A title says a lot for a game. It evokes emotion in a single word or phrase. Titles are the products of hours of careful thought and debate. They are the tip of the spear for a game to make its impact on the consumer.And then you get games like Dofus that just throw a monkey-wrench into the works. Pronounced Doo-fus, French developer Ankama’s first release is certainly different than most of what you find out in the marketplace these days. A cartoon-styled, Flash-powered MMO, Dofus has all the elements that you would expect to find in a traditional triple-A title, but in a much lighter (the whole game is only 55 megs) and a much more universal (Flash can run on any PC or Mac) wrapper.
Dofus’s combat is not the traditional hack ‘n slash that you expect to find in most MMOs. The people at Ankama have gone the strategy route instead. Once you engage a group of enemies, the isometric game view pops up with all sorts of movement and combat options. The game uses the common action/movement point system to control how far a player can move and how much they can do in each turn. There are various classes for players to experiment with, each of them close to standard archetypes but different enough to make them part of the unique Dofus world.
Beyond combat, Dofus has a robust skill system. There are five different collection skills and over a dozen different productions skills. The production skills produce high quality items for each of the different classes. There is even a shovelsmith production skill.
Dofus offers both a free version for people that want to see what the game is about, and a full monthly fee version for players who want to advance their characters beyond the limited content in the free version of the game. Right now the monthly fee for Dofus is half that of most MMOs that are out in the market right now.
There is also the sister game: Dofus Arena. Arena is focused totally on PvP. Players are given an allotment of points they can spend buying characters, items and spells. Once they’ve build a force of characters they are satisfied with, they pit them in 1v1 or 2v2 battles against other people. The more you play your characters, the more proficient they become in their skills, leveling up in essence. Ankama is keeping a running ladder of all the matches at www.Dofus-arena.com. Players are also able to record the actions of a match and share them with other players. Dofus Arena is still in beta testing right now, but looks to be a lot of fun once it is officially released.
And the TV says to me, "I will eat your children." I look back, and say, "Only if I get to play their games after you're done."
