The story begins with Adam Randall that has had nightmarish dreams of a house after his father's death which happened under suspicious circumstances. After receiving a parcel from a dubious acquaintance of his late father containing some strange emblems, he realizes that the place must be found. Eventually Adam tracks down the place, a spooky house in the middle of nowhere. Needless to say, things quickly take a sinister path and what starts as a traditional spooky house setting quickly escalates into religious overtones and occult beings littered everywhere. Apparently, the house is a place of great evil and the center for all realms of existence.

Realms of the Haunting sets itself a part with a unique blend of FPS and point 'n click adventure accompanied by FMV (full motion video) sequences to tell the story. There's quite a lot of them here too, supposedly over two hours. The game also features party members to recruit that deepens the narrative through commentary or dialogues about the progress and items found along the way. Controls, while forward-thinking for its time, are a mix of both keyboard and mouse controls, albeit requires some awkward switching between them to look up and down. Enemies vary depending on the areas, or realms rather, you're in. From skeletons, ancient aberrations to flying gargoyles and human agents - most of the enemy gallery is here. Additionally, enemies respawn, so you cannot stay in one place for too long as ammo and health is scarce.

The graphics and sound effects are impressive for its time, utilizing high quality sound effects, motion-capture for enemies for pseudo-real animations alongside atmospheric music and lighting.