Game has a bit more than that. You have a bar, shops (weapon, armor, clothing, supplies, etc), as well as a trade center in each town where you can buy low and sell high. Look for the signs outside the buildings. The bar lets you recruit more guys, who start just like your new char when you get them (no skills, crap items) and you can upgrade their stuff. Doesn't seem to be a system in place to make you pay them, they just become your slaves after you hire them (like in a lot of RPGs, hah).
Then outside you can fight roaming groups of bandits.
It's kinda like a really early M&B in terms of just having the ability to recruit a few guys, get some items, and go fight bandits. The combat system isn't fleshed out, though - it just has you click the enemies and watch as your guys fight them, with no special moves or any kind of strategic options other than when to fight and when to run. You can also bandage up people (your own or others) using medkits - stopping bleeding first to keep them from bleeding out and then patching up their wounds to make them start healing. You can do this on people while they're up and about or while they're laying on the sand unconscious.
Friendly npcs aren't programmed to thank you for saving them though (they aren't programmed to be mad at robbing them either - I robbed a group of traders that had been beat down by bandits after finishing off the bandits, then healed them, and they just wandered off naked to the next town).