It is a multiplayer first-person shooter and real-time strategy game where Humans and Aliens fight for domination.

Players fight in an alien or human team with respective melee and conventional ballistic weaponry.

[3] Commenting on gameplay, Lifewire noted: "One particularly fun aspect of Unvanquished is that as insects, players can crawl on the walls and ceilings, adding a new, though perhaps somewhat disorienting, take on game physics".

The gameplay and game resources are under the CC BY-SA 2.5 Creative Commons license whilst the Daemon engine is under the GPLv3.

[15][16] Lifewire praised the insect mechanic as an interesting twist and the ease of modding (referring to the level editor).