MadCatz Cyborg R.A.T.3 Red Gaming Mouse Review

The R.A.T. range has already proven its self popular with the gaming market and it is only fair to put it through its paces with some of my favourite games to see how it holds up. Today I decided to take it for a spin in Battlefield 3, Borderlands 2, but for a change of pace I also fired up Torchlight II and APB Reloaded.

Battlefield 3 demands precision, if you head into that game with a poor quality mouse you are essentially setting yourself up for failure, this however wasn’t the case with the R.A.T.3. Even though it may be the bottom of the pile in terms of price in the R.A.T. range, its accuracy and gaming prowess were flawless. The DPI switch was nice and easy to access, giving me that all important edge when I needed to steady my aim or increase my turning speed while tearing it up in the tank. The same for Borderlands 2, while it wasn’t as demanding as BF3, its huge campaign favours a comfortable mouse with a responsive trigger button. Fortunate then that this mouse made touring Pandora an absolute joy.

Torchlight II is a great mix of top down RPG and high action, but its also very demanding on the mouse at the best of times. The R.A.T.3 didn’t miss a single beat and while its short of a few extra hot keys to keep MMO fans happy, its still miles ahead of most mice in this price range. The only thing that let me down from time to time was my own skill, but that’s not the mouses fault.

I’ve had the R.A.T.3. set up for 3 days now for general day to day use. I work my way through a lot of web browsing, photo editing, gaming and general time wasting while at the computer. I average 14 hours a day at my desk and at the end of a long day I really notice the difference between good quality peripherals and well… not so good ones.

The large, wide and almost flat ergonomics of the R.A.T.3. suit my hand shape very well, I have quite wide hands and a narrow mouse can generally cause pain and numbness in my little finger after a few hours usage. This wasn’t the case with the R.A.T.3. and while its strange shape does take a little getting used to at first, the long term comfort and performance makes it worth keeping around.