DarkSpace takes place in a persistent universe, referred to in-game as "The MetaVerse", where players choose from several types of ships and fight for control of planets.

Two factions are human: the United Galactic Trade Organization (UGTO) with rounded ships, and the Interstellar Cultural Confederation (ICC) with long-range capabilities.

DarkSpace also contains several non-player factions to interact with, such as the Machine Intelligence (MI) race, space Pirates, and several other alien entities.

It also emphasizes teamwork and organization: since most ships play specialized roles, battles can often be won more easily and prestige earned more quickly if players work together as a team.

In the larger scheme, faction control of areas in the MetaVerse requires coordination and communication between large groups of players.

The play area is spread over several star systems and game servers, but all players can travel to the same locations and battle over the same planets.

In scenarios players choose a faction and fight for control of a much smaller area - usually a single solar system.

When the victory conditions are met or when time has expired a winner is declared, prestige is awarded, and the scenario restarts.

The United Galactics Trade Organization (UGTO) is formed and does a "complete survey, exploration, and colonization of the Sol system".

During the First Stellar Conflict the Farstar colonies fight for control of planets and resources but are eventually stopped by a UGTO police force.

The UGTO attempt to shut down all independent shipyards, causing planets to rebel and begin the Second Stellar Conflict.

Finally, "in 2125 the Free Trade League formally declare[s] the Farstar systems an independent sovereign government henceforth to be known as the Interstellar Cultural Confederation (ICC) and revolution was begun.

The taskforce is attacked by an unknown assailant and takes heavy casualties, but the UGTO manages to capture one of the enemy ships.

[7] The DarkSpace game begins in the midst of a human civil war, which has been intensified by reports of an alien species aggressively spreading its domain throughout the known universe.

[10] Prior to the publishing agreement Palestar had offered closed beta test signups on their website[citation needed].

Eventually, however, the money provided when Ubisoft canceled the publishing contract would run out, so the game needed to develop a revenue model.

In December 2001 Palestar teamed up with Playnet.com to host the game,[21][22] and DarkSpace moved to a pay to play model, charging $9.99 per calendar month for unlimited access.

Michael Lafferty of GameZone called DarkSpace "a game that looks good, sounds great and plays well",[36] while Brett Todd of GameSpot thought "[n]early every scene could have been clipped from a big-budget movie"[2] and Gamers Hell's Andreas Berntsen said it was "the closest to a perfect online space-strategy game I’ve seen so far".

[38] However, several reviewers felt that the learning curve was too steep: Lafferty said "when first launched, the tutorial in DarkSpace was somewhat daunting",[36] while Berntsen said "actually mastering the gameplay takes practice, and the initial learning curve can be somewhat steep"[37] and Aaron Daigle from Game Chronicles claimed that "reading the manual and completing the tutorial mode are critical if you want to excel [at] or even just play the game".

[36] Game Chronicles saw a strength where others found weakness, saying "while small in numbers, I think you would be hard pressed to find a cooler group of folks".

The GameCQ system deals with all login requests, as well as session information and chat abilities via a process called the MetaServer.

Scenario being a single process loaded with a map that contains one solar system, and will rotate to the next based on win conditions.