[6] Taking place 500 years in the future, the game tells the story of Lu Chen, a sinister world overlord more commonly known as the SovKhan, who rules the Earth from a massive complex called Megacity S1-9.

The Slaves themselves are grown from a combination of artificially created cybernetic embryos and a mysterious compound called NTR95879, referred to as "dark matter" by the Guardians.

[23][27] GameSpot, GameRevolution, and IGN all criticized the game's failure to create any sense of being a giant robot on the rampage in a city, as well as the lack of combat depth or replay value.

[27] IGN and GameRevolution additionally criticized the Dreamcast version for its extremely poor frame rate, lack of in-game music, and conspicuous game-crashing bugs.

"[28] Damien Thorpe of AllGame gave the Dreamcast version three-and-a-half stars out of five, saying that it "has its flaws, but turns out to be a fun game.

"[34] In June 2022, Ziggurat Interactive (owners of franchises such as BloodRayne, KKnD, Uprising, among others) announced a prequel to the original Slave Zero.