DevPro - A Strategic Review

Things We Liked:
Limits Players (in a good way)
Loyal and Friendly Player Base
Better than the Alternatives (in my opinion)
Regularly Patched and Improved

Things We Didn't:
User Interface Could be Better
Graphical Fidelity Could be Improved
Customization Could be More Intuitive

Overall Rating - 8/10




This is a bit of a weird one - a Yu-Gi-Oh game - DevPro. A piece of freeware you can get relatively safely on the internet, and play with all cards and features unlocked straight away. There's not even a trace of advertising (outside the use of ad.fly downloading). So is this a game? Yes, I think so. It's regularly updated with new cards and rules, as well as improvements to the service itself. Is it a game as we typically think of one? Yes, just without a price tag attached.

So, what is it? Well, DevPro is a freeware application that allows you to play single games, matches, or tag team games of Yu-Gi-Oh (a popular card game in the 90s-00s) with any rule lists from the past or present with any of the cards ever released.

I've been using this program on and off for about a month now, and I really enjoy using a lot more than other alternatives (like duellingnetwork.com) as it plays like a properly programmed Yu-Gi-Oh game would. Unlike DN, it controls you inside the rules (DN trusts that both you and your opponent will play correctly and properly, and allows you to do most things at any point), allowing you only one normal summon a turn, telling you when you can special summon etc.

There's no tutorial for DevPro that I've seen, but rather the game relies on the fact that you've played before, or learn from others. This seems to be a standard for most Yu-Gi-Oh games out there, however.

The UI is functional, if standard, and the customization options are limitless (although not the most intuitive in the world, there are a couple of videos on YouTube). There's a smaller player base on there as opposed to on DN, but at the same time, the players on DevPro are generally friendlier, and I haven't encountered an amazingly social person on DN. I've been enjoying DevPro a lot more, and I think the problem is that people just haven't really heard of DevPro, or are scared of the download.

The only problem I've really seen is the graphical fidelity, but that's not really important for a game like this. Although you can customize how the game looks for you (card backs, backgrounds, look of certain symbols etc), you can't decide how the opponent sees you outside your username (there are no avatars etc.) and this could be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on how you see it.

Overall, DevPro is the best application out there if you're looking to work on your deck, or just want to play some new people. Wholeheartedly recommended.

Euan