Mostly inspired by the book and film The Poseidon Adventure, the players must escape the sinking ship Lady Crithania, which gets hit by a gigantic wave and is capsized; all within the time limit of an hour. However, the game is made more difficult by the lack of a visible timer (although it is shown if the player injures himself, in which case he will lose five minutes) and the fact the ship rotates angles constantly and gradually gets filled with water.

The game features the possibility to play as four different characters, each one with the same gameplay control and same goal, but with a different story:

• Capris Wisher An architect young man. He takes his younger sister Amy to the Lady Crithania. However, Amy's sickness becomes a severe hindrance to him.

• Redwin Gardner A counselor, traveling with a family consisting of an unnamed mother, her children Stella and Harry Adams. Plus, Jack Hamilton, a nephew.

• Jeffrey Howell A senior doctor, he travels along his wife Adela.

• Luke Haines A crewman of the Lady Crithania. He suspects that the sea conditions are too much for the Lady Crithania to handle, much to the opposition of his superiors.

Each character can take up to seven other survivors, some of which have different value to each character, and all of them have different requirements in how to get to them and how to make them follow the player. Depending on how many survivors the player finds, who they are and how valuable they are to the character the gamer plays as, the ending will vary. The best ending for each character is obtained by escaping the boiler room, the final area of the game, with their sentimental person (Amy for Capris, Harry, Stella and Jack for Redwin, The Captain for Luke, and Adela for Jeffrey) and over 25 "points" worth of survivors.

Capris Wisher, Amy Markarson, Redwin Gardner, Harry Adams, Stella Adams, Jack Hamilton, Luke Haines, Ismay Carl Townsend, Jeffrey Howell, Adela Howell.