Cyber Rodent - Mad Catz R.A.T. 8+ ADV Review

It's been a while since I've reviewed a normal mouse, though normal mice by my definition are usually button and RGB festooned monstrosities that weigh as much as a brick. This one however, takes that to a whole new extreme. This is the R.A.T. 8+ ADV. It's definitely not from this timeline.

When Mad Catz acquired renowned peripheral manufacturer Saitek in 2007, they took on the company's sizable catalog; including the Cyborg brand which focused on futuristically styled and highly adjustable joysticks, mice, and keyboards. Saitek's acquisition immediately elevated Mad Catz into a prime position to carve out a big chunk of the PC gaming peripheral market, but the most iconic product to come from this deal - or infamous, depending on who you ask - was arguably the R.A.T. mouse. 

Just look at this thing.

If Skynet designed a computer mouse, it would've been this. The R.A.T.'s batshit insane design isn't purely aesthetic though, as nearly every component on the mouse was designed to be adjustable to the user's exact preference. This adjustability and spec varied between it's four models though, with the entry level R.A.T. 3 sporting a 3200 DPI sensor and a fixed shape, while the premium R.A.T. 9 had a 5200 DPI sensor, full adjustability, and wireless connectivity to boot. The mid-range R.A.T. 5 and R.A.T. 7 rounded out the space in between, giving buyers a little more choice without sacrificing the core shape.

I had always wanted to try a R.A.T. ever since I got more invested into PC gaming during the 2010s, but they always had that age-old Mad Catz reputation lingering over them like the Sword of Damocles. I think most gamers like myself who played during that time recall Mad Catz as being synonymous with impending failure. As the now former owner of two Mad Catz-era X52 Pro flight sticks, I honestly couldn't have agreed more with that sentiment.

But now I finally have one.

Source: Mad Catz

The R.A.T. 8+ ADV - released in 2021 - is the most hot rodded version of 2017's R.A.T. 8; which in itself is just a beefed up R.A.T. 7. It's still the exact same mouse in terms of design, but it now sports a sensor Mad Catz claims is capable of 20000 DPI along with a 2000 Hz wired polling rate, and RGB. On paper, this gives the R.A.T. 8+ ADV the chops to throw down against the likes of the Razer Basilisk V3 and the Logitech G502 while boasting a far greater range of physical customization. But at $110 MSRP it costs almost as much as the upper-end wireless variants of those same mice.

First things first, let's talk about those looks.

The R.A.T.'s aesthetic has always been polarizing and some might even argue it's helped usher in some of the worst design trends in the PC space during the 2010s. The Razer Ouroboros, the Corsair M65... seriously, it seemed like every brand was trying to ape some portion of Cyborg's aesthetic since these mice came out. Yet despite having come out over a decade since it's predecessors and the lust for over-styled pseudo-mechanical peripherals having died down considerably, the R.A.T. 8+ ADV loses none of those absurd looks. Hell, you might even say it doubled down on them.

The R.A.T. 8+ ADV is decked out with a glossy bright red body with black accents, illuminated by a few spots of RGB lighting. It literally looks like a piece that fell off the EVA-02. This mouse is loud to the point being beyond ugly; it's completely absurd, and you know what? I absolutely love it. Hardly anybody is still making a mouse that takes itself as un-seriously as this one does.

Even the packaging is completely overkill. You know how companies these days like to spew greenwashed bullshit about how sustainable their packaging is, whilst completely disregarding the unrepairable pile of e-waste they ship inside it? Mad Catz is having none of that. You're paying a penny for this fucking mouse so they're giving you a box that makes you want to display it. This clear plastic sarcophagus reminds me of the original Razer Mamba's packaging, and that makes me happy.

But looks mean absolutely nothing if it's not at least put together competently and I'm happy to report the R.A.T. 8+ ADV seems to be built pretty damn well. Like, I set the worst expectations for Mad Catz here, and they just completely blew them up. 

If modern gaming mice are built to be featherlight, this thing is put together like a nuclear submarine. Nothing about the fit, finish for this mouse feels remotely low quality. The plastic exterior shell pieces of the mouse are all attached to an aluminum frame and it feels extremely solid as a result. It doesn't creak or squeak in the slightest when handled and all the movable parts feel tight and controlled.

And it's heavy. My god, this mouse is fucking heavy. It's so heavy that Dave Mustaine would probably try and take credit for it.

The cause of this is not just the aluminum frame and the copious amounts of dense plastic bolted onto it. No sir - that's because this mouse has literal weights in it. If you were born after 2000 and wondering why the actual hell you would want to ADD weight to a mouse, remember the design of this mouse dates back to when Myspace was still a household name. Back then, sticking heavy chunks of metal in your mouse presumably gave you that extra edge in the same way that poking a gazillion speed holes in it does now. I'm sure it'll be something else entirely in another ten years or so.

The R.A.T. 8+ ADV comes with three 6 gram weights that slide onto a post in the back of the mouse. These weights can take the mouse's already nutty 146 gram unloaded weight up to a completely comical 164 grams. That weighs more than most wireless mice. Just for perspective, the Razer Basilisk V3 weighs 114 grams - a feather by comparison.

The default shape of the mouse sports a low and wide shape that's relatively grip agnostic but I find it caters especially well to a hybrid palm/claw grip user like myself. The most interesting part about all this comes when you actually put your hand on the R.A.T. for the first time. In the pictures it's an awfully intimidating looking device with it's hyper-aggressive styling and a bunch of exposed mechanical bits sticking out of it. In reality; it actually feels almost completely normal. It kind of blew my mind, really.

In a world of matte textured mice, the glossy finish is bit unusual but I actually don't mind it. It feels alright and again; looks the business. Most ABS bodied mice shine up with age anyways so why not just get it over with from the start? Besides - I'd rather have this than the notoriously poorly aged rubberized coating the older versions of the R.A.T. seemed to use.

Like most gaming mice of this general shape, Mad Catz opted for the usual arrangement of two "forward" and "back" thumb buttons flanked by a "sniper button". This allows you to temporarily drop the DPI of the mouse when the button is held so you can gain a little extra precision for a tough shot. The button sits more flush than the equivalents from Logitech and Razer - and while that might make it more difficult to press for some - I personally like that it stays well out of the way.

Generally speaking, the buttons on the R.A.T. all feel pretty good, especially the main left and right click buttons. As far as I can tell, they're just basic Omron mechanical switches so they aren't boasting any exotic switch lifetimes thanks to optical wizardry like the other guys, but the actuation just feels meaty. Likewise, the additional buttons and scroll click don't have any real sponginess either.

Oh and let's not forget to talk about that barrel scroll. It's not some weird aesthetic gimmick - it actually does work and it's a nice stand in considering the lack of a tilting scroll wheel. Mad Catz tried to bill this thing as a gaming tool for use "corner peeking" or whatever but these are actually more common in productivity mice like the Logitech MX Master. For people who actually work and game with the same mouse, it's very nice to have. It is set pretty deep within the body though and I actually have to curl my thumb inward under my index finger to use it. Definitely not as elegant as the barrel scroll on the MX Master, but I'm glad it's there.

That being said, the actual scroll wheel is probably the weakest part of the R.A.T.'s entire core design. It's not even a bad scroll wheel if we're being honest - except it's set so deep and just far enough forward that it's more than a little awkward to use at times. I find it's actually sometimes more comfortable just using my middle finger to scroll rather than my index finger like I normally use on mice. It looks like it's basically the same setup as the old mice but this something Mad Catz absolutely didn't need to carry over.

But it's moments like this where the rest of the the mouse's party tricks might start to come into their own.

Let's say that, yeah none of this is really working for your grip. Frankly, the sculpting really isn't all that aggressive on this mouse and most of the grip faces are relatively flat with no dramatic curves. It doesn't really impact the R.A.T. in terms of usability, but it might not feel "right" the first time out of the box compared to more conventional mouse designs. So, the R.A.T. offers two additional palm rests - one elevated and one textured, two more side grips - textured and a finger rest, along with an adjustable thumb rest.

The R.A.T. can change to suit any hand - even if the end result makes it look like this.

Most of these parts can be swapped out or adjusted with the use of a hex key stored in the heel of the mouse with the exception of the palm rest - which can just be moved back and forth with the use of a spring loaded locking catch. It's a very slick and gloriously overengineered system. Just on cool factor alone, it's not hard to see why so many companies tried copying this concept back when the mouse was at it's most popular.

Personally, I like the high arched feel of mice like the Basilisk and MX Master so I personally opted for the elevated palm rest and just moved it back a notch. I also moved the thumb rest slightly forward so my thumb falls right in the middle of the button cluster.

But all that customization can also be a bit overwhelming. You do spend an awful lot of time fine tuning this thing, hunting for that perfect shape. When you do, it's worth is a bit questionable anyways because at that point - it's not going to feel dramatically different from a mouse that just feels right straight out of the box. But hey - nobody is ever going to knock your mouse for being boring.

By default, the mouse rides on five PTFE feet and they're... tiny. Absolutely, comically tiny feet. I mean, it still technically glides and feels pretty smooth on a mouse mat, but these feet having to shift that much weight around just doesn't seem like an overly smart decision.

Thankfully, the PixArt PMW3389 sensor rated at 20000 DPI is very solid. It's not a true flagship sensor like the glass tracking 30000 DPI one used in the Basilisk V3 Pro, but the PMW3389 has so much to give that you're probably no going to care it's shy of that on paper anyways. It's a great sensor. Besides - unless you love copious amounts of jitter - I highly doubt you're going to be running more than 3200 DPI in most use cases, including gaming.

BUT, the 2000 Hz polling rate is a lie.

According to TechPowerUp, the mouse actually sends two packets of information at a time - effectively doubling the polling rate under certain test conditions. In reality, it still shows up and behaves as 1000 Hz. I went ahead and tested it myself using CPSTEST.org's polling rate tester and it appeared to confirm this finding. Even with the mouse set to it's 2000 Hz setting, it only still registers at 1000 Hz.

Now, I couldn't give less of shit that this mouse only has a 1000 Hz max polling rate - that's quite literally the most any person realistically needs - but when you advertise something greater than that? I actually expect to see it. I genuinely don't know what Mad Catz was thinking here beyond trying to be misleading.

On the software end, the R.A.T. 8+ ADV offers most of the bells and whistles that other high end gaming mice provide. You can map up to four on-board profiles that can be switched between on the fly along with button mapping, macro customization and RGB zone editing. It's all laid out a bit haphazardly however and I find navigating these menus to be a little bit of a pain. On the plus side, the software is very lightweight and doesn't run background processes or ask for personal information - unlike Razer Synapse.

With and without Angle Snap at 800 DPI, A4, 25 px 

There's also some more niche features like being able to adjust the forward angle of the mouse - or "rotax" as Mad Catz calls it, liftoff distance, and something called angle snap. The latter is exactly what it sounds like. It's basically an additional layer of smoothing that can - per Mad Catz own words - make "lines drawn in Paint appear smooth". It indeed does, but I literally cannot think of any other application where this would be useful, especially considering how good the sensor already is.

Among other gripes I have is the cable is pretty stiff so you will probably notice some drag while using the mouse - especially without a bungee. And honestly, the fact that it's even wired to begin with is equally baffling. I know this is still technically an update of the R.A.T. 7 and not the R.A.T. 9, but I would've much rather had a modernized version of that mouse instead.

The hex key threads into the heel of the mouse, and also helps secure the weights.

All-in-all it's a reasonably well featured and good performing mouse wrapped up in a dated, albeit gloriously over-engineered housing. I do genuinely like using it because it really does just feel overbuilt in ways that most modern gaming mice have largely strayed away from, and it feels surprisingly normal once you get it dialed into you preferences. Once you put your hand on it, you largely forget you're using a hyper adjustable desk rodent that looks like it was penned by Yoji Shinkawa.

And that's the problem.

The biggest issue with this mouse is pretty obvious from the start: it's extremely niche - and expensive. The mass market moved on from modular heavyweight mice years ago. You can get something just as well featured, but lighter and fully wireless for about the same - if not less money. You'd have be in totally unquestionable love with the R.A.T.'s design in order to justify dropping $110 for it.

Just for comparison's sake, the legendary Logitech G502 Lightspeed costs $90 as of writing, has largely the same basic feature set and is wireless to boot. Even better: the Razer Basilisk V3 Pro (not the newly phoned in 35K model) can be had for just $95 now and it's still the best jack-of-all trades mouse I've ever used. And that's before you dive into the sea of unknown branded - yet highly competent mice littering Amazon and other online storefronts.

The R.A.T. is still an incredibly versatile mouse, but it's done to such an extreme that I'd call it utterly excessive for the actual needs of most people. Should you buy it? I guess that entirely depends on what your needs are. But for the average person? I'd keep looking.

But if that revised R.A.T. 9 or wireless M.M.O 7 ever comes out? Count me in.

What's Good

• Genuinely comfortable with more adjustments than you'll ever need.
• Looks like it came from 100 years in the future.
• Excellent build quality and switches.
• Great sensor performance.

What's Crap

• Weighs as much as a brick.
• No wireless option and the cable is pretty stiff.
• Complex design makes it difficult to clean.
• 2000 Hz polling rate is a lie.

Verdict

For the right person, this is an endgame worthy desk rodent - but you'd have to REALLY want this design to justify it's otherwise questionable value.