After spending over 3 days worth of game time fiddling and readjusting to several different aiming sensitivities, I had all but given up my attempts on increasing my aiming capabilities even with the heavily aim assist functionality. A buddy of mine let me borrow his “Elite” controller, imploring me the difference was phenomenal. Given his record in Halo, I took his work and applied the most comfortable settings using the fancy controller. Wow. The aiming mechanics I believed where either lost upon me or never existed suddenly appeared. I’m not joking, it felt so fluid, so natural moving the cross hairs around the screen. I was aiming in the precise areas where as with the standard controller, it would usually land off my mark. I downloaded the application in order to customize the actual controller settings and after fiddling with the options (I put both sticks on aggressive, left everything else the same, also switched the triggers to half guard a.k.a half the amount of press needed to achieve full function) and the turn around was pretty impressive.
Now I used the controller for a pretty extensive period, 2 weeks (on and off, about 2 and half days of Halo game time) and the results in terms of kills, particularly head shots was drastic. To say I’m an beginner to average player would be slightly underrated, in terms of first person shooters I’ve had a good amount of time with Halo 1 and 2 until I became occupied with everything else. So returning to the franchise, and it’s overhaul of certain mechanics including the aiming was a difficult task on top of relearning the basics.
The paddles tackle a bit of getting use too, obviously, but it’s not as bad as one would think it is as if you’d say switch from Green Thumb to Bumper Jumper. The ability to button map helps in taking the pace at your leisure, I for instance started with mapping the jet pack evasion to the lower right paddle then added the others.
So in terms of worth, at $150 bucks (or if you get it cheaper through a deal or have a good friend like mine), ultimately I’d say if your someone who is pretty serious about Halo, or even has a higher enjoyment than the average casual player looking for a edge, this is an investment worth taking. I’d also recommend the controller for anyone who is into customization, because its pretty deep (specifically for anyone into racing, paddle shifting? Yes.)
If your playing Halo or really video games in general, it goes without saying STAY AWAY. However, for the first time this is definitely one peripheral that I’ve experienced its full potential since the days of maybe…the DreamCast? So yeah, its worth the buck fifty.