Islands of Wakfu
Developer: Ankama Play
Publisher: Unknown
Platform: XBLA
Release Date: February 2011, XBLA Block Party
Contributed by: Alex Rubens
The thing that must first be said about Islands of Wakfu is that it’s gorgeous, from the menus and UI to the characters and level design. Everything is just beautiful. With that out of the way, let’s start from the beginning. Islands of Wakfu is an action-adventure game centered in the Wakfu (Dofus) universe 10,000 years before the events of the MMO. The player has two different characters that are “hot-swappable” at any time during the gameplay and each offer their own unique abilities that are needed to complete the task at hand. There is Nora and Efrim, sister and brother born in the same egg that are so completely connected they are able to work as one.
As I played through the demo I was introduced to more and more new mechanics before I began to wonder if I was actually playing the full game instead. The demo lasted about an hour and was filled with so much variety in the content. I was taken to three different locales, and introduced to different players, story elements, powers, and gameplay abilities. “We really needed three levels to show the player everything that the game is about” says David Calvo, Creative Director at Ankama Play. The combat system is simplistic but also very complex at the same time, that sounds like something that would turn out to be a bad thing but that is not the case here. Nora has the simple punch and kick attacks but when chained together with her teleportation move, some really great combo’s can start to happen. Efrim, the dragon character, can fly around the world and use ranged fireball attack to deal damage to enemies. Another thing that really stuck out to me was the fluidity of the animation. It just felt smooth and responsive, both of which are necessary for this style of combat.
One cool feature that Islands of Wakfu will have is an interlinking system between Wakfu (MMO) and Islands of Wakfu (XBLM), for instance, if you unlock an achievement in Islands of Wakfu, you will unlock a special quest in Wakfu. With just a small team of 15 people, Islands of Wakfu has been in development for about two years yet has the polish and fidelity of that with more manpower and time. “Sometimes our originality is not good for the commercial aspect but it doesn’t matter to us because we just want to make a good game,” says David and that truly does show in the overall quality of everything in the game.
Islands of Wakfu features two player co-op in which both player work together to tackle the story together. Unlike most games, both players share the same life bar. Maxime Plantady, creative director and lead programmer, says that this is done to avoid when one player dies and the has to wait for the other player to finish the level to rejoin. It makes the whole thing a more focused experience that requires both players to really work together to accomplish everything.
Islands of Wakfu will be released on Xbox Live Arcade in February 2011 and is certainly something to keep an eye on as we near it’s release.
[Images courtesy Ankama Play]
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