Professional controllers have gone from area of interest prospects to extensively desired equipment in the previous couple of years, with choices like Scufs and PlayStation’s personal DualSense Edge turning into extra generally utilized by the day.
That does not imply they’ve change into any much less premium an choice, although, and Nacon’s Revolution 5 Professional is the most recent contender on your money if you wish to improve your aggressive loadout. I have been utilizing it for a few weeks to see the way it stacks up.
Nacon Revolution 5 Professional
Give your self an edge
This is a superb controller for aggressive gaming, though some quality-of-life hangups imply it is not essentially the most complete choice on the market. Nonetheless, for customized controls, it is a magnificence.
- Really easy to arrange as you want
- Nice additional buttons and triggers
- Very nicely made
- Costly
- Third-party so misses some options
Design
Kitted out
Nacon hasn’t lower any corners on the Revolution 5 Professional – this can be a actually totally featured professional controller, and you’ll inform that simply from it.
The controller is available in a white colourway to match the bottom PS5, however I obtained the black model for testing – quite a bit stealthier and truly fairly unremarkable at first look.
It is properly constructed out of stable high-quality matte plastic (there is not any flex right here), with beautiful rubbery grips round the place your palms relaxation to assist in essentially the most aggravating moments of a recreation.
The entrance of the controller does not conceal a lot additional performance, though you’ll be able to swap out the thumbsticks for a variety of choices that come included, and the D-pad additionally has two variants to choose from.
On the again, issues are extra advanced, with a bunch of switches to customize your expertise, together with the choice to shorten the journey distance on both of your triggers.
There are buttons to toggle between your completely different structure profiles, connectivity for various gadgets and quantity controls for if you join a headset to the controller (which you are able to do by way of Bluetooth if desired).
Lastly, on both sides, the rubbery grip may be clicked off to disclose a cavity the place included weights may be secured to change how the controller feels in your hand – a really good contact.
The Revolution 5 Professional additionally comes with a pleasant hard-shell carrying case that has impressively been made smaller than earlier variations to make all of it the better to pack for journey or storage.
A braided charging or connection cable rounds out the package deal, and it is all completed to a very top quality – as you’d hope, given it prices practically half as a lot as a PS5 by itself.
Customisation choices
Make it your personal
Customisation is the secret for a professional controller, and the Revolution 5 Professional presents loads of alternative ways to make it your personal.
These weights are available in a number of variants and are simple to fit in and experiment with, letting you alter the controller’s general hand-feel actually simply, which is nice and never provided by many rivals.
That very same ease applies to swapping thumbsticks too, and also you additionally get entry to some steel rings to scale back the journey distance in your sticks, one thing that requires just a little extra consideration to note however may also actually assist with controller tuning.
It is sensible with the ability to swap between journey distances for the triggers, too, though even the shorter choice remains to be not fairly as clicky as a devoted modded controller just like the one I used from Mega Modz just lately can provide.
Nonetheless, these are all bodily choices that you may tweak as you want, making it fairly easy to make main adjustments to how the Revolution 5 Professional feels in accordance with your style.
There are additionally 4 additional buttons on the again of the controller case, and these may be remapped at will – one thing that you are able to do utilizing software program in your PC or by simply holding down some buttons.
The latter is useless simple, and I used to be shortly capable of set them up as I like, with the face buttons mapped to the again in order that my thumbs keep on the stick whereas enjoying.
Button placement is a large a part of the success of a professional controller, and the primary two buttons added, S1 and S2, are ideally suited – central and simply the place my fingertips curl to.
The others are on the grips themselves and are just a little extra awkward to activate – in follow, I discover that I actually use the primary two extra no matter which controller I am on, however Scuf nonetheless makes the perfect again buttons I’ve examined, on the Reflex.
Nonetheless, Nacon has achieved a really stable job right here and a few individuals will probably discover the association fully good. In an excellent world, you’d have the ability to strive one out in a store earlier than committing, although.
Efficiency
Gaming upgraded
After all, you’ll be able to’t assess a professional controller by simply it from all angles – you must leap into video games with it, so I have been operating the Revolution 5 Professional as my fundamental controller for a few weeks.
I play loads of Warzone and Rocket League, two very completely different video games with completely different necessities, and one of many points I’ve had with different professional controllers is that I need clicky responses for Warzone and throttle management for Rocket League.
Properly, the Revolution 5 Professional aces that take a look at – its triggers work nice for each due to these variable journey distances, and the additional buttons are nice for making my very own management scheme.
I’ve additionally been sampling a bunch of The Finals‘ open beta (which is terrific), and the controller has held as much as each stress take a look at I’ve provide you with.
There are, nonetheless, some drawbacks to deal with, most of them out of Nacon’s fingers due to how Sony offers with third-party controllers.
Firstly, in contrast to a modified DualSense just like the Scuf Reflex, this is not recognised by your PS5 as a standard controller – it wants a dongle, and meaning it could’t do some easy issues.
For one, its PS button will not flip the console on, so you will have to try this manually earlier than turning on the controller to maneuver on (a small element however probably an annoying one).
Subsequent, once more as a result of it is not a DualSense, you will not get the haptics that Sony’s personal controller presents. In actual fact, in PS5 video games you will not get any haptics or vibration in any respect.
Now, I view this as a controller for aggressive play, reasonably than a one-size-fits-all choice just like the DualSense Edge, which works as nicely for informal play as the professional scene. I am unable to see this being a deal-breaker, since you’ll be able to at all times join your regular DualSense if you wish to play one thing immersive like Alan Wake 2.
Nonetheless, it does imply that you just’re not going to have the ability to consign your previous controllers to reminiscence, if that issues to you, and it barely tarnishes the in any other case spectacular efficiency of the Revolution 5 Professional.
Verdict
The Revolution 5 Professional is a good new choice for many who take their controllers significantly, and an incredible pairing with the PS5 or a high-class PC. It is obtained oodles of customisation choices and may actually simply be constructed to really feel impeccable within the hand.
There are a number of usability hiccups that make it probably rather less consumer pleasant in some methods, but when you may get over these minor hurdles it nonetheless has quite a bit to supply as a software for high-level play.