Best Deals on a Thrustmaster Eswap X2 Elden Ring Edition and Hands On Impressions

Piece by piece, we take apart the components of this reconfigurable controller, and its potential to sidestep skill-checks in Elden Ring.

Sep 8, 2024 - 02:00

Best Deals on a Thrustmaster Eswap X2 Elden Ring Edition and Hands On Impressions

Let’s cut to the chase early with this appraisal. Great if expensive controller; ludicrous marketing claims that should not be taken seriously. The Thrustmaster Eswap X2 Elden Ring is indeed responsive, versatile in its reconfigurability, and fetching to look at, but it sure ain't the peripheral equivalent of Homer Simpson’s Wonderbat. It will not prevent you from dying in its sadistic Soulslike namesake.

I can confidently debunk the claim of “You Shall Never Know Defeat” after a due diligence trip back into my completed save of Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree. The PTSD from returning to the Land of Shadow proved to be real; the invulnerability spruiked by this controller? Yeah, nah. Not so much.

That heavenly-looking ascent up through Enir-Elim was still a hellish ordeal that tore me to shreds. Brutally. Repeatedly. To the point where I wondered how the heck I managed it in the first place with a bog standard X/S controller. Horned Warrior rocking frost spells in the rooftop section, it was not ice to see you again.

And so, now that we know that skill-checks are still going to be a thing in your future, let’s just move on to the actual benefits and decent features of this otherwise brilliant bit of kit…

Best Deals for a Thrustmaster Eswap X2

Thrustmaster Eswap X2 Hands On Impressions

It seems I’ve been collecting quite a few elite-tier/priced controllers of late. Some of them are official, like the venerable DualSense Edge; others are third-party upstarts who have cheekily shown up their first-party competition, like the Turtle Beach Stealth Ultra. None of them, however, have sparked my interest more than the radically reconfigurable Thrustmaster Eswap X2 Elden Ring.

Having the ability to switch out the right and left analogue sticks, thereby rendering them symmetrical (Sony style) or asymmetrical (Xbox bandit), isn’t a brand new concept. That being said, I haven’t seen it achieved with this degree of Soulslike style and in a footprint that's only slightly bigger and heftier than a standard controller. We're talking 15.4 x 11.9 x 6.6 cm (WLH) and a comfortably well-balanced 329g.

I dig Elden Ring—despite the textbook abusive relationship that exists between us—and this controller is a handsomely designed companion product to celebrate that love/hate. The gold trim and rust coloured marble aesthetics give this an air of elegance. The central visage of Messmer, sitting there smugly on his throne, is crisply printed and a worthy foe to feature (I still think he was the best boss battle in the entire DLC).

Skin deep concerns aside, what do you actually get for the considerable amount of Runes you’ll be dropping on this peripheral? In the box you’ll find the controller, two interchangeable thumbstick tops (convex style), a lovely braided three-metre USB-A-to-C power cable, and a simple tote bag to hold it all in.

Oddly, I didn't get a little screwdriver that’s needed if you wish to replace the triggers and grips. I had no desire to do so anyway, and I’m not sure what the availability of that extra component is locally.

Honestly, I was more than happy with the level of customisation I got standard, first on a hardware level and then in Thrustmaster’s decently deep software tool. The latter basically lets you remap as you please and comes with a range of tweakables in the departments of Mini-Sticks, Triggers, and Vibrations. Once again, there’s no setting in these menus for User Skill Boost or Git Gud-er. Hopefully it's coming in a firmware update.

I have to say that I was mighty impressed with the process of transforming from PS to XB style stick alignments. Impressively, zero tools are required here; you just pinch the stick, pull with enough force to disengage the magnet holding the stick housing cube, and then you slot it into its new home with a satisfying (and reasonably strong/securing) click.

I’d say you could do all this in 5 seconds flat if it weren’t for the dpad housing unit, which is a pinch more difficult. As it’s a lower profile protrusion on the gamepad, you have to get a nail in under the cross to sort of lever it out. Easy once you’ve done it a few times; probably a pain if you chew your cuticles on the regular.

When it comes to inputs, I love having four extra buttons on the back to allow the tips of my pinky and ring fingers to be actually useful. I’m also a fan of the RT and LT triggers having little slide locks that halve their travel. There’s nothing particularly new in this department—they're all things we’ve come to expect from any controller competing in the premium space. Par for the controller stuff.

Beyond the stick switcherooing, the only notable claim to fame with the Eswap X2 is its button responsiveness. Apparently, these mechanical buttons are 64% faster than standard membrane-based buttons, with an activation distance reduced to 0.3 mm. I will say that I was convinced of some slight response time improvements while reviewing Marvel vs. Capcom Collection. But this could be the placebo effect in action, to be perfectly honest.

Bottom line: I’d buy this more for the lavish looks and the defaulty expected “Elite Controller” features than to acquire some sort of huge gaming edge. I daresay you’ll get slight improvements here and there, as I certainly felt more effective with those four rear-mounted buttons mapped to face buttons. That being said, Shadow of the Erdtree is a siege where you live on a knife's edge of survival—every one of those tiny gains could conceivably keep you away from yet another “You Died” screen.

Adam Mathew is our Aussie deals wrangler. He plays practically everything, often on YouTube.