On their journey they are armed with a shotgun to fend off many mythical enemies, such as mummies, skeletons, fish-men, gargoyles, and an array of other monsters.

Depending on the color combination of the two eyes that are obtained, the endings are: Reviewing the arcade version, a Next Generation critic praised Crypt Killer's ending but summed up that "besides the free-moving, hand-held sawed-off shotgun, enabling pump-handle reloading (a nice element), this game blends in quite well with the pile of new laser-gun shooters with little distinction.

"[7] The Saturn and PlayStation versions received overwhelmingly negative reviews, with critics deriding the heavily pixelated and blocky graphics,[5][6][1][9] the lack of scariness in the enemies' appearance,[5][6][1] the numerous cheap hits,[5][9] and the player character's overdone acrobatics, which cause the perspective to spin and bounce around frequently in a nauseating manner.

[5][9][10] Lee Nutter of Sega Saturn Magazine was particularly vehement in his criticism, remarking that "more fun could be derived from the Virtua Gun if you were to spend an entire evening pistol whipping yourself with it".

[5] GamePro remarked that "Although the action gets frantic, it never intensifies to the point of hysteria, the way a good shooter like Area 51 does.