At first glance, HexGaming’s Rival Pro for the PlayStation 5 offers all the features that would make it a direct competitor, among other options marketed as powerful, esports-ready controllers. It supports both wireless and wired connections on the PlayStation 5 and PC, has interchangeable thumbsticks for different preferences and genres, and most importantly, includes reassignable buttons on the back of the controller. That basic version costs $199.99, but if you opt for the more expensive option at $289.99, you get “FlashShot” hair triggers on all four shoulder buttons and a rubber grip (for the purposes of this review, we tried the model with the FlashShot upgrade and rubber grips).
And for the most part, all those features perform exactly as you’d hope. The interchangeable thumbsticks, as expected as they may be now, are one of the best parts of the controller. Two sets of thumbsticks provide both long and short concave and convex options to meet different needs depending on what you’re playing. You can easily take them out without having to take other parts of the controller apart, and they glide around effortlessly to the point that you don’t even realize they were a conversation piece, which feels about as much as you can ask for if it’s about seamless features.
However, the triggers were a little less impressive. These hair triggers available in the FlashShot upgrade significantly reduce the distance the shoulder buttons have to be pressed to register their input, which is a huge boon in FPS games and related genres. However, that shorter travel distance means there’s also less room for error when it comes to releasing it. On multiple occasions when playing games that require you to aim with L2 in the crosshairs of a weapon, I found myself accidentally releasing the button too much to the point that the aiming stopped, although I only made a small adjustment to get a to get a better picture. grip. This didn’t happen as often as I got more comfortable with the controller, but it never stopped completely, an issue I haven’t had with other premium controllers in the past. Given the shape of the L1 and L2 buttons, the FlashShot feature was barely noticeable on them.
Moving on to the subject of comfort, there are a few differences between the body of this controller and a DualSense to be aware of. While its shape seems almost indistinguishable from the DualSense, there is certainly a difference to be felt along the arms of the controller following the path of your index fingers. It feels like it’s a bit bigger in that area meaning more stretch to get fixated on the shoulder buttons. Again, this is something you usually get used to over time, but just as you find yourself constantly making small comfort adjustments as you go from DualSense to an Xbox controller, you also need to familiarize yourself with the Rival Pro way at the same time. .
With controllers like these that offer repositionable buttons on the rear paddles, two questions always come to my mind first: how easy is it to remap the inputs and how comfortable are they to reach and use? In either case, the Rival Pro performs as well as you’d hope. Re-assigning an input to one of the four back buttons only requires a few hold and presses, and the second you grab the controller, you’ll land right where you should on the extra buttons. The plastic used in their design makes them quite clickable and noisy like you’re using a mechanical keyboard, but it’s not a problem if you’re using a headset.
The appearance of the controller is the aspect I was least concerned about, as I hardly ever look at the device itself, but the Rival Pro pictured above which I rated as pleasant enough. Looking at the other options available on the HexGaming site, there is bound to be a design that would work for just about anyone. However, it was a little disappointing to see that there were already minor chips or blemishes in the controller’s paintwork. These were especially noticeable where the design ended on various components, such as the very edge of the touchpad, but an inspection revealed that the pause button was already loose in the holder. If someone were to spend about $300 on a new controller, those aren’t things they would want to see right out of the box.
HexGaming’s Rival Pro is certainly more useful than a regular DualSense, given the extra inputs that are hard to leave once you get used to it, but when you add up the shortcomings and missing features, such as the lack of removable components outside of the thumbsticks, it’s a tough sell compared to what it’s bumping into (especially with the DualSense Edge on the horizon). The cheaper Rival Pro without the rubber grips and FlashShot triggers is more enjoyable, but then again, if you can find that and more elsewhere for about the same price, it’s hard to recommend the Rival Pro unless you’re just ready to get the DualSense. as soon as possible.
A HexGaming Rival Pro PlayStation 5 controller was provided by HexGaming for this review.
0 Comments