Razer Lachesis
All right here is the review of the Razer Lachesis. This mouse is on sale at 80-89 Canadian dollar at future shop or at Best buy. I got it for 40 dollars which is half the normal price so I am not going to say anything bad for the price I got it.
Laser v/s Optical
Honestly, I am not a great fan of Laser mouse since they are not that big of a jump over the optical mouse. The top of the grade optical mouse rivals the performance of the laser on a good gaming surface. But I simply could not resist the urge of owning a laser mouse for once. After all this is the one of the latest laser mouse on the market.
Description
This is a 4000 dpi laser mouse, developed for gamers by gamers. The mouse comes with a pretty nice packaging: you get some Razer stickers, the cd driver, the manual for users and a pamphlet showing the other Razer products. Personally, I like the Razer sticker and the packaging is way better than those offered by Rival firms.
Since Razer is obsessed with Snakes, the Lachesis has the frontal shape of a Viper snake. It just looks cool when seen from that angle, and that is good for the marketing of the product. Lachesis is the largest pit viper and vipers are supposed to prey on rodents like mouse. Lachesis is a good name for such a mouse in my opinion and it sounds cool.
The mouse is ambidextrous which means that it is suited for lefties and righties unlike the mx518 and the MS3.0. The coating of the mouse looks like it is rubber or silicone and it sure avoids slipping especially for those people with sweaty hands. There are two side buttons on each side and two just below the mouse wheel. The two buttons just below the mouse wheel are for dpi adjusting. One of the features of the mouse is that the razer logo starts blinking as soon as you plugged the mouse and the mouse wheel takes that blue color (depending on the color of the mouse you bought).
The bottom of the mouse is made with three Teflon feet which ensure a better gliding experience. There is also a protective film to avoid any scratching on the mirror like bottom of the mouse, however expect some scratches as soon as you remove the protective film. There is also a profile button for switching profiles during gaming sessions.
Testing the mouse
As soon as I plugged the mouse in, it took 3-5 minutes for the mouse to be fully operative. As expected the logo and the mouse wheel starts turning blue which is pretty cool especially while gaming in the dark.
First of all, I will try playing without any drivers installed which will not include the features like choosing your own dpi and you can only play with default buttons. The first thing I noticed is that the 4000dpi is too sensitive. I had to change all my counter strike settings to get an enjoyable fragging session. Unless you are a very high sensitive gamer, without configuring the mouse the game is simply unplayable.
Now let us install that nice razer driver that comes along with the mouse. First of all, I have to say that the driver looks pretty easy to use, but if you do not know anything about the technical terms like dpi, X and Y axis and configuring mouse buttons, there’s a good chance of you getting lost. Changing the settings and creating the profiles is all pure preference so I am not going to comment what is best. One nice feature of the driver is that it allows you to have 5dpi settings stored on the mouse. The settings will be saved on the on board memory therefore you can play with those settings on any computer.
Playing with the mouse
I am a Counter strike fan so I will not test this product outside of Counter Strike. I set my Lachesis so that I can play with different dpi ingame as well as having profiles. The 5 different dpi I chose were 375, 825, 1225, 1675 and 2000 dpi. Those allowed me to play low sensitivity and high sensitivity. I always leave the normal windows sensitivity or use one notch below to avoid some bad movements while playing. I am more of a low sens gamer who likes to wrestle the hand on the mouse pad rather than doing slight movements. I do not mind playing at all levels of sensitivity because it is worth trying ever kind of styles to see what fits you best.
Since this mouse has a pretty unusual shape, you will need some time to get used to it. And one of the things I noticed during the two week period of testing is that learning curve is quite steep. That is because I am a gamer with an hybrid way of gripping the mouse: my fingers are claw style but I use palm movements. You might not get the same problems I do if you have a different especially if you are a typical claw style player.
Using the Lachesis at 375 dpi (MS3.0 and MS1.1 style)
Simply not for me, I cannot use low sens at all with this mouse. The way the mouse is built does not help it; I cannot play very low sensitivity. I tried doing it but after playing for a while your hands get tired and you will only hurt yourself.
Using it at a medium sensitivity at 875 dpi
Well the good thing is that this is definitely better since I started getting those headshots. That is because I do not have to grab the whole mouse for playing at this level of sensitivity. My grip style is more suitable for that. There is practically no frame skip and the crosshair went exactly where I wanted. I felt like calling me the god awper at that level because the flicking was so accurate. But at this level of dpi that is in the range of the MX518 and some A4tech mouse, I am not going to say engine matters but the shape of the mouse does.
Using the 1275 dpi
Same as 875 dpi but I felt like decreasing my sensitivity to keep the same level as before. Still a nice experience.
Using the 1675 dpi
Now it starts getting serious since that level of dpi is not offered by a lot of mouse. Therefore I needed to try that level of dpi. Change of style, I switched to high sens using that resolution. I moved the sensitivity to 1 and the mouse felt good. By the way please remove mouse acceleration because we do not need that shit now that we have a mouse that can go high speed without having to tweak it. I will recommend adding the noforce commands. It has been a long time since I last played CS on a high sens, and it just felt good to be back there. No need to move the mouse frenetically as it is the case for low sens gaming. Playing DM servers felt very good and the aiming was acceptable.
Using 2000dpi and above
Really not for me pals but I guess that some of you can go on that path. I have not noticed any out of this world stuff but changing to claw style so loved by those high sens gamers was not that bad. If you play game without the recoil we have in Counter Strike, you might love this mouse but unfortunately I do not play any Quake or Unreal. The mouse is so light that claw players will find it nice.
The aftermath of 2 weeks of playing
The bottom of the mouse had some scratches on the mirror surface. The Teflon feet started to get a little bit roughed up but 2 weeks of gaming is not enough to ruin them. I use the mouse on a mouse feet killing surface like the Func 1030. The glide factor remains good on any cloth surface since they are not as much of a killer as the hard and rough surfaces. I will recommend getting a stock of mouse skatez to ensure that you always feel the glide is smooth.
The side buttons are also pretty hard to press on and if you do not have a certain grip style it might be useless while gaming. But then again it is pure preference; therefore I am not going to comment a lot on it.
I will recommend using a rough surface like the Razer destructor, Steelpad S&S and the Func rough surface. This is because that mouse is made for high sens gamers and using a clothpad does not give the same control you want on the mouse that the rough surface does. I will get the destructor soon and I will you some further feedback. Note that the laser sensor works just as well on a wooden surface but you will not appreciate the glide factor.
Pros
1. Laser sensor works properly
2. Good gliding on any surface.
3. Nice design with the glowing light
4. Good accuracy and no frame skipping
5. Mouse is ambidextrous
6. Excellent for high sens gamers
7. On board memory allows the creation of profiles
Cons
1. Mouse is ambidextrous sometimes it can be a double-edge sword
2. Not for a low sens gamer
3. High price and the additional features over the other mouse are not applicable for CS
Rating
I will say I like this Laser mouse over the other ones that I have used because it works fine and there is no frame skipping. But for playing CS, no thank you I will rather stick with and MX518, the g1 and the MS 3.0. Aiming feels great but aiming is not everything in CS because you have to control recoil. The cons with the mouse outside of the price are questionable and it will depend on the user’s point of view. You still have the Razer Mamba coming out so I’d rather not give it a perfect score for now.
I will give this mouse a 9.3 because the product is excellent but a review is useless if everything is perfect.