In Visiware's game, the player controls Ulysses, an astronaut who crashes on a future Earth where intelligent apes dominate humans.

Ulysses explores various environments, aiding a human resistance movement who regard him as a prophesied savior and uncovering the secrets underlying ape society.

The game's release was delayed for three years due to problems with the long postponed film remake and Fox Interactive's decision to co-publish with another company.

There, Jonah and his friends reveal that Ulysses is on Earth, and that his arrival fulfills an ancient prophecy that a savior would return to restore humankind.

Ulysses heads to a ruined city, where he frees the human Nova and finds the second relic piece guarded by gorilla General Ursus.

With help from Nova and her brother Mathias, Ulysses heads to Ape University, where Cornelius agrees to destroy his research so the gorillas cannot misuse it.

Ulysses makes contact with the Arkanites, advanced humans still living underground, and encourages them to reunite with their brethren on the surface to defeat the apes.

Despite the long development, the game missed the July 27, 2001 debut of Tim Burton's film, though Fox Interactive stated that they hoped it would reduce confusion among consumers expecting a straightforward tie-in.

[11] On September 6, 2001, Fox Interactive announced a new co-publishing partnership for all its titles with Ubisoft, enabling them to finally release Planet of the Apes.

Its gameplay was poorly received at its Electronic Entertainment Expo previews, with many commenters comparing it unfavorably to similar older games like Doom.

Additionally, some critics considered Fox Interactive's decision to hire Visiware a misstep, as French developers of the period had a reputation for creating games with solid graphics but poor play.

[27] Erik Wolpaw of GameSpot called Planet of the Apes an "ugly, boring Tomb Raider clone", considering the game's environments, combat mechanics, and puzzles weak.

[5] Ivan Sulic of IGN wrote, "it's not that Planet of the Apes is truly bad across the boards -- just that it's truly mediocre," finding the controls and gameplay middling and the graphics out of date.

[14] Nick Woods of AllGame enjoyed the dialogue-heavy story sequences, but wrote that the positive elements could not make up for the nauseating interface and movement.