An elegant weapon for a more
civilized age or a primitive relic?
Whenever we get a new mouse into the
office, I take a certain pleasure in throwing it to Paul, one of our top
designers. He’s a big gamer, was a top Planet side player, and is in hog
heaven at the moment with the sequel.
The
Lua has an ambidextrous design, making it a great choice for lefties
He’s also left-handed, which makes him a
marginalized minority in gaming peripheral terms, and it pleases my sadistic
side to see him twist his hand trying to grip the latest ergonomic designed
mouse. Roccat’s simple Lua though has pleased him no end with it6s ambidextrous
grip.
And when I say ‘simple’, I mean it. This is
a classic three-button optical mouse, very much in the Microsoft Intellimouse
mold. If you’re after a seriously customizable rodent with more buttons than
you have hair follicles, then you need to look elsewhere. The Roccat Lua, as
its budget $32 price tag would suggest, is very much at the low end of the
gaming peripheral market. But that doesn’t necessarily make it a weak offering.
Roccat is a seasoned gaming peripheral
manufacturer, and the Lua shows its pedigree. It’s nicely designed, and the
compact layout will make it a hit for the ‘claw’ grip gamers as well as the
left-handers. Personally I’m more of a ‘palm’ grip kind a guy, so I’d rather
have a little more real estate under my hand.
It ain’t heavy…
My other concern with the Lua is its
weight. I happily used an old optical MS Intellimouse for many years without a
worry, but as soon as I picked up a proper, weighty gaming mouse I couldn’t go
back. I find a weighted mouse responds far more smoothly than lighter
offerings, and there were times in games where the Lua felt a little twitchy.
While
the design of the Lua is basic, but it's definitely not plain
That could also be because I’m comparing it
to my general gaming experience with laser mice. Laser optics can be more
responsive and give greater clarity to the motion in-game, so the twitchy movement
could easily be attributed to the lower-caste optical sensor. That said,
although the maximum 2,000 DPI setting might lead you to believe that the Lua
might not be very responsive, I never felt like the lower setting was holding
me back despite usually running my mice at around 5,600DPI.
As for the lack of extra buttons, my
feelings are mixed. I’m not generally interested in gimmicky mice festooned
with unnecessary extra buttons (though the Ballista MK-1 over the page has
sprouted a pair in a useful place). I do use the back/forward buttons a lot in
general Pc use, but I rarely go further than the two main buttons and the mouse
wheel in-game, even if I’ve configured melee attacks to another switch.
Mid-frag, I didn’t miss the extra buttons much at all.
The
Lua actually stands up pretty well shows that Roccat has created a well-priced
rodent with decent gaming heritage and strong performance.
Throughout this review I’ve essentially
been comparing this basic mouse to much more feature-rich and expensive gaming
mice. That might seem unfair, but the fact that the Lua actually stands up
pretty well shows that Roccat has created a well-priced rodent with decent
gaming heritage and strong performance.
If dropping $75 on a mouse makes you gag,
Roccat’s affordable rodent should tempt especially if you’re a sinister leftie.
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Vital
statistics
§ Price:
$32
§ Ratings:
4/5
§ Manufacturer:
Roccat
§ Website:
www.roccat.org
§ DPI:
2,000
§ Sensor:
Optical
§ Customizable
buttons: None
§ Polling
rate: 1,000Hz
§ Connection:
Wired
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