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0 It’s never a dull moment at TCHQ, and when we were asked to check out the new Thrustmaster HEART Controller, we jumped at the chance. Released back in November 2024, it brings some new technology into a smaller factor. Well, not only smaller, but cheaper as well. Retailing at around £90, depending on where you get it from, you get a decent bit of kit for your money. I’m going to dissect it and try to give you a bit more understanding on just what all these acronyms mean.
H.E.A.R.T and Soul
With a lot of experience in controllers and bringing new tech to the market. Thrustmaster keeps banging out great pieces of hardware, so let’s hope this one follows the same vein…
Design
Ok, I’m going to address the elephant in the room. What exactly is H.E.A.R.T? No, it isn’t the latest pop single by Chappell Roan. It’s the latest gaming acronym to become a buzzword. Standing for HallEffect AccuRate Technology, it basically brings the tech from Thrustmaster’s flight sim joysticks into the controllers. Eliminating stick drift through the use of magnetic sensors, ensuring that you have perfect precision even after hours of gameplay. Now I know you might have thought diving into that was more suited to the feature section of this review, but I just wanted to get it out of the way.
Back to the standard parts of a design section. The Thrustmaster HEART Controller has a standard asymmetric stick layout and mechanical buttons, which, according to the website, means you can be 64% faster. AORTA know, as when pressed, the buttons have a beautiful tactile response and there is no pressure needed.
On the back, we have a couple of extra buttons. These help make sure that you don’t have to take your fingers off the sticks. Just map those actions that you use most regularly, things like jump or reload are great choices.
The rest of the controller is pretty standard, with a 3mm audio jack on the bottom with a mute button close by. My only criticism is that the controller is wired. Personally, in this day and age, there is no real excuse for not being wireless. However, I guess this is to keep the cost down and response time as fast as possible. Which as a gamer playing plenty of games where accuracy and reaction is key, this could be looked past.
Features
We already covered the main features of the Thrustmaster HEART Controller in the section above. Was that cheating? I don’t know, but this is the rhythm of the beat that I run to. We can move on to some more of the features packed into the controller.
Maybe not one of the features, but I want to talk about the controller’s weight for a minute. Weighing in at only 214g this controller is light. Which is brilliant for those long gaming sessions. Not only will it not run out of battery because it’s wired, but it won’t give you that dreaded hand fatigue that I’m sure every gamer out there has experienced at least a few times.
Making use of the ThrustmapperX software, you can customise the controller to make it perfect for you. Change the sensitivity of the sticks for those snapshots, or even change the trigger activation travel. Granted, there is no hair trigger option, but the software does a great job in itself. You can even remap the buttons so that you have the perfect setup.
You don’t even need to open the software to do some of the tasks. If you want to remap one of the back buttons, you can do it on the fly. Simply press the Remap button on the top right, the lights flash, then press and hold one of the back buttons before pressing which button you want to use. The controller will vibrate to let you know you have completed the task.
Final Thoughts
Personally, if you are in the market for a new controller, the Thrustmaster HEART Controller is a perfect companion for playing on a PC. Being wired doesn’t really make that much difference when you are sitting nice and close to your PC. If anything, it’s quite reassuring to play with a controller that doesn’t run out of batteries and cause a heart attack if it’s at a bad time.
With plenty of features and using some great Thrustmaster technology, it really does bring something new to the market.
The Thrustmaster HEART Controller gets the Thumb Culture Gold Award.
Disclaimer: A product was received in order to write this review.
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