In Citizen X the player takes the role of a secret agent recruited off the street and placed in direct confrontation with an elite terrorist organization. The player has 15 minutes to disarm a bomb and save the city.

The game is mostly a side-view platformer, but there are many points where FMV will cut in that may have something to do with the area that the player is in. Players have to shoot their way through sewers infested with mutant humanoids and rats, and circus tents with insane bomb throwing clowns. Players need to break walls to find other passages.