Premium third-party controllers are taken very seriously these days. From the half-broken Mad Catz controller that you used to pass off to your annoying cousin to the sheer breadth of elite controllers with more options for customisation than a Costa during a national holiday, we’re all really spoilt for choice these days. However, in a very crowded market, and especially up against Sony’s own premium option, is there much room for the Victrix Pro BFG?
The first thing you should know about the Victrix Pro BFG is that it has a lot going on, maybe more than any other >£100 controller out there. From back buttons) to profiles to even customisable layouts, this is an exceedingly modular controller that can be customised almost exactly how you want. Almost. While there’s clearly a lot to love about the Victrix Pro BFG’s many bells and whistles, sometimes its fundamentals let it down a little.
Probably the biggest selling point with the Victrix Pro BFG is that it allows you switch out your stick and button configuration on the fly, with one configuration even perfect for fighting games. I’m not saying you should be trading in your fight stick just yet, but it definitely feels more natural to play something like Tekken 8 with the alternative layout. Switching them around is also fairly easy; just use the little Allen key that comes with the unit to unscrew and replace the modules, then screw it back in again.
There’s loads of other ways of tinkering with the Pro BFG to get it how you want it too, with multiple button profiles that you can swap through depending on the kind of game you’re playing. Generally speaking, the Victrix Pro BFG is also pretty comfortable apart from a key design flaw, and while a good bit more plasticky feeling than the DualSense Edge overall, the grips make it arguably more comfortable to hold over time.
Setting up the Victrix Pro BFG in general is also a doddle, whether you’re using it on PS5 or PC (I didn’t manage to test it out on the also compatible PS4). Wired connectivity is as obviously easy as you’d expect, with a simple switch to help you change the platform. Wireless, meanwhile, requires a dongle, which is extremely easy to do on PS5 but does again remind me that the console itself probably needs more USB ports.
However, what the Victrix Pro BFG probably needs more of is, um, less. It honestly feels like a Frankenstein’s Monster of a controller, with very little real estate not taken up by a button or switch of some kind. The worst offender has to be the 4 buttons, which are curiously not on the back of the controller but on the the back of the grips. They’re extremely sensitive as well, so if you’re like me and seize up slightly during intense moments of gameplay, you’re going to be accidentally pressing a lot of inputs.
The Victrix Pro BFG also makes a big deal out of its clutch triggers, but these are truthfully frustrating to use most of the time, both in terms of setting the sensitivity and then in home sensitivity they seem to remain anyway. Back sliders have to be held in place for the triggers to delock, with you then having to push the triggers down until you get the kind of hair trigger you like. Sounds great, but your hand has to become a crab to even configure, and then should your hand slip even just a little bit, the triggers will set to something wrong.
And those triggers: no matter how much I fiddled, I simply couldn’t help but accidentally press them from a resting position, resulting in quite a bit of unexpected friendly fire in Helldivers 2 at even the lightest of grazes. The Victrix Pro BFG is a very unique controller in that it feels very comfortable to hold, but you can’t really relax while using it either.
That said, it’s worth bearing in mind that this might just be a “me thing,” and the same issues may not crop up for you and your possibly more normal hands and twitches. At an RRP of £179.99, though, that’s quite the risk to take.
Review unit provided
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