Gamers will look for any edge they can find to one-up their opponents in competition. Be it a certain graphics setting, or a specialized input peripheral, anything is fair game to eke out that extra split second that could mean the difference between victory and defeat. We’re taking a look at the latter of those two options; a specialized game pad from the folks at Wolfking.
The Warrior XXtreme Game Pad is an upgraded and enhanced version of the original Wolfking Warrior. Where as the Warrior was just the WASD keys clustered together into a round pad, the Warrior XXtreme adds a round QWERTY keyboard. That with the use of the word extreme with two X’s means this has got to be better right?
All joking aside, while the original warrior was targeted primarily at those who play first person shooters the Warrior Xxtreme has a much broader scope. With the extra keys, it may also be useful to MMO players and the odd RTS. Here’s a quick run down of the Warrior Xxtreme features. All the details can be found on the product home page.
- 49 Key WARRIOR Game Pad
- Circular 40 Key QWERTY Keyboard
- Enlarged custom shaped keys
- Audio Controls
- K Lock Key
- Compact Size
- 2 USB Ports on top side of keyboard
- Ice Blue Backlighting
- 2 Elevation Risers on back of keyboard
As for the price of admission for supposed gaming nirvana, the Wolfking Warrior Xxtreme is neither a bargain nor over priced. The typical street price for this game pad is $70 USD. For your money, all you get is the game pad and a manual. There’s no included software, as the Warrior Xxtreme emulates the same key signals sent by a standard keyboard. Either way, the sticker price places this keyboard in the same price bracket as many other so-called gaming peripherals.
I don’t know if it’s apparent yet, but I’m sceptical as to the usefulness of these types of gaming peripherals. The same scepticism was shown in my review of the Microsoft Sidewinder Mouse. The Warrior Xxtreme is – maybe unfairly – even more of a target due to it’s unorthodox look and design. We’ll have to see how Wolfking’s claims pan out, but first we’ll need to see what makes this Warrior worthy of a XX extreme rating.
A Closer Look
As noted before, the Wolfking Warrior Xxtreme has a dual personality. One side is configured for movement in 3D games like shooters and MMOs, and the other has a full complement of keys in a split QWERTY setup. Along the top are audio controls, an Escape key, some extra functions, and lighting control. As for the finish, it’s the same smudge prone piano black.
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This is the part of the Warrior Xxtreme that most everyone will be familiar with, as it’s near identical to the original Wolfking Warrior. The key layout is exactly the same. In fact, with the WASD keys being clustered closely, and the most used functions positioned underneath them. This pad is designed with the gamer’s hand in hand; there’s even two CTRL buttons should your hand be too big for the inside one. It should be noted that the configuration of these keys match the default setup for Counter Strike, so if your game of choice is something different you may need to do some tweaking.
This is the part that makes this Warrior Xxtreme…extreme. This left hand panel contains a full QWERTY keyboard split in two. The left half of the standard QWERTY keyboard is found on the top half of this portion, and the right half the standard keyboard is found on the bottom half of the Xxtreme side of the warrior. The intention behind this is to enable one handed typing, or have a quickly accessible area to have macros and key bindings setup in.
Speaking to both those ideas I can say that typing is doable, but very slow and requiring a great deal of practice. The split QWERTY design is definitely not the most ergonomic or efficient for typing with one hand in such a fashion. As for key bindings and macros, such things can be achieved by a standard keyboard, though they may not be in such a compact space.
That brings up another point; the size of the Warrior Xxtreme. The original Wolfking Warrior comes with a claim of portability. With its singular disc shape and diminutive size, it was easily able to stand up to those claims. The Warrior Xxtreme on the other hand is almost as big as a standard keyboard, and to be used would need to supplant your main keyboard completely. This means that you would need to essentially have two keyboards connected to your one gaming rig. If you really want a specialized gaming device like the Warrior Xxtreme, this may be a non-issue, but it is something to be aware of.
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Added Features
Over and above the added QWERTY keypad, this is the only new feature added to the original Warrior design. That new feature is a blue backlight behind all the keys. This is said by Wolfking to increase visibility in low-light environments. With how bright and vibrant this backlight is, I’m not doubting that claim. From the look of things, this backlight is some sort of large electroluminescent panel. That would indeed explain the brightness, and hopefully prevent the light intensity from fading over time like some other gaming keyboards I’ve used.
The backlight is controlled in a simple on/off fashion by the large light switch at the top of the Warrior Xxtreme. This button is clustered with a few other function keys, including some audio controls. This cluster includes the escape key (Esc), Windows key, (W-Key), and something called K-Lock. This key locks the K button in the on position, which is used for voice chat in some games.
Finally, on the top edge on the Warrior Xxtreme sits two USB ports. This is similar to the Wolfking Warrior, with only the location of the ports having changed.
Testing and Use
I had mentioned before that the key configuration on the Wolfking Warrior Xxtreme closely matched, as was geared towards, the default setup used in Counter Strike and it’s various iterations. I might as well come out and say I’ve only even played one hour of CS in my entire time as a gamer. It’s not my cup of tea. Therefore my testing will focus on other games, and how I was able to adapt them to the Warrior Xxtreme.
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Team Fortress 2
First up is my perennial favourite, the cartoony Team Fortress 2. Good Times! This frantic team based first person shooter relies on equal parts constant movement (constant holding of the keys) and split second decisions (quickly pressing the right keys). In this game I found it hard to quantify the benefit of the Warrior Xxtreme.
The first thing I had to do was go through the process of re-mapping some of the controls for TF2 to their intended positions on the game pad. Once this was done, I found that the Warrior Xxtreme was a mild improvement over the standard keyboard I was using. The keys were definitely responsive, and I had very little issue with reaching them. I did indeed find that the position of some the keys made for a much more comfortable experience, as I didn’t have to contort my hand into weird angles to reach particular functions.
Now since this is a team based multiplayer game, communication is very important. Voice chat is built in, and is typically mapped to the V key. I of course remapped it to K to follow the spec outlined, which worked fine. However there were still some situations that necessitated text chat. For that I would use the right side of the keyboard, which was rendered difficult by the layout of the keys. This split QWERTY design is truly neither familiar nor ergonomic.
Crysis
I thought I’d try a different FPS game, and switched over to Crysis. Unlike TF2 where you are always on the move, Crysis has a great deal of sneaking and standing still. This type of game benefits a lot more from a good mouse than a specialized keyboard. Granted the same thing could be said about using this keyboard as could be said about using it in TF2. The keys on left hand side were well placed and responsive. The keys on the right were relatively useless, which meant I needed to find a game that would truly make use of the entire Warrior Xxtreme.
Supreme Commander
Unfortuntely that game is World of Warcraft; a game I quit a long time ago. So I turned to the one genre we haven’t touched on. Supreme Command is one large real-time strategy game, and you indeed need a few extra controls to get a handle on everything. This is one area where you would think the Warrior Xxtreme would find itself very useful. Unfortunately that was once again a half truth. This time the unfamiliar layout of the right hand keypad was the Warrior Xxtreme’s downfall.
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Final Thoughts and Conclusion
It’s really hard to knock the Wolfking Warrior Xxtreme after using it. This keyboard is clean, responsive, and at least halfways well designed. It’s priced in a fairly standard bracket, and is readily available. It even has some interesting features. Really all we can do is run down what’s been covered.
On both sides of the board you’ll find responsive keys with solid tactile feedback. The WASD cluster is laid out in a fashion that provides your fingers with shortest route to the needed key. This aides in comfort by preventing you the gamer from having to contort your hand in ways that would make Gumby scream. The added features make the experience all the better, especially the bright cool blue backlight.
Unfortunately certain questions of usefulness pop up, especially when considering the right mounted single hand keyboard. The keys are in a layout that is unfamiliar, and not very ergonomic even after you’ve gotten used to them. This makes it difficult to use for text based in-game chats, the one thing t’s most suited for, and renders it to a button farm for macros and combination key bindings.
In the end, we’re really left reviewing what Wolfking claims this product is good for. They say that it should be good for FPS, RTS, and MMO titles. In reality, the Wolfking Warrior Xxtreme is a jack of all trades, and a master of none. Only one half of the keyboard is useful in FPS, and the other half in RTS. I could only find myself using this regularly if I found myself in the realms of Azeroth on World of Warcraft again. The keyboard is technologically sound. It just tries to be too much to too many.
The Good
- Responsive keys
- Excellent layout on the WASD cluster
- Compact design
- Bright backlight
- Quick installation
The Bad
- Though small, still almost as big as full size keyboard
- Unfamiliar layout on the right hand keyboard
- Ergonomics of right hand keyboard not great
Overall Rating: 7.0/10.0
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