HexGaming Rival PS5 Controller review.
The start of a new PlayStation generation is always a tricky time for competitive players. Stock controllers just can’t cut it for the highest level play and there’s always a delay until third parties can start rolling out custom solutions. Now, nine months after the launch of the PS5, HexGaming is seemingly the first to roll out a feature-rich custom pad that provides many tangible advantages over the standard DualSense controller. I’ll tell you right now: the HexGaming Rival PS5 Controller hardware itself is fantastic, but it comes at a pretty hefty price. This is the GameRevolution review.
Starting off strong
For a third-party pad, the HexGaming Rival PS5 Controller unboxing experience is surprisingly polished. It has its own high-quality HexGaming branded box filled with additional thumbsticks, a manual, and the controller itself. It sets a good first impression and that quality is carried through to the custom pad itself.
Buy the HexGaming Rival PS5 controller on Amazon here.
Looking at the controller, I opted for the “Blue Green Magic Space” style, which comes fully equipped with all of HexGaming’s bells and whistles. This includes back buttons, trigger stops, and modular thumbsticks. Though I opted for this colorway, there are many other options that elevate the style of the DualSense pad. Users can customize the different face buttons, touchpad, and parts of the outer shell. It’s comprehensive and allows for a lot of creativity.
Killer features
So the HexGaming Rival PS5 Controller looks pretty, but what about the advantage it provides in competitive games like Call of Duty: Warzone, Black Ops Cold War, and Apex Legends? These are titles where the back buttons and trigger stops come in very handy indeed.
The back buttons can be quickly remapped to X, O, Triangle, Square, Up, Down, Left, Right, L1, L2, R1, R2, L3, R3, and Touchpad. Most users will map X and O to these back buttons, to allow for easy jumping and meleeing. This enables the ability to jump and melee all while maneuvering the aim stick. This is huge for first-person shooters and once you get used to the back button advantage it’s tough to go back.
As for the trigger stops, these prevent the R2 and L2 buttons from going all the way down. They essentially limit the wasted movement of a trigger. This makes it easy to rapidly fire weapons in shooters. This does disable the DualSense adaptive triggers functionality, but competitive players won’t be using that anyway.
The other big feature of the HexGaming Rival PS5 Controller is the interchangeable thumbsticks. Six are provided in total: two already attached to the controller and four in a separate plastic box. There are three different lengths and there’s a choice between convex and concave surfaces. The ability to swap sticks is great for longevity, as thumbsticks are often the first part of a pad to wear down. While it’s nice that they’re replaceable, I’d personally opt for some extra grip through the use of KontrolFreeks or something similar.
Let’s talk price
Let’s address the elephant in the room: the price. At a starting price of $249.99, the HexGaming Rival PS5 Controller is obviously a very expensive bit of kit. If we’re being realistic, it’s only going to attract pro-level players and passionate enthusiasts who are willing to throw down the dollars for the advantage this custom pad bestows.
Clearly the company knows that it has the exclusive on custom pads right now and the price reflects that. When competition appears, expect the price to drop a little and for this bit of excellent kit to become accessible to more PlayStation 5 owners.
HexGaming Rival PS5 Controller Review: The final verdict
The HexGaming Rival PS5 Controller is a fantastic third-party custom pad that successfully executes the back button and trigger stop combination that so many competitive players find useful. What’s more, the wide range of awesome designs paired with interchangeable thumbsticks makes for a wonderful bonus. However, the high price will limit who buys this.
For those who can invest the moolah, HexGaming has the best custom PS5 controller currently available. This is the custom PS5 pad that you’ve been searching for to aid you in dominating this generation.
Rival Custom PS5 Controller was provided by HexGaming.
