Battleship is a tie-in to the action movie of the same name, which is inspired by the Hasbro board game based on a pen and paper game. The character Cole Mathis plays as the protagonist. The game focuses on the U.S. army stuck on a Hawaiian archipelago, not on the battleship crew from the movie. Aliens have invaded Earth and control giant battleships. An impenetrable dome has been put over their location, trapping everyone inside. Mathis must follow orders as he fights along, repairs, activates or deactivates machinery, defuses charges, and places C4 to blow up key points. The game mechanics are standard for a first-person shooter with both regular and alien weapons. Objectives and the remaining travelling distance are shown as an overlay on the screen.
Mathis has access to a remote command gadget that allows him to access Battle Command control at any moment. While activated, the game is paused, and he can direct battleships on a map to unlock artillery support. However, there are alien ships as well, and when they take over the location, a bombardment will follow, making the missions harder. The battleships can also engage each other directly, but initially the player has no further control over them. Ships have a certain amount of health and points to attack other ships or submarines. Statistics of the ships are shown during regular gameplay in the top left corner through percentages. During regular gameplay, wildcards can be earned that can be assigned to the battleships. These include armor, longer range, additional strength, missiles, or torpedoes. One of them is called ship control, and activating it allows the player to take direct control of the weapons of a battleship from a third-person view, not on the map, to take out alien ships. There are seven main missions in total, with no multiplayer options.