Like its predecessor, Beyond Castle Wolfenstein is a combination action and adventure game with stealth elements.

The objective is to traverse the levels of the secret Berlin bunker where the Führer is holding meetings with his senior staff.

If an incorrect pass is shown or the bribe is rejected due to the lack of money (for a total of two times), the guard will attempt to activate a bunker-wide alarm or kill the player.

The bodies of dead guards can be dragged through the room to conceal them, block passages, or gain access to objects.

Harvey Berstein of Antic wrote in 1985 of the Atari 8-bit version: "while there have been some minor improvements, the game play doesn't provide nearly as much depth as the documentation suggests."