In the war torn, semi-nuclear future we will probably all be fighting a massive battle against a variety of mutants, machines and aliens. Unfortunately, until we get a chance to experience this fun-filled scenario for ourselves, the next best thing is jumping into a video game with a suitably named peripheral and shooting some monsters; at least that's what Anyware Computer Accessories seems to think. Their Cyber Sniper gaming keyboard is clearly aimed at those who think gaming image is paramount (and those that are still young enough to think 'Cyber Snipa' is cool). Unfortunately whilst it operates fairly well as a basic keyboard and has an appropriate name along with certain design elements, functionally it really isn't a 'gaming keyboard' at all.

We weren't huge fans of the design. It has a space age look to it; a predominantly silver and black motif speckled with blue LEDs that seem capable of lighting up a room on their own. Unfortunately a combination of these colours and an awful lot of shiny plastic lends the whole unit a very cheap feel. Several of the keys were poorly mounted and we were concerned for the durability of this model in the long run. Aesthetics aside, this is a fairly standard keyboard. It sports the usual array of media buttons, including mute and play/pause, but sadly there is no track skip option. There are Internet links to Email and your Bookmarks, as well as Calculator, Sleep and My Computer buttons. As a 'gaming keyboard' we were expecting a little something extra; some macro buttons, an extra array of gaming keys; something to differentiate it from the pack, but unfortunately there is nothing to see here folks. This is a regular keyboard with some fancy lights.

That said, it typed fairly well. It wasn't quite the amazing, smooth typing experience of something like the Belkin Wireless Slim Keyboard and Optical Mouse, but we had no complaints. As it is a wired model, there were no skipping problems and everything operated smoothly.

One noteworthy feature of this model is the fact that it acts as a USB hub and sports both headphone and microphone jacks. Depending on where your tower actually sits in relation to the rest of your PC setup, having a few spare USB ports inches away is extremely nifty and whilst we didn't use the audio ports ourselves they most certainly won't go to waste.