Wet, fungoid, and thoroughly malleable, Maelstrom abruptly upends your expectations, just about the time you’re getting ready to toss it despondently on the “been there, done that” pyre. And make no mistake, there’s plenty of the latter hop-skip-and-scurrying about, to the extent that the game’s dismally generic opening campaign almost smothers things in the cradle. But spend a little time with the later missions, skirmishing against the clever A.I., or playing online, and Maelstrom turns out to have that rarest of virtues: factions that don’t suck.
That’s right, someone pinch me. Or don’t, because you can see the seeds of Maelstrom in another RTS two years past. Ever hear of Perimeter? In that game (also by KDV and Codemasters) you had to strategically warp the landscape to collect resources and construct units that could interact with a pliable landscape (including one that scooped up the ground itself to fling at enemies). Now transpose that idea into a better looking engine with higher-stakes land rejigging and presto: Maelstrom, a left field surprise of an RTS that muscles past a few annoying bugs and stilted presentations to spoon up some of the richest three-way free-for-alls going.
Global Swarming
Welcome to another apocalyptic future circa 2050, where Al Gore’s water-logged doomsday scenario’s come true, except...think aliens, not carbon emissions. Those aliens, called the Hai-Genti, aren’t so much keen on razing humanity as metamorphosing the planet to support their relentless aquatic needs. Never mind the fact that the earth is already three-fourths water, and—oh, whatever. It’s a game, not a Kim Stanley Robinson novel, right?
The first faction you’ll encounter are the Remnants, a scruffy group of human scrabblers trying to get the planet back to something resembling democracy. They’re also your classic RTS bootstrap builders, starting with a hero (each faction gets a few with special powers) and a squat robotic “Scavenger.” Pump out a squad of these guys early on then send them ambling off to lay buildings like the Haven (placed atop a stationary “Survivor Compound” it bleeds off resources and produces infantry), Scrap Shack (research and build vehicles), Sun Farms (gin up energy faster or slower based on time of day), Water Pumps, and defensive Watchtowers.
Putting its corporate boot on the face of humanity, the despotic Ascension (the other human faction) use significantly more advanced technology and fold into the resource schema uniquely. For starters, they’re entirely mobile, with units capable of on-the-fly transforming into other units as well as bases that can rapidly pick up and stroll somewhere more desirable. The Vanguard unit alone can transform into a Command Core, Research Lab, Replication Plant, or Advanced Tech Lab. And instead of building Havens, the Ascension’s “Manipulator” bots gather materials from Survivor Compounds to be transported peon-style to the nearest Command Core, thus emphasizing one of Maelstrom’s delightful paradoxes: same resources, different quarry methods.
Land Grab
But what makes both Ascension and Remnant factions really interesting is their ability to raise, lower, or level small swathes of the map at leisure. In fact it’s mandatory when dealing with the third and only alien faction, the Hai-Genti, whose bulbous goopy structures literally rain down from the sky (their “Eggs” hatch combat units, their “Inception Spores” become fleshy all-in-one HQs). While the Hai-Genti can’t terraform the land directly, they can build Mutagen Pumps to flood it...as in vast rippling seas through which they move quickly (and humans...don’t).
For instance, a Hai-Genti player might flood an opponent’s defensive positions, then launch weak but cheap and zippy Bio-Thralls to needle the enemy while building a few deadly Progenitors (burrowing, ravaging worms) to mop up. Or say you’re playing the Remnants: you might try infiltrating your Ascension opponent’s base to get the lay of the land, then shape it, redirecting Hai-Genti floodwaters his way instead of yours. Of course the Ascension can just pick up and move to a drier location, and they probably have the most devastating offensive/defensive technology when it comes to brute force with their missile launching Colossus and water-freezing Ice Hammer units.
Slightly Green
What’s not to like? For all its clever ideas, Maelstrom needed either more time in QA, more attention from the design team, or both. Take weird features, like the interesting sounding option to control your heroes in first-person mode: aside from sloppy controls and, oh, general uselessness (tactically as well as aesthetically), you can’t select special abilities without switching back to the isometric view. Yuck. Or how about out and out goofs, like one in the very first mission where you can unintentionally bypass a waypoint, meet your contact, get her killed (she’s supposed to survive), then double back, triggering an earlier cutscene (it plays without her) and only then receive the “mission failed” popup. Doh.
More teeth-gnashers: Unit health bars colored so lightly they’re almost useless, sound effects that seem to be missing or that play irregularly, unit “lasso” caps (remember those?), and a tendency for standstill units to fidget maddeningly, i.e. they’ll attempt to perpetually reposition themselves in tight quarters to the extent that organizing formations or preventing units from wandering off “a step too far” (and into enemy range) becomes a micromanagement game all its own.
But if you’re bored with flashy, visually superior real-time strategy, consider Maelstrom despite those flaws (most are patchable—here’s hoping someone’s listening). KDV clearly went the “gameplay first” route, and the result is a surprisingly absorbing strategy mash that no one’s really heard about...but should.
Article by: Matt Peckham
Video produced by: Michael Leffler
