Turtle Beach Afterglow Wave review — A feature-rich wired option on a mid-tier budget

Given the state of gaming, I decided a while back to unplug my Xbox Series S and put it in the closet, opting instead to play Xbox games on my PC. My primary goal was to save money, since I could play Call of Duty and Smite 2 with friends via crossplay. It had the added effect of placing me firmly in the market for a wired controller. While I’ve been able to get by with the least expensive USB controller I could find at the time, I’ve been itching for something built with a little more quality and some extra features. Enter the Turtle Beach Afterglow Wave, the perfect step up.

The controller’s packaging offers a slick, eye-catching look at what we have in store. Blue, green and pink bleed into a purple background as a royal purple controller, adorned with vibrant waves of color, graces the front of the box. The Afterglow Wave, it would seem, is aptly named. Upon opening the box, we’re greeted with a standard cardboard receptacle holding the controller (protected by soft plastic packaging itself) and a standard 10-foot USB-A to USB-C cable.

Unwrapping the packaging, we first behold the Afterglow Wave. In its dormant state, the sleek peripheral makes a great first impression. As we hold it in our hands and turn it about, a few key features stand out. First, the back has two extra programmable buttons. Those will be nice to have. More notably to me, the Afterglow Wave features 3-setting throw-stops for the triggers. As a fan of the much more expensive Xbox Elite Series 2 controller, I’ve come to appreciate what a boon these can be. Finally, the controller has an option button and some chat icons on the 8-way D-Pad. Interesting.

Ok, I’ve got this beast out of the packaging and I’m ready to breathe some life into it. Plugging the controller into my PC doesn’t seem to have done much at first. A quick tap on the Xbox jewel and it looks like a race car from Need For Speed sprang to life, ground effects on full display. The way those waves on the controller look as they cycle through the RGB spectrums just screams “agility!” Pair that with RGB rings around both of the thumb sticks and we have one sexy controller ready to help us drop the ops in style.

In practice, I like the feel and functionality of the Afterglow Wave even more than its look. The joysticks are tight and responsive. The face buttons feel just right. Even more relevant for many of us, the Hall Effect triggers feel excellent. I’m a full-pull guy when it comes to Xbox triggers, but I played a few rounds of Call of Duty with the different distance stops and every setting I tried felt great. Jumping in a party with a few buddies, the party audio controls on the D-Pad paired with the options button proved useful. I could mute myself with a double tap, adjust the game/party balance on the fly, or turn things up and down as I needed. To Turtle Beach’s credit, I’m not a fan of the 8-way D-Pads, but the Afterglow Wave’s felt great. I’m not sure I’d feel as confident with precision platformers, but I’m happy with what we’re getting here.

There was one thing about this controller I found to be an unexpected frustration. The customizable back buttons are great, until they’re not. Perhaps this is more due to my own idiosyncrasies than anything, but I like mapping my right bumper to the right back button. In a longer session, I had at least three separate instances where I accidentally activated that button, causing me to throw a grenade instead of firing my rifle. At the end of the day, I’ll chalk that up to my own poor decisions, but I think it’s something buyers may want to be aware of.

For gamers who want their own custom RGB experience, it’s worth noting the controller comes equipped with a handful of lighting modes you can cycle through. Turtle Beach will be offering software to let you customize your lighting settings, too. That software was not available at the time of review.