[2] Years before the game takes place, the Mondites intercept a distress call from a Reticulum spacecraft that self-destructed after encountering and reviving an alien lifeform which went on a hostile rampage.

Through studying the black box and the remains, they discover the aliens' home world, a moon in a remote sector of the galaxy which they name Daedalus.

The Mondites establish a base on Daedalus while investigating the ruins the aliens left behind; a sentient race known as the Phyxx who were long thought to be extinct.

However, when one of the aliens is accidentally revived from suspended animation in its tomb, it goes on a rampage through the complex, damaging the reactor and killing half of the base personnel in the process.

The game ends after the player escapes Daedalus in an experimental Mondite spacecraft in the wake of the moon's destruction, along with several Phyxx ships.

Several hand-to-hand and ranged weapons, as well as batteries and other large or one-use objects, can also be picked up during the game, but only one can be carried, using the right hand, and they cannot be stored in the inventory.

Much of the game's plot is revealed by finding and reading logs on PDAs and notes left behind by characters, including accounts of experimental subjects losing their memories and lapsing into insanity.

As the plot progresses, the main character automatically updates his own diary/log and summarizes what he has discovered since the beginning and what has happened for the player to review, an event marked by a sound cue.

Director Ken Demarest had the core idea for BioForge whilst working as a programmer on Ultima VII: The Black Gate.

Demarest felt Ultima VII had too much freedom, and that making an interactive movie with synthetic actors would create a more immersive game.

[7] BioForge was developed at Origin by a core team of ten people under Demarest, during a period of two years from February 1993 to March 1995.

[12] A Rock, Paper, Shotgun blog reported that EA Mythic received a crate full of old Origin Systems archive materials, possibly containing BioForge Plus source code.

The editors wrote, "[I]n a year that held few RPGs for a starved audience, it had the guts to try role-playing in a sci-fi universe instead of one plagued with magic and dragons.

"[19] Tim Schafer cited BioForge as an influence on the critically acclaimed 1998 game Grim Fandango in its approach to 3D graphics[20] and use of tank controls.

[23] The Guardian included BioForge in a 2014 list of the "greatest video games that time forgot" calling it a "fascinating example" among the "nightmarishly unplayable dross" of the mid-90s interactive movie genre.

[24] In 2013, director Ken Demarest reflected "BioForge was conceived from a technical perspective, and I think that if I’d given as much focus to the gameplay as the underlying technology, it might have enjoyed greater acclaim.