The game will offer five different playable races, or "genesis types," which determine the basis of your characters' attacks: bio (plant- and organic-based attacks), cyber (robotic attacks), plasma (fire- and lightning-based attacks), necro (death- and poison-based attacks), and quantum (time- and space-based attacks). It will also offer different playable classes that roughly correspond with the archetypes you've seen in other such games, such as the sentinel, a "tank" class (which fights enemies in up-close combat and is tough enough to soak up damage); the tempest, a "mage" class (which fights with ranged attacks from a distance and is too fragile to sustain a frontal assault); and the ravager, a "rogue" class (which uses surprise attacks and stealth to do battle). In any mission, you'll control only one hero at a time (though you can instantly switch to one of your other two characters if you need their powers or are getting too beat up), but interestingly, certain powers that belong to your heroes will remain "universal" to your team and can be used regardless of which hero you're currently controlling.​

Having the right combination of heroes is going to be important when playing the game by yourself and even more important when you're grouping together with others. Since the game requires you to be online at all times to play (though nothing has been said as to whether this will only allow one account per purchase, or whether they plan on doing any micro-transactions), the hope is that players will group together regularly. Up to four players can group together at once, and the game rewards players who are bold enough to jump into a cooperative game with much better loot. Playing together also makes the game harder, giving players a new challenge and a reason to play the same levels over and over.​

The world's not randomly assembled -- it includes a predetermined set of planets that the game throws at you -- but you advance according to a system that reminds me of the old TV game show Press Your Luck. Basically, when you complete a level, you can choose to tackle more and more successive levels with the difficulty and loot accumulating steadily, at the risk of losing your entire haul if you fail. Or, alternatively, you can bank your earnings and reset the difficulty dial. So it's got this high-risk, high-reward kind of thing going on. Unless you're like that one contestant who gamed Press Your Luck in 1984 and took 45 consecutive turns without stopping.​