Gamers are always looking to improve their skills and sometimes, they turn not to just experience but to accessories as well.  KontrolFreek’s FPS Freek EPIC is a controller add on designed specifically for third person shooters and is a tribute to the highly anticipated release of Gears of War 3 which is just days away.  Does the FPS Freek EPIC controller add on improve your shots or is it an unnecessary investment?

Right from the start, the FPS Freek EPICs fit easily on the analog sticks of the controller and are also very easy to take off.  These add-ons make the analog sticks taller and based on my knowledge of physics, this provides better precision when aiming at your enemies.  They do feel a little uncomfortable at first and take some getting used to.  The pads feel quite nice and feel good on my thumbs.  On the pads themselves is what looks to be the trademark Gear of War cog and a skull inside of it.  Overall, the FPS Freek EPIC feels great and looks good too.

They may look good and feel good but did the FPS Freek EPIC change my performance at all?  I’m pretty bad at shooters in general so I really couldn’t tell.  The controller itself felt a lot more comfortable with the add-ons than without.  I felt like I did have more precision when aiming and running around.  I played a few matches in Gears of War 2 and according to my statistics, I did slightly better with the FPS Freek EPICs than without them.

For fun, I also tried out a first person shooter, Call of Duty: Black Ops with the accessory. I think when KontrolFreek said these were designed specifically for third person shooters, they actually were right.  I didn’t feel any improvements when playing a first person shooter.  Probably one of the most important features of the FPS Freek EPIC is that it is tournament legal so even when your competing in MLG or in any competition, these controller add-ons can act as great performance enhancers.

Conclusion: Overall, the FPS Freek EPIC controller add-ons only slightly boosted my performance.  They feel really good and you are guaranteed that your thumbs will not skip off the controller.  The design of it looks great and the add-ons are easy to slip on and off.  The fact that they are tournament legal makes them extremely appealing to competitive gamers.  For $13.99, I’d say it’s probably a little overpriced but for those looking for an easy way to get better precision out of their Xbox 360 controller for third person shooters, look no further than the FPS Freek EPIC.

Special thanks to KontrolFreek for providing us with the KontrolFreek EPIC accessory for review.