MSI Gaming Centre + MSI Mystic Light

The software today mimics the same suite in my recent review of MSI's high-end gaming keyboard and mouse combo, which you can find here. The gaming center acts more as a control suite for MSI's mice, keyboards, and other devices. MSI Mystic Light controls... well, just that. The RGB lighting found on all of MSI's high-end gaming peripherals. Naturally, last time I said that I would like to see this go down to a single piece of software, if possible, and this hasn't changed. It would be a very welcome bonus.

Gaming Centre

Nothing thus far has changed in terms of Gaming Centre's UI, so if you want a brief rundown of that, please check out the review above. However, as a quick and dirty intro, the word 'functional' is a term that comes to mind. You are presented with three areas in which you can further customize the product in question (conveniently, this goes for any attached headset, mouse, and keyboard). There is a basic 'LED On/Off' with each product, and further functionality is provided by means of various tabs or panels. Going into the options for each, we find a fairly extensive amount of configuration for each peripheral.

MSI Gaming Centre allows the user to customize the headset's audio, microphone, and lighting. The audio tab allows for the usual EQ tweaking (as well as several presets), with the addition of Xears effects. Headphone sample rate can also be adjusted for more granular control. The microphone tab is fairly basic but works well enough. The lighting tab can be used alongside MSI Mystic Light, but independently provides a fairly wide array of options. Whilst it's an unchanged UI from my previous reviews where this software suite is concerned, it works to an extent where I am happy. The EQ control is particularly good, allowing for fairly fine control, and although there are not that many presets, it should be fine for most people out there. Overall, the Gaming Centre is functional and works. To be fair, I guess that is all that can really be asked, though - as I said before - it would be good to see MSI re-work the UI and make it a little cleaner or less cluttered. That being said, there is nothing inherently wrong with it, and me being entirely fair would prefer the product 'working' first, then user friendliness taking second place.

Mystic Light

MSI Mystic Light worked a whole lot better for the headset than it ever did for the mouse and keyboard I looked at some weeks back. The UI is, again, simple (and in my opinion a little 'too much' for what functionality there actually is), but it does the job well and I was able to change color modes/zones with ease. The photos you see here are with the headset in its wave mode, cycling between all available colors at a speed/direction pre-determined by the user.

Ultimately, little has changed from a few weeks ago. The software works just fine, but MSI really needs to combine these two suites into a single and cohesive unit. I'd hope this can be done because I can see the potential here for a very nice/clean app with good functionality and ease of use. It did work better with the headset (Mystic Light), though I am not sure how much of that I can attribute to the suite only having to deal with a single device, because part of my confusion with Mystic Light in my prior review was just that, i.e. how to reliably sync/control both at the same time.