It's perfect, solid, smooth, everything you want from a flight stick and more. Plenty of buttons, powerful software (though I am no where close to understanding it all). 10/10, so impressed I'm saving for the rudder pedals and praying they bring out a throttle.

Arrived promptly, packaged securely, and had a premium feel right out of the box. Setup was a half hour affair, including assigning in game, and you're off to the races.

Coming from a t16000m, I won't be looking back.

Where do I begin? In short I love it, fantastic and I'd recommend it to anyone.

I bought this on a whim after my X52 had decided to go on the fritz, and since now I have money I had quite a few options. I had no idea VKB existed until my friend said they had a VKB Gunfighter so I decided to nose around. The gladiator was the only option I could find that wasn't too much but still had numerous buttons and hat switches a plenty for DCS.

Out of the box, the stick is not assembled to the base. But it comes with all the tools and parts needed as well as a few spare parts and instructions. Assembly was simple and easy. My only gripe with the initial set up is the program is a little overwhelming and anything out side of calibrating the stick seems beyond my capability.

The stick feels very sturdy, despite it being made from plastic, and sits on a rather heavy metal plate which means makes it great for my desk. The trigger is a little creaky but I am certain that will change with use.

Moving the stick around feels wonderful, it was a rapturous experience to use. I don't think I've ever flown on a simulator in the last five years with such a big grin on my face. It just felt, right.

The buttons all work, and there are several hat switches as well as a miniature analogue stick which make it perfect for something like DCS where many of the aircraft have hat switches for controlling sensors. Though of all the buttons the pinkie button is the hardest to press and often leaves my pinkie finger a little sore.

Though one thing I would say, I would like to see different base options. I'm not too fond of the throttle slider and the rotary wheel and would rather have a set of three self centring switches to toggle stuff like flaps, landing gear and other upsie downsie airplane bits.

In all I think for the price it's sold at; it's definitely worth it. And I would buy it again if not, upgrade to the gunfighter in the future.

Bought the Gladiator EVO premium space combat sticks as a duo solely for Star Citizen. Upgraded from T16000m which kept getting drift(Replaced Twice in less than 6 months). These sticks feel extremely solid and have amazing touch and control. Couple of weeks in and loving them. If you're looking for great bang for buck sticks that will last, then look no further.

Gladiator EVO 'Space Combat Edition' Premium

I had an issue where the wiring on a plug came off during installing. The VKB sim staff (shout out to Luke) were very supporting and sent a replacement wire through to me. I was able to dissemble the grip and replace the wire. The amazing thing about this process was that VKB send you everything you need to do the repair with the original product - multiple screw driver types and other "tools" to help you get the job done. It was very straight forward. I haven't seen this level of endorsed "do it yourself" style of approach with any other product in the modern era. It's an amazing and refreshing way of doing business.