World Quest is a shareware horizontal scrolling shoot 'em up. The objective of the game is to destroy defence bases set up by an unspecified alien race throughout the levels, and rescue captive humans. While most of the opposition the player faces comes in the form of stationary defences that fire various projectiles, rather than incoming enemy craft, there are also end-level bosses.

The player's craft can freely move forward, up and down, and also backwards: although the screen scrolls forward automatically, it allows to backtrack to a certain extent. The craft is outfitted with missiles and bombs, and random powerups that can be acquired from destroyed alien installations may provide the ability to fire additional missiles backwards, upwards or at a 45 degree angle above or below the player's ship.

The initial release of World Quest included 10 worlds (levels), with only the first four available in the unregistered shareware version. The total number of worlds was increased to 15 in v2.0. Additionally, the registered game offers the option to access every level and activate the unlimited lives cheat by using the secret password.