I can tell you from personal experience that a mouse is probably the most important piece of equipment in a gamer’s arsenal of gaming gear. Not only is it important to find a mouse with superior movement detection and sensitivity, but it is also important to find a mouse that fits your hand. You can have all the extra buttons, bells, and whistles in the world, but if you do not have a mouse that is comfortable in your hand then you are just setting yourself up for failure.
Before I wised up to this fact, I have made my fair share of mistake purchases. Too often I have ordered a mouse online that had rave reviews and in all honesty was a great mouse, but didn’t fit my hand and grip style. Some gamers will tell you that you will get used to a big change over time, but I respond with, “Why would you let your abilities suffer until you get used to it, when you can buy a comfortable mouse and never miss a lick?” So what option does a gamer have when they want a comfortable mouse and can’t afford to buy the wrong one? The answer is the Cyborg R.A.T. 9 by MadCatz; a truly “one size fits all” mouse that can please anyone.
Design
First, let’s take a look at the mouse as it looks out of the box. The R.A.T. 9 has all of the extra buttons a gamer could want in addition to the standard mouse buttons. Behind the scroll wheel is rocker-style button that acts as your on-the-fly DPI change. Rocking it forward will bump you up a setting and backwards takes you down through 4 DPI settings. This works in conjunction to the profile switch button that you may not realize is even there. Most additional index finger buttons require you to move off of the Primary Click to push them, but instead MadCatz opted for a button that you can press with the side of your finger. This lets you change through 3 modes without ever taking your finger off of the trigger.
The scroll wheel has a smooth feel to it, with just enough “clicky-ness” to it that you don’t over shoot the weapon you are looking for. Some people may be saddened that there is not a scroll left and right function to the scroll wheel, but don’t let your tears fall just yet. Instead, you get a side scrolling thumb wheel. This is a unusual but undoubtedly comfortable way to achieve a side scroll function, that as far as I know, is only seen on mice in the R.A.T. family.
The final 3 buttons on the R.A.T. 9 are thumb buttons. The thumb buttons include a front and back button setup that you are used to seeing on gaming mice, and an offset “Sniper” button. This Sniper button acts as a temporary DPI decrease which activates when pressed. This allows you to be as sensitive as necessary while runnin’ and gunnin’ and also make those painfully precise movements that require accuracy, without having
to bump the DPI up and down constantly. I can’t begin to tell you how useful this feature is for FPS gamers.
Even without the battery, this mouse is heavy. Flipping the mouse over, you see the reason behind the weight and sturdiness is solid metal frame to which the mouse attaches. You will also notice that the mouse feet are rather small giving you minimal drag. In the middle of it all, is the on/off switch and a 5600 DPI laser to maximum precision. Lastly, on the far right side you have the slot in which you place the hot-swappable battery pack. The battery gives you 6-9 hours of continuous use on a single battery pack (depending on what application you are using for the mouse and the polling rate that you are using).
