Hillsfar is an early attempt at the RPG genre from SSI, who went on to produce the infamous Gold Box series. It's a quirky game, light on RPG aspects, and consisting of action-oriented sub-games. Moby games has this to say:

Play a would-be-hero in the City of Hillsfar where action and adventure await the daring adventurer. Join the local guild and complete missions from your guild master in the quest for glory and gold!

Hillsfar is a "Single-Hero" RPG (in comparison to other RPGs by Strategic Simulations Inc. where usually control a group of characters). A combination of 1st Person Perspective (when travelling in the city of Hillsfar) and 3rd Person Perspective (usually in some mini-action quests) viewpoints, Hillsfar is quite introduces a different breed of RPG gameplay than other standard Advanced Dungeon and Dragons RPGs.

As a would-be-hero, you can choose one of the available classes in a randomly generated mission-based style plot: Thief, Mage, Fighter or Cleric. Each class to a certain extent have different approaches on how to complete a certain quest.

In Hillsfar, gameplay usually consists of various "mini-games" that are needed to complete a certain quest or mission provided at the local guild by your guild master.