FPS Freeks Legendary Review

The concept behind Kontrol Freek's FPS Freeks is simple. It's physics, really. By extending the length of your 360's analogy sticks, you have more precision over small movements, and hence are able to improve your aim in first person shooters.

Kontrol Freeks was nice enough to send us a pair of their newest FPS Freeks, the Halo themed "Legendary" model, so we could put physics to the test and see if these things are really going to turn that paultry .9 k/d ratio of yours around.

Packaging

The FPS Freeks come the nice, compact package seen above. Unlike the standard FPS Freeks that have been out for a little while now, the FPS Freeks Legendary feature a convex (rather than concave) design, and feature a Halo engraving (the Legendary symbol) on the face.

Installation

Popping them out of the packaging and getting them installed on your controller is literally a snap, and will take you a matter of seconds. Just line them up over the top of your analog stick and press down firmly, and they'll pop in.

Removing them takes a little bit more finagling, but again is just a matter of pulling them off.

Impressions

As you can see from the photo, these will roughly double the height of your analog sticks. Upon first picking up the controller after installing them, it did feel a bit awkward (you're not used to your thumb being that far away from the controller base), but as I played it felt more and more natural. A few days later I removed them to compare the difference, and at that point the normal height of the analog sticks felt weird, as I had already adjusted to these. As far as comfort goes, you'll have no problems getting used to them.

So, the real question, did it help my game? In first person shooters (Halo in particular) I can unequivocally say yes. Thanks to Bungie's detailed stat tracking system I was able to see that my crappy K/D ratio was about 0.18 higher when using these sticks than it was prior to using them. Don't think that these are going to change you from a Halo noob to a 1337 nub pwner over night, but they do make aiming (especially with the sniper) much easier.

The major advantage I found to these is that I was able to crank up the sensitivity settings in the game quite a bit after installing these. This meant that I was able to make movements faster on screen, but was still able to control it precisely thanks to the added leverage from these sticks. When I popped these back off and tried to play with the normal analog sticks, I couldn't control the game at that sensitivity.

I did not have as much luck with non-FPS games. I tried them in Gears of War (3rd person shooter), and was not as pleased with the results. In Gears you end up in those shotgun shuffle battles where you are constantly moving the analog stick from far right to far left and back again, and the longer stick makes this action take longer. These are much better suited for games like Halo and Call of Duty where the majority of your analog movements are within the confines of the analog circle, and not moving from one wall all the way across to the other.

The other problem with Gears was that you have to roll a lot in Gears battles (with the A button), and again the taller analog stick means that it takes longer to get your thumb over to the A button, and then back onto the stick. I recommend using the bumper jumper control setting in Halo when you use these, to eliminate this issue.

Conclusion

All in all, I recommend these for any Halo or FPS player that is looking to improve their game. While not ideal in some games, they work great in first person shooters and give you the ability to control your aiming more precisely and play the game at a higher sensitivity setting. They improved my K/D ration by 0.18 in Team Slayer, and a startling 0.4 in Team Swat (with its reliance on headshots).

At only $12.99 MSRP (minus 10% off when you order from us), they are an absolute bargain.

Pros

• Comfortable
• Cheap
• Great for First Person Shooters
• Improve accuracy
• Allow higher sensitivity settings

Cons

• Not ideal in 3rd person shooters
• Work best with bumper jumper control scheme

Want to try them out for yourself? Order here.
Want to see them in action? Check out our video FPS Freek Legendary Review.