A Sabre Team is a squad of four elite soldiers charged with some of the toughest hostage-rescue, building-storming and the like that Western forces have ever attempted. In this turn-based strategic simulation you must choose a team of four of these from the 8 available, and take them to victory in five increasingly tough missions. Even before you get into the main gameplay, there is a lot of strategy involved in choosing weaponry, as they make different amounts of noise when used (reducing the stealth potential) and their ammunition is of varying weight.

In each turn you have limited action points per soldier, which must be used for all movement, firing and reloading moves. The maps are viewed isometrically, with a compass used to indicate the directions of movement, and where the incoming fire emanated from.