In Star Assault evil aliens named “Sparks” want to conquer the universe. Now
the player boards his space ship to foil their plans. In most of the thirty
missions his objective is to destroy a certain number of enemy ships,
sometimes there are also other goals like escorting another ship or repairing
a communication device. This action-oriented game controls similar to first
person shooters using a combination between mouse and keyboard. Unusually is
the way aiming works – the player just needs to steer the space ship into the
general direction and the game automatically targets the next enemy. However,
with v1.35 the player has also the option to target enemies himself.

Every destroyed gives experience points and thereby to level ups. A level up
means that the player can upgrade his ship with better gear and improve one of
twelve stats, e.g. speed or shield energy. These ship upgrades are randomly
dropped by enemies, likewise as “agent points” which unlock four bonus
missions. Since the enemies get more difficult with every mission the player
is required to solve every mission multiple times until he can stand up to
them.

Star Assault