The player must attempt to hack into the Magma Ltd. computer system at the beginning of the game by guessing the logon password. Access can be gained if the player knows the password, which really only ever becomes apparent to the player after gaining access, through another means of entry, to the later stage of the game.

In the game, a player controls RoboCop who advances through various stages that are taken from the 1987 movie. The bonus screen is a target shooting range that uses a first-person perspective. The intermission features digitized voices from the actors. RoboCop was licenced by UK-based Ocean Software at the script stage, so (fairly uniquely for the time) the 1988 run & gun and beat 'em up hybrid arcade game devel...

On June 6, 1996 (1991 in the Japanese versions), a biological weapon known as Lucifer-Alpha under development in Chernoton, Russia, is released into the atmosphere, resulting in the death of 80% of the Eurasian population which in turn results in the death of half of the world's population. The contaminated area becomes uninhabitable for a decade, when Lucifer-Alpha mutates into a non-lethal form. This tragic event later becomes known as "the Catastrophe". Fifty years later, in 2047 (2042 in the Japanese versions), a breed of artificial life-forms or bioroids known as "snatchers" began appearing in the artificial island of Neo Kobe City, killing their victims and taking their place in society. Nobody knows exactly what they are or where they come from. As Gillian Seed, an amnesiac working for an Anti-Snatcher task force called J.U.N.K.E.R., the player's goal is to track down the source of the snatchers and discover Gillian's mysterious connections with them. The story takes place in three acts.