Everworks: a comparison library for desktop collection RPGs
Everworks catalogues the kind of role-playing game you assemble a roster in: you collect characters, you build a team around what they do rather than what they look like, and you take that team through campaign stages, dungeons and boss encounters. This library describes how those games are structured, sets out the attributes worth comparing before you install one, and profiles the individual titles it covers.
The library is written for readers in Australia and is published by MEHA + VERBOVEC s.r.o. It is an independent resource. It is not run by any game studio or publisher, and it is not an official source for any title named on it.
How this library is paid for
Everworks carries paid links. Where a page links to the website of Raid: Shadow Legends, that link is an affiliate link: the game's affiliate programme pays Everworks a commission if you follow it, create an account and install the game. Nothing is added to your side of the transaction, and no reader pays Everworks anything.
Coverage on this site is narrow because of that arrangement, and we would rather say so than imply otherwise: the titles profiled here are ones Everworks has a commercial relationship with. The comparison framework, the descriptions and the cautions are written the same way whether a commission exists or not, but the choice of which games get a profile page is shaped by that relationship. The full arrangement is set out on the affiliate disclosure page.
What sits inside the category, and what does not
“Collection RPG” is a loose label, and it is worth pinning down before any comparison is useful. The games in this library share four traits. Characters are acquired rather than created, so your roster is something you build up over weeks instead of designing at the start. Progression is attached to individual characters, meaning time invested in one unit does not transfer to another. Content is delivered in discrete, repeatable encounters rather than an open world. And team composition — which characters you field together, and in what order they act — carries more weight than reflexes.
That last trait is the practical dividing line. A game where your hands decide the outcome belongs to a different category and is compared on different terms: input latency, frame pacing, control mapping. A game where a planning screen decides the outcome is compared on roster breadth, the clarity of its systems, how much of its content can be reached without spending, and how heavily it leans on repetition.
Outside the boundary, named only so the boundary is visible: massively multiplayer RPGs built around one persistent character, single-purchase story RPGs with a fixed cast, and card battlers where the collectible unit is a card rather than a character with its own progression. Phone-first games are excluded too. Everworks covers desktop play on Windows, macOS and Linux, and every attribute in the grid below assumes a keyboard, a mouse and a screen you sit in front of.
The attributes this library compares
Every profile page answers the same questions in the same order. The point is not to score games out of ten — a single number hides the very information you came for — but to let you read two profiles side by side and see where they differ.
| Attribute | What it records | Why it decides whether a title suits you |
|---|---|---|
| Platform reach | Which desktop operating systems the publisher states the game runs on, and whether a client download is involved. | A title that needs a dedicated client is a different commitment from one that runs in a browser tab, and Linux support is frequently unstated rather than absent. |
| Combat model | Turn-based, real-time with pauses, or fully automated resolution. | Determines how much of a session you actively play and how much you watch, which is the single largest factor in whether a game holds a given reader's attention. |
| Roster acquisition | How new characters are obtained, including whether randomised draws are involved. | Randomised acquisition changes how the game feels over months and is directly relevant to the spending questions covered elsewhere in this library. |
| Campaign structure | The shape of the main progression: chapters, locations, difficulty tiers. | Tells you how long the guided part of the game lasts before the repeatable part becomes the main activity. |
| Group content | Whether the game expects you to coordinate with other players, and how often. | Clan or guild activities on a schedule are a standing time commitment, not an optional extra, once you join one. |
| Presentation | Voice work, cinematics, art direction, interface density. | A fully-voiced campaign and a text-only one are different products for the same price of admission. |
| Stated restrictions | Regions, devices and account requirements the publisher itself states. | Restrictions are a factual matter with a single correct answer, and the publisher is the only source for them. |
The comparison method page explains where each of these values comes from, what Everworks does when a publisher has not stated something, and what this library refuses to record at all.
Profiled entry: Raid: Shadow Legends
Raid: Shadow Legends is a battle collection RPG in the sense set out above. The publisher describes it as a game in which you assemble an alliance of Champions and lead them through a world of dungeons and Clan Boss encounters, with a fully-voiced campaign running through twelve locations and tactical player-versus-environment combat in which team composition decides encounters. It is played on desktop — Windows, macOS and Linux — and the route in is a registration on the publisher's landing page followed by an install and the opening tutorial.
That is the extent of what Everworks states as fact, because it is the extent of what the publisher states. Pricing, acquisition mechanics, hardware requirements and the content roadmap are matters for the publisher's own site. The title profiles page sets the entry against the full grid.
Visit the Raid: Shadow Legends website
Paid link. Everworks is paid a commission by the game's affiliate programme if you register and install after following it. That commission comes out of the publisher's marketing budget, not your pocket, and it did not decide the wording above.
Points worth checking yourself before you install
- Availability by country is set by the publisher and changes without notice. Confirm on the publisher's own site that the game is offered where you are.
- Desktop system requirements are published by the developer and are the only reliable version. No requirement figures appear anywhere on Everworks, because we do not have a verifiable source for them.
- Any game with randomised character acquisition deserves a look at the spending questions in spending and classification before rather than after you start.
- Download the client from the publisher's own domain. Third-party mirrors and “modded” clients are the usual route by which account credentials are lost.
The Australian context this library is written in
Two bodies matter for the sort of game covered here. The Australian Classification Board classifies computer games offered in Australia and publishes the classification and consumer advice for each one; its database at classification.gov.au is the place to check a specific title rather than relying on a summary anywhere else, including this one. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission administers the Australian Consumer Law, under which consumer guarantees apply to digital products and services bought in Australia; its guidance is published at accc.gov.au.
On the security side — account takeover attempts, fake launcher downloads, marketplace scams around game accounts — the Australian Cyber Security Centre publishes guidance at cyber.gov.au, and losses can be reported to the National Anti-Scam Centre through Scamwatch. Where a child or teenager is affected, the eSafety Commissioner at esafety.gov.au handles online harms including harassment inside games. Everworks has no role in any of these processes and cannot act on your behalf.
Reading paths through this library
New to the category: start with how collection RPGs work, then read spending and classification before installing anything. Here for the comparison itself: how entries are compared, then title profiles. Practical questions about hardware and set-up belong on desktop requirements, and unfamiliar terms are defined in the glossary.