Razer ONZA: Controller Review
Constantly Searching For 'The Edge'
As gamers objective number one in our minds is to win, to dominate others on a virtual battlefield. It's a big part of what makes games so fun. You could spend a while enhancing and honing your skills with time and practice, but you might also be looking for an external entity capable of making you better...Welcome the new generation of third party controllers starting with this, The Razer Onza Tournament Edition Controller (The Battlefield 3 version reviewed). A programmable, rubberized, wired device that can hopefully raise your kill to death ratio. You'll be able to tweak joystick resistance and be able to see your buttons in the dark (awesome!) and more. I give it a stern testing and analysis, these are the results.
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Look and Feel
The controller has a subtle rubberized texture to it that feels very anti-slip so that's a good thing. When holding the controller you can feel a sort of extruding bump coming out of the bottom of the hand grips. This helps with overall grip and finger placement as well, and feels more ergonomic than Microsoft's.
You basically have a D-pad that works like a charm and is a great idea that should have been on the original controller. The sticks are sticks, they are adjustable but I leaned more towards the middle tension through my few hours of play time. The resistance stays consistent and just having the option is nice. They say loose is better for first person shooters, and tight for racing games.
The 15 foot breakaway cable is perfect for my mid-sized bedroom and living room. It's braided also which is a good precautionary measure against faulty wires, their connectors and overall wire wear and tear.
[MFB]
The multifunction buttons can be used by pressing the remap button, and then the action you want to use. So in Halo Reach if I wanted to use the right MFB to shoot, I would hold down the right remap button, then pull the trigger.
I found it quite useful and it actually feels like I am shooting faster. Milliseconds can make all the difference and eliminating the trigger pull time suddenly seems like a great idea. My only complaint with it though would have to be the fact that the shoulder buttons are too close together causing rare but still there mis-hits. MF buttons could be too far too hit with your finger depending on how you hold it also.
With practice you'll get better, just play with the stick sensitivities first until you find what works for you, and play a few matches before you start reprogramming things.
The triggers are decent. They definitely look cool, but the best part is the reduced distance it takes to fire off a shot. You may benefit more from them if you fire with your middle-fingers, but even if you use your index you'll be fine.
I don't know about you, but when I play in the dark I know where my face buttons are at. But just in case you don't Razer was kind enough to illuminate them for you. All I can say is that It looks nice, and I'm not complaining. Just still a little perplexed.
The best part of the controller has to be the hyper responsive face buttons. These things click just like a mouse button ensuring an instant response from your button press.
All in all I have to say there are not many negatives about this controller. It's got many pluses: Rubberized grip, ergonomics, programmable buttons, hyper responsive face buttons, braided cord, (it also really did increase my kill count a few times throughout the small amount of matches I played in Reach). And some negatives like the button spacing and mis-hitting, but all of the positives turn my gripes into nitpicks. This controller has my official recommendation, don't be afraid to give this one a shot.