Inspired by the Confrontation desktop miniature game, Aarklash: Legacy is a highly tactical real-time-with-pause RPG. It's set in a world engulfed by war, with every race is fighting for supremacy of the continent. You control a group of debt collectors called Wheel Swords, who have been wrongly accused of crimes they did not commit and thus need to fight to reveal the conspiracy that threatens their order.

It must be said that Aarklash is not very deep in terms of RPG elements. There is no choice and consequence, level design is linear and the story and characters are but a means to an end. Where it really shines is in its smart and complex combat system, that mixes genres in challenging and interesting ways, with a relatively long learning curve.

Your party is composed of four characters from a panel of eight heroes. The standard MMO trinity – Tank, Healer, DPS – applies here, but each role has been tweaked to be interesting, highly customisable and useful in more ways than one.

Wendaroo for example, one of the two healers available, can heal and do damage – but won't regenerate mana. To keep healing the tank, he must steal life from other party members, potentially leaving them vulnerable. Every character plays with risk and reward, which makes each feel very unique and fun to play, making you think before every click.

Aarklash is entirely linear, pushing you across several maps with nothing but battles and some story bits. An advantage to this approach is that each encounter is handcrafted, without any trash mobs. Fights work like a puzzle, providing new challenges that keep the game fresh. Each enemy has its own active and passive skills which the player must learn how to react to. Knowing which enemy must be killed first is very important, and positioning is crucial.