The Razer Boomslang is named after the deadly South African boomslang, a tree- and bush-dwelling snake whose bite can be fatal to humans. Thank me later when you whip out that bit of trivia at your next social gathering!

So, the Boomslang 1000 and 2000 were manufactured and marketed as mouse killers, since Boomslangs' precision was so high that you'd have killed your (normal mouse-wielding) opponents five times over before they could even think about firing a shot at you.

Does the Boomslang 2000 live up to that promise? Oh yeah.

What's the big deal?
The Boomslang 2000 operates at 2000 dpi (dots per inch), far overshadowing the sensitivity of an ordinary mouse. In other words, you could just twitch your Boomslang one inch over your mousepad, and your pointer would have swept from one edge of your screen to another. With an ordinary mouse, the same movement would only move the pointer part of the way across the screen.

In everyday use, this is NOT a good thing. You wouldn't want to have to fight your mouse, Boomslang or no, just to move windows around or run applications. But then again, if that's what you bought the Boomslang for, you might want to read the packaging again to see that this is a mouse meant for hardcore gamers.

If you play a first person shooter (FPS) such as Quake III: Arena, Unreal Tournament, Half-Life, or CounterStrike, this is the mouse for you. If you have the patience to climb the Boomslang's learning curve, you'll arrive a vastly improved gamer with more successes under your belt.

I'm not a hardcore gamer, by the way...
I'm really not, though I'd rank myself higher than, say, an enthusiast. But being a gadget freak meant that I was inescapably drawn to the nearest gaming store to purchase this much-hyped mouse killer.

Obtaining the Boomslang
I don't care how much money you make, $99 for a mouse is steep. But I paid it, making sure I could return the mouse if I had any problems.

The dark, almost brooding black cardboard packaging is clearly aimed at FPS players, while the Boomslang itself is inside a round silver "cookie" tin. I don't think the Danish had anything to do with it, however ;). The Boomslang itself is quite a heavy for a mouse, and its six-foot cord was much appreciated, considering the way I have to wire peripherals around my desk.

The Boomslang uses a USB interface, since the documentation states that the amount of data it sends to your computer could not be handled via an ordinary serial port. That's fine.

Two long and wide left and right mouse buttons (of equal size) flank a small, dark scroll wheel, and two side-mounted buttons (one on each side of the mouse, just behind the left and right mouse buttons) can aid in extra FPS button assignments. In Internet Explorer, they act as Forward and Back buttons--neat.

Installation went smoothly, and I was able to use the mouse in Windows.

Feel
Whoa! If you've never experienced a Boomslang, you'll soon realize that your old mouse was merely a club compared to the scalpel that is the Boomslang (sorry, that was corny). My mouse pointer flew wildly from corner to corner of my monitor until I started to get the hang of the Boomslang's sensitivity.

Like I said before, the Boomslang isn't meant for everyday use, but for FPSs, so I quickly loaded Unreal Tournament.

The result was disconcertingly the same: my character spun like a top when all I wanted to do was look left or right. But again, I knew it would take time, and I soon adjusted to the Boomslang's precision.

Did it pay off? I'll say. I'm no "fragmaster" (I don't want a title like that anyway, I'll just keep my day job), just a casual FPS gamer, but once I got the hang of the Boomslang, my kills increased dramatically. I never ran out of mousing room again, and found the Boomslang's side buttons and wheel to be of immense help, minimizing the amount of keyboard input that is so necessary in FPSs.

Conclusion
The Boomslang 2000 is one serious piece of gaming hardware, if you're into FPSs. If you REALLY get the hang of the Boomslang, you can also use it in Windows, though I wouldn't recommend it.

But if any of the games I've mentioned above stir your soul (or just interest you), the Boomslang is a necessary purchase. The Boomslang's manufacturer, karna technology, is having some funding problems, so if you want to get a Boomslang, hurry! You won't be sorry.

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 99