The Orion Conspiracy is a futuristic adventure game set in the year 2160, when space travel is a common thing. The player controls the Irish man Devlin McCormack as he arrives at the deep space station Cerberus following the death of his son Danny. Initially he only intends to stay for a short time, but when it is discovered he was murdered, he decides to stay and investigate the circumstances of the death.

Gameplay is typical for graphical adventures of that time, with a third-person view and a point-and-click interface. When browsing an environment the cursor can be moved over objects. Objects that can be used are highlighted. After clicking them, a number of actions becomes available through icons at the bottom of the screen, such as examining them, or picking them up. There are conversation trees when talking to other characters and both subtitles and voiced speech are supported. The game contains a large amount of profanity, with words that are generally censored or avoided in other games.