For a second, I thought Razer had veered from its clear industry standard of naming all gaming mice after deadly snakes. After all, Lachesis is one of the three Greek Fates, and the one responsible for deciding how long a person has to live. Considering a gaming mouse is an implement of (gaming) death, that makes Lachesis an apt--if surprisingly--literary epithet. But as it turns out, Lachesis Muta is also the name of a large pit viper native to South America. Oh, well; last week at CES Razer did announce a gaming surface named after an ant, so at least the company's marketing department is broadening its horizons to include different phyla.
Still, if you were choosing a mouse to lay down some serious smackdown, you certainly could do worse than Razer's latest. I spent some time with the company's Diamondback 3G a while back, and while that was certainly a fine mouse for fragging, the Lachesis is a clear improvement on all levels, giving it, in my opinion, a slight edge over Microsoft's Sidewinder.
I put the Lachesis through its paces in several rounds of the free twitch-fest that is Sauerbraten. Unlike my experience with the Razer 3G, I didn't once find myself accidentally squeezing this mouse's side buttons, no matter how panicked I was about materializing in the midst of a bloodbath. That's because Razer has smartly redesigned the buttons along the side of the mouse, making them larger, flatter, and more tactile. Your thumb and ring finger will always know where the four extra buttons are, and since the buttons are completely programmable, that can come in pretty handy.
Precision is dead on, as it seems to be with all Razer mice. But the Lachesis takes things to new heights, swapping out the already impressive 1,800-dpi optical sensor found in the Diamondback 3G for a whopping 4,000-dpi laser sensor. I've never been one to accept that dpi necessarily makes a huge difference in the overall gaming experience, but then I've never been a world-class gamer. Still, it's nice to know it's there, and we all know everything is better with lasers.
Other improvements on the Diamondback 3G include the addition of two programmable buttons up top, behind the scroll wheel. That's another dangerous place for buttons, but Razer's designers did smart job here too, making them stick up off the surface of the mouse and actually a little stiff, so you aren't like to accidentally mash the buttons when your finger goes for the scroll wheel.
If you're really into customizing your mousing experience, the Lachesis features 32KB of storage, so you can save five different profiles of your settings for different games or different gamers using the same mouse.
The Lachesis seems to have as many features as a luxury car, and it certainly handles like one. Unfortunately, like a tricked-out Lexus or BMW, the bells and whistles don't come cheap. At $79.99 direct, this mouse is a real investment, though it might be a wise one. The pulsing white (or blue) Razer logo on the back of the mouse looks flashy, but the Lachesis is all substance.
In fact, I'd say it edges out the Microsoft SideWinder as the best gaming mouse I've ever wrapped my sweaty palms around. And the Lachesis, like all Razer's current gaming mice, is ambidextrous. So if you're a lefty gamer, or you find Microsoft's SideWinder a bit big and bulky, Razer's Lachesis might be your best bet. It's a bit pricey, but you get what you pay for,. And if you take PC gaming seriously, you should seriously consider the Razer Lachesis. It's available now, directly from Razer for $79.99, or considerably cheaper if you shop around.
Post by Mat Safford
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