The most important thing to understand about Depths of Peril is that it is a hybrid game. It combines an action role-playing engine with some empire building concepts to create a new kind of experience. You control a “covenant,” which consists of your hero, some recruits (who can follow you around), and some guards (who have to stay at home). Your goal in the game is to bring your covenant to dominance by making your hero as powerful as possible and by defeating the other covenants.

From what we’ve seen, the action role-playing elements to the game look pretty standard. You left click to cause your hero to move or to start attacking an enemy, and you use hotkeys to trigger spells (like frost nova and ball lightning) and special fighting moves (like whirlwind and power strike). Depths of Peril includes four classes -- warrior, rogue, mage and priest -- and while each class gets a large number of unique skills and spells, they play about how you’d expect. For example, warriors have to build up rage when they fight, and then they can use that rage to power their special moves.
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What makes Depths of Peril unique is the covenant aspect of the game. Each covenant has a house in Jorvik, and the house functions as a base of operations. You can store items in your covenant house (including special relics that give bonuses to everybody on your side), you can heal yourself for free in your house, and you can hire guards to protect your house. Each house also contains a lifestone, which represents the health of your covenant, and if your lifestone is destroyed, then your covenant is eliminated from the game.
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However, when I play a role-playing game, I always hope for three things -- story, characters, and dialogue -- and Depths of Peril doesn’t look like it’s going to have any of them.​