It's a hybrid game...combining elements of strategy with first person shooter. If you've ever played the Natural Selection mod for Half Life, you'll know what I'm talking about. You have a commander who basically oversees the game from the point of view you normally see in a real time strategy. Depending on the resources that your team has mined, you can build new buildings and upgrade your team's available weapons, as well as armor, evolution, etc. You can also create outposts closer to the mines, so that your peons can do mining for you, though players mine much faster and much more than AI controlled peons.
Every other element of the game is a frst person shooter. Players can buy upgrades of weapons based on how much money they have accumulated through player kills and what not. They can buy power ups like speed boosts, as well as evolve into different "modes" I guess you can say. There are siege weapons that you can control. It's a pretty fun game.