comes to hardware or that great when it comes to FPS games. So having a controller that says “Professional Gaming” made me wonder if it would be a better build quality kind of thing or some snazzy piece of tech to give you that extra edge. After several gaming sessions on Destiny, Skullgirls, Doom, Fallout 4 and Gear of War 4, It’s easy to see why it could be used in eSports. It’s just that it’s a hard sell towards the “average gamer”.

From the get go in the box I received, as part of a loan review, the controller looks like a basic Xbox One Controller which has a really nice paint job. The grips have a textured rubber coating, making them easier to keep hold of. It’s noticeably heavier even if plugged in without the battery inside. The buttons and joysticks have a slight glossy look, that looks and feel premium which is great. So the expected basics are in the package.

Even the package screens premium compared to the Xbox White controller.

What’s supposed to sell this though is the customisability of the controller’s grips, joysticks, D-pad, triggers and the four paddles behind the controller. My main gripes with these customisable parts are these. The grips are a nightmare to take off and put back on, because of the “hair trigger” grips that are designed for shooters which stops the trigger from going fully down, stopping roughly half way. This isn’t ideal for games that rely on the range of pressure on the triggers. Which means racing games will suffer, as I found when playing the Sparrow Racing League in Destiny. Although I couldn’t actually shoot in Destiny and Fallout 4, hitting people with them in Skullgirls was very hit and miss (pun not intended).

The Xbox treated the controller as if it were a normal one, meaning you can’t adjust its sensitivity. If you can adjust the controller’s sensitivity on the PC, then that would be nice, but having looked at the SCUF gaming website, there wasn’t software support for the PC. On top of the trigger system was the implementation, which is more of a minor gripe than an actual criticism. Changing the grips doesn’t take seconds as labeled on the box, maybe a minute or two with the difficulty to dislodge it off the controller. The included spudger and hex key is nice. But even with the premium feel, at the end of the day, plastic still has a risk of snapping. I still had concerns with removing them numerous times.

The customisation for the product on the product is great and a seamless experience.

My second criticism is the implementation of the paddles. They can’t be remapped to the bumpers or triggers and the force required to trigger them is slightly too hard for my liking. The four paddles can be remapped to ABXY, joysticks and D-pad which sounds like a small thing but can be quite a significant quality of life add-on for those that don’t play in the claw-position. It does require some mental readjustments to use them effectively, but as I said, the buttons require a bit more force than I would like.

How game changing is this? For someone like me that generally sucks at shooters, it means I can actually shoot things whilst jumping in Destiny and continue the killing spree with relative ease compared to using a standard controller. This includes switching, reloading and slide crouching. Although this is very dependent on a game-by-game basis: Doom doesn’t even have a reload mechanic, Gears of War 4 reloads using the right bumper by default. Fallout 4 had mixed results and I struggled to integrate them effectively when playing Skullgirls - even after remapping the entirety of the controls to have them integrate the different types of kicks and punches.

The included manual is solid, although I do wish a video was available on the website.

With criticisms and complaints like this, it should be hard to recommend a product like this, especially when the Xbox One Elite controller that’s cheaper than a SCUF controller (which has been fully customised). So why am I still on the fence instead of saying I don’t recommend this? It’s simple: this is for all intents and purposes a personalised Elite controller.

Having tried an Xbox One Elite controller before, I remember it being a really positive and fulfilling experience that made me really want to purchase one at the time. But if I were to compare them together, the SCUF controller falls under par: it lacks software support on the Xbox One, changing the paddles is a nightmare and for something that’s supposed be for competitive FPS the exclusion of the bumpers from remapping is somewhat of a glaring oversight for me. Although the Electro Magnetic Remapping works as labelled on the box, taking seconds to remap for whichever game I jumped from and to.

One nitpick for this guide is give recommendation control remaps.

But really, the aspects of the controller that makes me recommend this is the quality of the build. Its got a really polished paint job. The changeable joysticks are quick and seamless compared to the grips with the use of a lock and key system. The paddles are still really nice, and when I look back at my prolonged periods of time playing with it, I didn’t have to think about readjusting my hold over the controller compared to my black and white Xbox One controllers. The circular D-pad cover’s function and usability is very dependent on the game, but it’s worth noting that it is surprisingly easy to hit the up direction when attached. I don’t personally recommend using it for fighting games since it feels too slippy for the precise nature of inputting directions.