There are outdoor levels with lightning, an ancient aqueduct flooded with water and hellish corridors with pulsing walls. Whereas the levels in Catacomb 3-D consisted of mostly dungeons, the levels in Catacomb Abyss bring more varied environments. The final level contains instructions to warp to any level, including three secret levels. The game contains sixteen regular levels. The player can shoot magic missiles from its hand to eliminate enemies and to destroy breakable wall segments. To aid navigation, each area within a level has a short description, which is displayed on the interface.

The player searches for keys in a maze to unlock doors that grant access to the next level. The gameplay borrows many elements from Catacomb 3-D. The reviewer describes the game as 'incredibly primitive', yet also 'an interesting glimpse at a direction shooters could have gone, had Wolfenstein and Doom not laid down the templates for the next few years'. PC Gamer did a retrospective review of Catacomb Abyss in 2021. The game also contains an item shaped like an hourglass, which temporarily freezes time when picked up. Keys need to be collected to unlock doors. The gameplay consists of navigating through the town cemetery, the mausoleum and other environments, while battling the servants of Nemesis with magic spells. It is once again up to Petton Everhail to end the terror with the use of his magic spells. Soon evil forces start to emerge around the mausoleum. After the death of arch-rival Nemesis, his minions construct a mausoleum near the Towne Cemetery to honor their deceased master. The player again takes the role of the high wizard Petton Everhail. The plot is a continuation of the events in Catacomb 3-D. Softdisk published a shareware version of Catacomb Abyss, which could be freely distributed and played to encourage gamers to purchase the full trilogy. This trilogy consists of Catacomb Abyss, Catacomb Armageddon and Catacomb Apocalypse. The company formed a new, in-house team to develop three sequels, known as the Catacomb Adventure Series. When the contract ended, Softdisk kept ownership of both the 3D engine as well as the intellectual property of Catacomb 3-D. Its predecessor, Catacomb 3-D, was developed by id Software as part of a contract with Softdisk. It is the fourth entry in the Catacomb series of video games. Catacomb Abyss (also known as The Catacomb Abyss or The Catacomb Abyss 3-D) is a fantasy themed first-person shooter (FPS) game developed by Softdisk and released in November 1992 for MS-DOS.

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