The game's premise, set in a time period after mankind has discovered hyperspace technology, grants the player freedom to take missions, trade goods, steal from other ships, and enter one of six storylines.

Reception to the game praised the gameplay, plot, and ability to be replayed, but was critical of the lack of a soundtrack, repetitiveness, and pace and difficulty of the storylines.

Its status is enforced in game by a character named Captain Hector, who will continuously remind the player to pay their shareware fee.

The game also supports plug-ins, allowing players to create their own ships and campaigns, but access to do so is disallowed if the shareware fee is not paid.

[4] Set in the year 1177 N.C., Escape Velocity Nova's plot begins long after mankind has begun to explore outer space.

Centered around Earth and the Sol system is the Federation, while to the south is the Auroran Empire, categorized as "a savage race".

Shortly afterward, the student group took the name ATMOS Software and signed a contract with Ambrosia to work on a new game.

Reviewer Chris Barylick stated that the gameplay is essentially the same as its predecessors, Escape Velocity and Override.

He noted the game made improvements over Nova's predecessors while stating that Ambrosia Software "has wisely left alone what ain't broken.

Porcher stated that Nova's strongest point is its ability to be replayed repeatedly, especially with support for plug-ins in the game.

He also pointed out flaws with the storylines being too easy and the plot lines being mutually exclusive, but felt all would be addressed with plug-ins.