The HORI Tactical Assault Commander Pro, or Tac Pro for short, is a mouse and keypad designed for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4. It's also officially licensed by Sony, and doesn't require in-game support of mouse and keyboard to work, as it basically just emulates a controller.
This is both good and bad news for the gadget. Let's take a look at both below.
The Good
There are two really great things about the Tac Pro.
First of all, it's super easy to set up. You plug the keypad into your PS4 and the mouse into the keypad and then turn it on. It's plug and play and you'll be off to the races---or the competitive FPS matches---within moments. No muss, no fuss.
The second cool thing is that you'll be using a mouse and keyboard to play console shooters like Call of Duty and Destiny. In CoD, in spite of some of the "bad" stuff below, I performed noticeably better than with a gamepad, improving my rank, my kill-death-ratio, and so forth.
Aiming with the mouse is definitely more precise with the Tac Pro than with a gamepad.
Unfortunately, it still leaves a lot to be desired.
The Bad
The mouse is the real problem with the Tac Pro. Even with the sensitivity boosted all the way, you simply can't move the mouse with the accuracy and speed you need to perform well in matches. It's one thing aiming at a distant enemy; it's quite another when anything up close and personal.
In other words, small precision movement like aiming works great. But try to turn quickly and you find yourself madly swiping the mouse, only to turn at snail's pace. If someone gets close to you, you're a goner. It's just nothing at all like using a regular mouse set-up on a PC. The trade-off between better accuracy at a distance and controlled, quick movement is a big one. Yes, my numbers improved, but I felt like an imbecile whenever I had to do basic things like turn around.
This gets worse in some games. I could barely play at all in Destiny, for instance, which is much more in-your-face than Call of Duty.
The keypad, meanwhile, is set-up fairly well, but many will want to remap the keys. That's easy enough to do, but it never became quite intuitive for me. The thing is, it's nothing like a PC keyboard with PC mapping. The PlayStation gamepad is simply mapped to various keys on the Tac Pro, which is set up kind of like the left side of a keyboard, but not quite. The subtle differences can be overcome, but expect a learning curve even with remapping.
Another small complaint: The keypad itself is designed to be ergonomic and fit your hand comfortably, but it was a little less comfortable than a standard keyboard for me. Maybe that's simply because I'm used to a regular keyboard, though, it's hard to say.
The Ugly
The Tac Pro is a visually attractive gadget, so there's nothing really "ugly" about it other than its price-tag. Here's where we really get into the most problematic thing about the Tac Pro. It costs $149.99. That includes both the keypad and mouse, but the mouse is nothing to write home about, and some users have reported that replacing it with a gaming mouse has improved performance.
So you're paying $150 plus tax for a keypad and mouse set-up that only works okay. If it made shooter performance on consoles as good as it is on PC, that might justify the cost. As it stands, it's half the price of a PS4 bundle.
As such, I simply can't give the Tac Pro a "Buy" rating on my Buy/Hold/Sell scale. Yes, it improved performance on CoD, but not enough to justify the investment. I will give the Tac Pro a "Hold" however. At a more reasonable price-point, I can see how this could be a great option for some console gamers, though that comes with a caveat. Until something is done to fix the mouse's level of responsiveness, I simply don't think this device is worth a purchase. That's a shame, because I love the concept and it's officially licensed by Sony. But without a faster, more accurate mouse much of the Tac Pro's reason for being is moot.
HORI Tactical Assault Commander Pro
Manufacturer: HORI
Price: $149.99 (at Amazon, not an affiliate link)
Score: 6/10
