With its isometric perspective, real-time combat, simplistic character system and a cliché story about a Chosen One, it's easy to dismiss Soulbringer as a yet another Diablo-clone. You couldn't be further from the truth, however.

While combat is real-time, it isn't anywhere near the frantic click-fest you'd expect from an Action RPG. It actually strives for the very opposite – to make its melee combat as tactical as it can.

Each weapon has up to five possible attacks, that differ in a variety of areas like speed, reach, damage type, etc. You can also combine those attacks into combos, presumably tailored for different enemy types. In fact, you are encouraged to do so, as it's only while performing a combo that your character can dodge or parry. Attacks are also aimed at different body parts – or, more precisely, different height levels, as the game takes the attacks' trajectory and elevation into account.

Unfortunately, elevation seems to be the game's Achilles heel, as the AI, while quite competent in other areas, just can't understand it properly. This manifests in a variety of ways – from some very weird path-finding, to enemies not noticing you two steps from them, to other enemies wasting all their spells on a bump separating them from you.

Combat isn't the only area where Soulbringer tries to innovate. Its magic system has spells divided into five standard elements which have associated skills that grow with use. However, those skills provide you not with spell power, but with protection from said element – up to the point where enemy spells start to actually heal you. The trade-off is, of course, decreasing the skill with a subsequent element – water takes away from fire; fire from spirit; and so on.