Space Alert is a team-based survival game. Players are a crew of space explorers sent out through hyperspace to survey a dangerous sector of the Galaxy. The spaceship will automatically map the sector in 10 minutes. The crew’s task is to defend the ship until then. If they succeed, they bring back valuable data. If they fail... then it is time to train a new crew.

Space Alert is not your usual board game. Players do not compete against one another. Instead, they must work together against the challenge presented by the game. The difficulty of the challenge can be chosen by the players themselves. Completing the most difficult missions requires very close teamwork.