Star Wars: The Old Republic Gaming Mouse by Razer

If you like massively multiplayer online games, you've probably heard of Star Wars: The Old Republic. While not nearly as large or long-running as World of Warcraft, it still had one of the biggest launches of any MMO in years, and has a large and dedicated following. It also has lots of tie-ins, like Razer's Star Wars: The Old Republic peripherals. Among them is a Star Wars-themed wireless/optionally wired version of the Razer Naga Epic ($129.99, 4 stars) and Naga Moltengaming mice. a $139.99 (list) device with plenty of customization and programming options and a series of number buttons in the thumb area for quickly accessing commands in MMOs like Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Design
Like the Star Wars: The Old Republic Gaming Headphones also offered by Razer, the gaming mouse is grey, black, and covered in Star Wars imagery. The charging base is hexagonal like TIE Fighter wings or the logos of the Sith or Galactic Empires, and two interchangeable plates on the right palm side of the mouse show glowing Republic and Empire insignia.

The layout is identical to the Naga mice. Instead of one or two thumb buttons on the left side of the mouse, four rows of three buttons cover the entire command bar used by most MMOs, and can be switched from the number row (1 to = above the QWERTY keys) to the number pad (the number/directional buttons to the right of the arrow keys) with a switch on the bottom. The number buttons and the logo plate both glow yellow, and the mouse wheel can glow in different colors, which can be set to stay the same or cycle through the full spectrum in the Razer Synapse software.

The mouse can work both as a wired and wireless mouse. If you plug the USB cable into the charging base, you can rest the mouse on the base to charge it and use it without any cables whenever you want. If you plug the USB cable into the mouse itself and flip the mode switch on the bottom from Wireless to Wired/Charging, you can use it as a wired mouse while charging it without the dock. It's a great way to keep using your mouse when the battery runs low and you don't want to swap batteries between the mouse and charger. It also offers the speed of a wired connection instead of wireless latency, but in my tests the mouse behaved identically in wired and wireless modes.

Performance
For MMOs, the mouse feels good. The number pad works as well under the thumb as it does in the Razer Naga mice. Quick access to the entire command bar, freeing up your left hand entirely for movement and other actions. For action games, it's not quite as intuitive, because of the number pad layout compared to a few large, easy to find thumb buttons or a four-way switch. When many commands are found through sub menus with the number keys like in Team Fortress 2, though, it works well to make a few things quicker. For regular Web browsing, the two buttons below the wheel work as forward/back buttons, and while they're not as convenient as thumb buttons, they're still a useful feature that keeps the mouse from being solely for MMO gaming.

Like its name and design imply, the Star Wars: The Old Republic Gaming Mouse is designed primarily for Star Wars: The Old Republic, and while its number pad works well with any game that uses an action bar, TOR players will get an additional bonus. By using the Razer Synapse software, mouse users can get a code for an exclusive weapon crystal that changes the color of your lightsaber or blaster attacks to black with a green outline, like the black and yellow crystal given to preorders. It's a minor bonus, but if you're spending $140 on a Star Wars MMO mouse, you're probably going to be looking for any Star Wars MMO advantage, benefit, or bragging right.

The Razer Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO mouse looks great and plays well, especially for MMOs. At $139.99, though, it's the most expensive mouse in Razer's catalog, and one of the most expensive mice you can buy without having it custom-made. It's flashy, it's pricey, and its Star Wars theming might or might not look ridiculous in a few years (like, for example, Razer's Tron peripherals), but at heart it's a great mouse that can work wired or wirelessly.

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