Limited manipulation of objects is needed and there are several optional locations and things the player can explore or discover besides following the linear narrative.

However, after incapacitating an alien mugger, he is awarded several thousand credits by the police force, with which he can buy a ticket out of Stambul.

As the player interacts with "Captain Starbird" and his daughter "Stella" the ship is attacked by the "Spaceship Warlock".

The dispute focuses on whether Joe was an employee or independent contractor of Reactor, Inc. (Mike Saenz's company) when they developed the game.

[2][3] Inside Mac Games reported in April 1993 that Warlock had sold over 20,000 copies and was the best-selling CD-ROM title for Macintosh.

The magazine praised the game's graphics and sound, stating that "there is a good reason why [it] is among the top-selling CD-ROM titles of any genre".

While noting the long load times and "spongy, wobbly" combat interface, it wrote that "the richly rendered scenes, objects and character that one searches, opens, pilots, converses with or fights against ... can convey the sensation of another reality".