GKick Review: KontrolFreek FPS Freek CQC – Signature Edition

August 8th, 2012 by Steve Perry

FACT SHEET:
FPS Freek CQC | Available August 21
Accessory | Manufacturer: KontrolFreek

For those of you who are unfamiliar with KontrolFreek’s line of products, the company designs analog-stick enhancement accessories that provide improved control in your games of choice. If you go to their website, you’ll see a wide variety of addons that are designed around typical play in a variety of genres. In this case, we got an advanced look at the FPS Freek CQC Signature Edition. The Signature Edition is a slight revision on their current FPS Freek CQC model, providing a lower profile, new control surface and even a fancy new color.

But I know what you’re thinking. What the heck is the need for a thing that clips on my analog sticks and makes them taller? Honestly, I thought the same thing. And while I didn’t have any FPS titles to test them on which would have been ideal, I was still able to put them to a test and understand the concept of the FPS Freek CQC design.

The biggest difference is this: precision. By making the analog stick taller, it requires more movement in order to make the same difference. For example, precision aiming or direction control on a low-profile analog stick can be difficult at times, but by increasing their height, you now have much more fine control. This gives you much more margin of error to make those precise movements without resorting to lightly flicking at the stick or over-compensating.

The second difference is grip. With the modified rubber surface, the FPS Freek CQC provides a slightly different feel over the standard analog control and in my own personal case, improved my grip and gave me less frequent slipping especially in those cases when I had to put the stick all the way to the extreme edges.

But enough of that. Let’s get down to the details.

POLISH:
By “Polish”, we mean the construction of the unit. Is it built well? Does it look nice? The FPS Freek CQC accessories are very simple in design but they aren’t cheap. They’re clearly built for extended play and will last. The look is simple and seamless and they fit onto the analog sticks snugly and are even easy to remove if you – or another user – doesn’t want to use them. Simply put, there’s not a lot here to go wrong, and they’re built well.

NICHE:
The Niche is basically the market of the hardware. Is there a need for something like this? Is this a frivilous add-on or a legitimately useful product? Well, I can safely say this is useful. The improved precision will do wonders for FPS players and the heightened analog sticks feel nicer anyway, especially if you have larger hands. The lower profile on the analog sticks is a nice compensation just in case you DON’T have large hands, but still. While this is mostly a benefit to FPS gamers, it’s still a nice touch, but you may want to be wary if you have a lot of versatile gamers in your house.

EASE-OF-USE:
Pretty self-explanatory, but is the hardware easy to use, setup, and enjoy? There isn’t much to the FPS Freek CQC. You open the case, pop the accessories off the card, press them firmly onto each analog stick and… oh, lookit that, you’re done. Beyond that, just play the game and you’re good to go.

IMPROVEMENTS:
By this, we ask if the accessory in question actually delivers on the improvements it claims to make. As we pointed out earlier, yes it does. Precision control is higher, grip is tighter, and they’re great to use. So yes, we can recommend these if you’re looking to find a bit of comfort in your console FPS games.

OVERALL:
Plainly stated, the FPS Freek CQC are well-designed and well-built little accessories and are pretty low-cost, too. I’m hoping to get my hands on a few other varieties of KontrolFreek’s lineup to see just how they perform in other regards, but for now we can definitely give the FPS Freek CQC a BUY recommendation.