With the original Bionic Commando, I always had a problem grasping the control setup since there was not an in-game explanation to guide me or show me an example. Rearmed provides a training simulation for both basic and advanced techniques that helped me to become more familiar with the game and even had me going back to the original Bionic Commando since I now understood some of the more advanced techniques in it. The control setup can still be complicated but after a while of working with it, I eventually got the grasp of using the bionic arm for swinging through complicated areas and repelling enemy bullets.

Each area has an end boss that is structured so that a certain pattern, object or gun must be used against the boss to make it expose its weak point. Some bosses repeat as the areas progress but they always have some sort of added difference from the past fight (new attacks). Spencer can still reach a communications area in each stage in order to contact his comrades and/or hack into the enemy's network to eavesdrop. A 3-D hacking puzzle where you must guide a yellow ball by bouncing it from block to block toward a green block all in a 3-D square now takes the place of the simple command from the original game. Wire tapping into an enemy conversation provides hints for beating the area boss and also rewards the player with extra points or health replenishers (if Spencer has suffered damage).

The overhead levels from the original game once again return and they out play out basically the same as before. Enemy vehicles populate the main map and move through the paths in between each area. Once the vehicle is met with your helicopter, Spencer must descend and destroy the enemy camp. All weapons that have been obtained up to the point of descent may be used on the overhead battlefield. Spencer's bionic arm serves only to deflect enemy gunfire during these areas. Each 3-D battlefield requires you to finish off an enemy tank at the far end of the screen then a helicopter will pick up Spencer. Later in the game, these missions started to become somewhat repetitive, especially when trying to backtrack to other areas. The only purpose for engaging in an overhead mission is to fetch the extra life that always reappears in each one the first time through or each time after continuing the main game. Other than the extra life, they begin to seem tedious after I had gotten my feel of them later in the game - they reappear eventually whether the battlefield contains an extra life or not.

The main game can be played locally with one or two players. Playing with a second player will restructure enemy AI to accommodate the extra player. Enemies are slightly more numerous and they become more aggressive for both players. Boss behavior will actually change as well - from the beginning of the fight, the first boss will constantly open and close his weak spot on his top and bottom side as a player moves close to him instead of simply leaving his bottom side weak spot revealed. This makes the boss battle much more strategic and team work focused, in that one player must get on top of the walkway close to the boss and ready a barrel to hit his weak spot while another stands on the lower walkway near him to draw his fire and make him open his top weak spot for the top player to hit. The multiplayer mode makes good use of the camera by scrolling out as the two players separate and it even switches to a split screen format for when the players navigate too far away from each other. The second player may join in at any time during single player gameplay and the game will adjust the difficulty appropriately. Once a player is defeated, the game will readjust back to single player difficulty.

The entire game now has a slight story to it with some well-developed characters as the game progresses. Scenes of dialogue in the game are presented with highly detailed realistic artwork by Japanese artist Shinkiro, who some might be familiar with as the character artist from games such as Dead Rising, Resident Evil: Deadly Silence and Final Fight One as well as other Capcom titles. The artwork provides the character expressions and actions while text bubbles showcase the spoken dialogue during conversations. The conversations are rich with humor at all the right times and provide a perfect setup for each boss fight.

The main game by itself offers quite a bit of replay value with its overall challenge and a few hidden areas per stage. The game also has a total of 56 challenge rooms that can be unlocked in the main game. There are also a few hidden challenge rooms and even some extra challenge rooms that may be unlocked only through special codes. Challenge rooms start out pretty easy but the difficulty begins to ramp up starting at the midpoint. A ranking system provides the player with a rank from one to five stars based on how quickly each challenge room is completed. Even the beginning challenge rooms can be hard to obtain a five star ranking in. The later challenge rooms can be a major task to simply complete, let alone get a five star ranking in. Major focus on grappling, swinging and landing will be needed as the challenge rooms climb in difficulty. No matter how many deaths I added to my list of failed attempts, the feeling to retry hardly ever left my mind until each room was completed once I started the room.

Besides being able to play the main game with two players, there is also a local multiplayer battle game where up to four players can fight against each other in modes such as Deathmatch, Last Man Standing and Don't Touch the Floor. The object of Deathmatch is to gain the most kills, the object of Last Man Standing is to be the final player still alive and the object of Don't Touch the Floor is to push the other players off into a pit using your Revolver and grenades. Deathmatch and Last Man Standing modes provide all players with weapons and extra power-ups that parachute downward and must be retrieved with a grapple. In Don't Touch the Floor, no damage is received from attacks; attacks only bounce a character upon impact. Players can choose from four selectable characters from the beginning (Nathan Spencer, Kilt, Graeder, and Super Joe) with each having different stats based on the character chosen. There are also several arenas based off the main game's areas that may be chosen.

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