76 PCWorld APRIL 2019REVIEWS MAD CATZ R.A.T. 8+
mouse design I’ve ever seen.
Stripped of the plastic chassis
that gives your average mouse
a user-friendly face, the RAT
looks more like military
hardware, all metal knobs and
scientific looking numbers and
naked screws.
It’s a polarizing design, but
I admit I’m fond of it. That’s an
outlier for me! I’m typically not
a fan of the edgy “gamer” aesthetic. And yet
the RAT goes to such an extreme, I find myself
drawn to it. It’s ugly and unrefined, but in a
way that feels purposeful and raw and
intriguing. If Razer’s DeathAdder (go.
pcworld.com/rzda) is the epitome of the
modern gaming mouse, a design copied and
copied and copied until it’s become
characteristic of the entire genre, the RAT is
the exact opposite. There’s nothing else like
it. Even the imitators don’t go quite as far as
Mad Catz, don’t strip
away so much of the
mouse’s traditional
identity.
Of course, it’s more
than just aesthetic. The
RAT’s industrial look is
designed to be
incredibly modular, a
series of knobs and
levers that—at least in
theory—results in the“perfect” mouse. Weight, feel, it’s all
adjustable.
It might require some study though. Trying
to learn the ins and outs of the RAT is, quite
frankly, a pain in the ass. “Ah, I’ve unscrewed
something,” you think, and then...wait, what
happened? Was that piece supposed to
come off? Oh no, what do I do? Keep the
manual nearby, in other words. You’re
probably going to need it.
The RAT 8 is full of tweaks though, big and