Hydra PC Gaming Controllers

To be fair I've held off my review since buying the Hydra to give it some more time so that I could adjust and calm down after my initial frustration. Unfortunately, after taking the time to read up in the Sixsense forums and test it with 15 different games ranging from RTS to FPS and RPG games I still cannot recommend it. The technology behind the Hydra is sound in concept, but it's implementation lacks the polish that could make motion gaming hit it big with PC Gaming Enthusiasts. That coupled with the Software on Razer's side has marred my experience greatly (what Sixsense has done with software and drivers is much better, more on this later). Non existent documentation for setup and configuration was a huge letdown. The average gamer that might want to try motion gaming for the first time isn't going to have an easy time getting this working well with their games. I was really excited to try this because I use both the Kinect and PlayStation Move for gaming and admittedly they are both pretty much hassle free, but I had higher hopes for the Hydra because I am a Hardcore PC Gamer at heart. A lot of people view motion gaming as a gimmick, but it's not. It's just not for everyone. As for the Hydra it's a handful in more ways than one. *************************************************************************************************************** ***The Positive: Before I get to the negative I'd like to also add some positive feedback. The responsiveness is second to none. It truly is amazing what they have done to make true 1-1 tracking with an accuracy within 1mm and with precision tracking up to 1 degree. The buttons are very responsive. The trigger's on each controller provide a good amount of resistance that will offer most gamers a good experience. Another reviewer stated that it is extremely poor build quality, but the build quality is just fine. The cables are very solid and are reenforced with mesh material which can be annoying, but they planned for them to last. The software developer's are actively pursuing new ways to integrate the drivers and software into Steam to offer a better overall experience for the end user. I''ve also heard they are trying to make it easier to manage custom button mapping. I think it's great that out of the box they have bult in profiles for most games (make sure to use the Motion Creator Software from Sixsense for this, not what Razer offers on their website). The Cables are long enough that you really don't need to worry if you'll have a problem with reaching where you need to play from (the actual mico USB cable from the base station to the computer is a little short, but you don't need the base station centered on your desk. ***The Negative: There is no documentation that helps you get past the initial hardware setup (you are shown how to plug it in and install the software with the click of a mouse). First off the software on Razer's website isn't the most recent software available. There is actually another company, Sixsense, that you'll need to deal with to get the most recent hardware profiles they call MCEs, which make the Hydra compatible with a larger list of games. Before I could even download the software I needed to register on their website and then wait for 24 hours before an administrator approved my account and gave me access to the forum downloads. Once installed most, if not all, of my games were recognized. There are different modes available which are kinda like pre-configured profiles for different controller schemes. These are mostly used for FPS games, which makes sense I guess. The only problem is that there isn't an easy way to change button mappings. You'll need to edit the code in each MCE (profile). For some people this is simple and for others this is going be a deal breaker. One really nice feature with the Sixsense "Motion Creation" software is that it will let you see a great pictured representation of the button mappings to help you visualize what each button will do for each game. I like the idea of MCE's that come pre-configured for most games available, but the software really needs some graphical way to more easily manipulate button mappings on the fly. My main problems with the Razer Hydra come into play under actual use. Upon launching any game the cursor is in a different part of the screen (not centered, off to one extreme side), even after supposedly calibrating the controllers. The position varies and is not consistent across all games, while other games work just fine. This makes games unplayable in some circumstances. The reason it makes them unplayable is that calibration depends very heavily on your physical positioning from the base. So if your cursor is to the extreme left then you need to physically situate your body to the right to compensate. This I think is one of the major drawbacks to motion gaming as it currently exists with the Hydra, that's why I said that the concept is sound, but it's implementation has marred my experience. I've yet to find documentation that shows how to easily re-calibrate the cursor's position while in game. Logically once calibrated it should stay consistent across whatever application is used with the acception of the button mappings which obviously need to change on a per game basis. It is however easy enough to re-calibrate/center the cursor when out of a game by just pressing the center button on your right controller when you have the Hydra controller in what you would call neutral position (centered). Another problem that is plaguing my game play is jitter. I can be holding the controller completely still and still have an excessive amount of jitter on screen which makes for a horrible experience in any game when using motion controls. Jitter makes any FPS unplayable. I've found it easy enough to just disable the motion controls and use the Hydra in dual analog mode (basically use it as a gamepad), but this defeats the purpose of owning it if you can't reliably use the motion controls. This might be a little hard for me to explain, but here goes: It acts like a mouse which is great, but in one sense it can be frustrating. I want you to try something, do this without a second monitor or on the locked sides (vertical instead of horizontal) of your monitors if you have two. First make sure your mouse cursor is on the extreme right hand side of your monitor's screen (the end of the screen). Then take your mouse and set it on the left side of your mouse pad, now move your mouse until you get to the right hand side of your mouse pad then go to the left. Notice how the mouse cursor immediately ignores the actual physical position of your mouse and the cursor will move as long as your mouse movement moves it within the constrained boundaries of your monitor. This is, shall we say, normal and has always been like this. If you ever need to you can compensate easily for this by raising your mouse and placing it further left or right. So if you are all the way left on your mouse pad and need to move the cursor further left then you just pick your mouse up and set it down further to the right on your mouse pad. When you start using the Razor Hydra; a device that uses magnetic fields to monitor the continual relative physical position of the device in 3D space, this can really be a hassle to deal with. However it is easy enough to re-calibrate in windows with the press of a button, but like I said earlier I've not found a way to do so in game. I've found that the controllers themselves are not very comfortable to hold in their neutral position. This is due mostly to how large they are in relation to my hands. When held properly (in the neutral position) it is relatively difficult to press the buttons with ease and also have your thumb in the proper position to use the analog stick. The overall button spacing makes it easy to press two buttons at once as well, which I have done a number of times. It's also very easy to confuse which controller is left and which is right because they aren't labeled clearly (I can't even tell what labeling shows if ones is right or left). I guess they are designated as "left" and "right" every time you calibrate the Hydra? Some people might find that the cables used are very rigged and get in the way as well. I was really hoping for a good experience with the Hydra. After a lot of frustration and troubleshooting I decided to just send it back and get a refund. If the unit didn't experience any jitter and the software was easier to manage in game (mainly issues with claibration) I'd give it a 4 out of 5. Out of all the reviews I've given on Amazon this is, I think, the second 1 star review I have ever given. I don't know if my unit has some defects or simply that this is the experience for anyone who uses the Hydra. This has been my first experience with Razer and if it's any indication of what I could expect with their other products then I'll stick to another manufacture of computer peripherals.