MULE follows the adventures of up to four colonists as they attempt to colonize the backwater planet of Irata (Atari backwards) and make a killing while they do so. The colony ship gives them one year to make the colony as efficient and excellent as possible, with the player having the most points through land ownership, assets, and cash being proclaimed the colony leader. There's quite a number of different races you can play as, but they do not change anything except aesthetics. Once the colony ship has landed, the setting and story are dismissed and the game begins proper.

You start out every turn in MULE by selecting a plot of land. The selection of land plots is done from left to right, top to bottom. The person who first presses the action key over a plot of land gets that plot for free, and it continues until all 4 players select a plot or the selector moves off the last potential plot. Plots are broken into three types: mountain, plains, and river. Mountain blocks are best for ore production, plains are best for energy production, and river plots are best for food production. Mountains are unique in that you can have up to three in a block, with more mountains providing higher ore productions. After you get the free plot, land is auctioned off either randomly (for unclaimed plots) or if a player marked one of their plots for auction.

After selecting your plot, you go to the overhead screen. Here is where you get things done in the game proper. You have a limited amount of time per turn to do things. If you have a food deficit, you will have less time to do things per turn, so you want to be at least at zero deficit at the end of every turn. You start out in the store, where you have a number of actions you can perform. In order to use your land, you must buy the eponymous MULE and outfit it with a factory module, with the module icons being fairly self-explanatory. After this, you must take the MULE to your own plot and use it, which transforms it into a factory. If you use it anywhere else, the MULE will run away. This can be used to your advantage sometimes (if you want to drive up the price of MULEs, for example) but is generally best avoided.

Besides laying down MULEs for factory production, you can gamble in the pub, auction off your land, or assay land for crystite deposits. Assaying land is important, because it it the only way to verify crystite deposits before laying down a mine. While everyone can see the results of the survey temporarily, only the surveyor gets a sign on the plot that tells how much crystite is there. This is great if you have a good memory and can remember where opponent-surveyed deposits are. Selling land creates an auction like any other, and should only really be done if you need to get rid of the land. Make sure to sell your MULE on the land first, or it is transferred too! Finally, gambling in the pub automatically ends your turn and gives you money depending on how much time you had left. It's strange that everyone wins when they gamble at the pub.

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