How does it play?

Do good piano players need to look at their hands dancing on the piano keys when they play a piece of music? No. Neither should FPS gamers. In this case, the odd orientation of the keys definitely would make you do just that. One glance at your keyboard could mean certain death in an FPS, yet, that is what we experienced especially in the first week or so of using the Warrior. Constant look-downs and button confusion were the norm during the first few days, but that is to be expected. Your mind can’t simply change that easily from what is known and comfortable. It is probably akin to driving in a foreign country where you have to drive on the left side of the road. Yes, it is still driving, but then one has to get used to the new regulations, different seating orientation (driver’s wheel on the right hand side of the car), and trying not to play chicken with the locals when one veer over the middle divider. Does it sound hectic and chaotic at first? Yes. Such is the feeling we got when first testing out the Warrior.

After getting accustomed to the new layout (keep in mind that it was extremely hard to do so, as we were so used to the standard keyboard layout for years) it became tolerable and we became more proficient at the game, thinking less and less of where the keys were and more about the game at hand. The gamer’s brain must be slightly untrained to accept he new protocol. Once instinct took over, the frag counts piled up as normal.

Once we settled into our new routine, and re-assigning keys to make sense on the new key cluster, we didn’t really feel anything different, nor did we perform better in our FPS’s. We just ended up feeling that this was just another keyboard that wants to be different, but ultimately does not help the gamer play better. It is probably more of a psychological effect that may make the gamer think he is playing better. Much like an athlete who just bought a $200 pair of sneakers.

One major drawback is evident when trying to type a message to your server mates. Gamers have to peel their eyes away from the Warrior, move their fingers to the main full-size keyboard, type their message, press ENTER (the enter button is missing from the Warrior) and then re-plant their fingers on the Warrior’s WASD keys. Again, this will feel very unnatural.

This means, of course, that gamers will need the extra tabletop real estate to accommodate the Warrior in addition to the mousepad and the main keyboard. Forget about those under-desk keyboard sliding trays, as that will only usually fit just a keyboard and medium-sized mousepad. This is another drawback for gamers with small desks or those who want the uncluttered look.

What the Warrior really needs is some plastic “stubs” that protrude from the four primary WASD keys, so during the heat of battle, if the gamer loses their placement, they can re-set their fingers properly without having to look down on the keyboard. These stub indicators can be felt on the “J” and “F” keys of full-size keyboards.

Another big problem is the location of the tilde (~) key, which is rather large and is placed on the bottom left corner near the oft-used Ctrl keys. Many a time we tried to press Ctrl, when the tilde key gets pressed – and the console window pops down, effectively taking us out of the fight. A wise gamer would be wise to un-assign the tilde key to the console window unless he has very nimble and cooperative fingers.

The K button seems a tad misplaced, next to the number Zero in the same arc as the number keys. We wonder why the K was jammed there, instead of making the Tab larger – which would have been a more useful feature. The number keys were arrayed logically, and it was easy to find and press the specific number we needed without too much hassle.
In the end, we don’t believe the effort and the initial aggravation of learning this new layout is worth the outcome (which doesn’t really help improve performance and enjoyment) - and this comes from a guy who has been playing games and FPSs since the mid 80’s. In short, the difference, if any – is minimal.