Softdisk published a shareware version of Catacomb Abyss, which could be freely distributed and played to encourage gamers to purchase the full trilogy.

[5] The gameplay consists of navigating through the town cemetery, the mausoleum and other environments, while battling the servants of Nemesis with magic spells.

The reviewer describes the game as "incredibly primitive", yet also "an interesting glimpse at a direction shooters could have gone, had Wolfenstein and Doom not laid down the templates for the next few years".

There are outdoor levels with lightning, an ancient aqueduct flooded with water and hellish corridors with pulsing walls.

Catacomb Abyss introduces a radar called the Crystal Sphere, which shows the magic missiles and nearby enemies.

[6] In the previous game, the wizard Petton Everhail went on a quest through the catacombs to rescue his friend Grelminar from the evil mage Nemesis.

There he worked on a bi-monthly disk magazine called Gamer's Edge, which was started by game developer John Romero in August.

They decided to secretly borrow company equipment to incorporate this technology into their own game: Commander Keen in Invasion of the Vorticons.

[14] It didn't take long for Softdisk CEO Al Vekovius to find out that his employees had used company equipment to release a game via a competitive publisher.

[2] Due to the publishing contract with id Software, Softdisk obtained ownership of both the 3D engine as well as the intellectual property of Catacomb 3-D.

[20][21] The DOS emulator DOSBox is included with the Catacombs Pack to enable support for Microsoft Windows and Linux.

The review warns that some gamers might experience motion sickness due to the game's 3-D smooth scrolling technique.

[10] British video game magazine PC Zone also noted in May 1993 that the 3D graphics do not scroll as smooth compared to Wolfenstein 3D.

At that time German gamers used Hundefelsen 4C as a codename for Wolfenstein 3D, a game that was banned in Germany for portraying Nazis.

[23] The review from PC Games states that "Catacomb Abyss is very playable and fascinating due to the well animated 3D perspective".

[24] German video gaming magazine PC Joker reviewed the Catacomb 3D Adventure series in their November 1993 issue.

According to the review, the "well camouflaged secrets, variety of bonus items lying around, hidden scrolls, nice graphics and fine sounds create a mood".

[22] PC Gamer did a retrospective review of Catacomb Abyss in 2021 and describes the game as "incredibly primitive", containing "some of the most eye-poppingly awful wall textures ever".

[8] YouTube game reviewer GmanLives also notes that Catacomb Abyss has slightly better graphics and a wider variety of enemies and environments compared to its predecessor.

After his evil forces were defeated by the player, arch rival Nemesis retreated from the catacombs and regrouped with a new army in the "Towne of Morbidity".

This marks the start of a new quest, which takes the player through the "Dark Forest", the "Lost City of the Damned" and various other hazardous locations.

Among the monsters in Catacomb Armageddon are giant ants that when defeated keep twitching their legs in a puddle of green blood.

In 1993, the game was re-released for the retail market under the title Curse of the Catacombs by the short-lived publishing company Froggman.

Despite the "primitive" 16-color EGA graphics and "minimal" sound effects, it concludes that the game offers good value for its relatively low retail price.

These mechanized monsters join the ranks of the regular fantasy themed enemies in a final attempt to defeat the player.

That same year, the game was re-released for the retail market under the title Terror of the Catacombs by the short-lived publishing company Froggman.

[27] Following the publication of the Catacomb series on GOG, Flat Rock Software decided to open-source these games under the GPL license in 2014.

The source port Reflection Keen, later renamed to ReflectionHLE, allows gamers to play Catacomb Abyss on Microsoft Windows, Linux, MacOS, AmigaOS and Android.

[30] Another source port for Catacomb Abyss called CatacombGL was introduced in 2018, which offers hardware accelerated rendering via OpenGL.