When trying to decide on a new MMORPG to spend my ever-valuable time, energy and money on, there are typically several factors that heavily sway my decision. The most important of these factors include graphics, developer name and track record, cost and press around the game. Thus, when deciding to review a little MMORPG known as Dofus, developed by Ankama Studios, I did not know what I was getting myself into. I had never heard of the game, the developer, and you could play it for free (which from my experience is typically a bad sign). After spending some time with Dofus, however, I came away pleasantly surprised.

Upon reaching the main Dofus kamas website, I was greeted with a short Flash animation that showed off some of the game's related background. It did not make much sense, and it still doesn't after experiencing the game, but the music was charming and the artwork attractive, with a distinct anime quality to it. The website was extremely intuitive and easy to navigate, which is more than I can say for some other big name games out there.

The first thing you will probably notice when starting out with Dofus is the relatively simple registration and setup phase. After entering some basic personal information, you will download the game client for free. The client is offered for not only current Windows operating systems, but also supports Windows 98/ME, Mac OS X, and Linux. Downloading the client for Windows was a breeze. The auto-update process that followed after setup also went smoothly and quickly, and I was at character creation in no time at all.

The first issue I had came at character creation. While the game boasts eleven different 'classes' there is very little customization involved. Additionally, a new player may have some difficulty selecting a class, as some of the names and descriptions give little to no idea what playing the class entails. I spent most of the time looking at the skills available to determine the role of the character. I must say that the classes are unique, but all can be classified as general fighter, healer, and mage types, with some clever twists. For instance, a couple of the classes I enjoyed the most included one which actually got stronger as it took damage, and another which 'gambles' on all of its abilities, making the effects feel random. After selecting a class Dofus kamas, the player is allowed a few minor color changes to the 2-dimensional sprite that will represent them, and they're off.