WolfKing Warrior Review
For those of you deeper into the gaming scene, no doubt you have put down some cold, hard cash every now and then for a gaming peripheral. A steering wheel to make you better at racing games, a customizable keyboard to boost your kill:death ratio, or maybe a weighted mouse to give you that better feel. That's exactly what this WolfKing Warrior is.
Just looking at it straight out of the box, one is likely to assume "Oh, I can just replace my normal keyboard with this!". I assure you, this is not the case. The layout is not tailored at all for typing, and it is also missing a few keys (the most glaring of which is the enter key). This isn't really a downside, though, as it is very much marketed towards a gaming environment and can also be used in conjunction with a normal keyboard.
Before I hit the next part of this review, I thought I might offer a note: I am a hardcore keyboard-mouse only enthusiast. My keyboard has lasted me for the better part of a decade and my mouse has seen almost the same amount of use.
The feel of the Wolf King is odd compared to a normal keyboard, and will take getting used to before it is comfortable. The key layout places the most functional keys close to your finger spread for a normal keyboard, and even has the traditional WASD layout, for the most part, so it's really designed to appeal to people used to keyboards. However, some keys, such as the Alt and F12 keys, require either a flexible finger or creative handwork to hit quickly.
The feel of the keys themselves is both nice and disappointing. The keys are barely curved, which allows your finger to rest against them without much fear of slipping and hitting the wrong key. However, they are missing the bump usually used to indicate home keys (in this case, one on the w would have been nice), and they are missing the familiar click that most keyboards have. While this seems like nitpicking, it means you have to actively hold down the key rather than just pressing it and letting your finger rest. This wears out your hand pretty quickly. It also takes a little practice to get used to the keys your thumb naturally gravitates to.
In terms of game support, this peripheral has legs. Since it's really just a redesigned keyboard, it's ridiculously easy to bind the keys however you want them, and it worked on each game I tried it on without a hitch. However, I utilized defaults on the games I tried, so I'll go by those. For skill activation, it's fairly easy to use your skills 0-6. 7-9 require a little stretching to reach, but it's doable. Your movement keys are your home keys by a wide margin, being the center of the peripheral. The rest of the keys, which really depended on the game I was playing, were fairly easy to hit, although the distance of the right-side keys made some things (such as looting in Tabula Rasa) a bit of a challenge.
Overall, I'd say that the WolfKing is a solid peripheral for those just starting to get into the peripheral scene. Its keyboard-inspired layout, obvious focus on the essential keys being as close as possible, and universal compatibility really make it good for beginners. The more hardcore, though will probably be miffed by the pressure required for the keys, the distance from the farther keys to the home keys, and the non-ergonomic layout.
You can expect to throw down between $30-$40 for a WolfKing Warrior, and the site offers a good list of retailers and sites to buy one at.
[Thanks to Trey M. and Lucas V. for their assistance on this article!]
