The small town you start off in offers you the ability to buy better armor and gain some better weapons as well as help some of the local citizenry with their daily lives. At some points in the game, you can pick up some companions to help you through the trials and tribulations of a reluctant adventurer. Moving around the lands is easy once you figure out how to do it. It's a small adjustment to standard game interfaces that takes a little getting used to. You'll get used to speed walking as the game does not scroll automatically when your mouse nears the edge as many new game interfaces have adopted.
Fighting is a relatively simple affair in Homeland.
Just move yourself near a baddie to automatically hit it and run away if it is too tough for you. Once again, for those new to RPG, this is probably a welcome feature. Myself, a RPGer of old, found it a bit frustrating to not have more control over the fights. There is a way to drop into a sort of turn based combat and use the keyboard controls to fight, but there are many and they were a bit complex. I also noticed that the AI controling my companions didn't seem to care if I was getting slaughtered.