[1] The game focuses on a town where The Devil has invaded and the player has four days to eliminate all possessed citizens (led by a witch and a vampire) and finally purge the evil by defeating the Devil himself before he can take over.

Much of the game's movement and actions are real-time based so there is a day and night cycle.

Newer versions of the game omitted the encounters where the players gets garroted.

The player loses the game if four days pass and all the required possessed citizens have not been killed and the devil has not been repelled.

Personal Nightmare was generally well-received, including the ratings of 87% by Zzap!