Maelstrom Demo

Innovation is difficult to achieve without stumbling into a few challenges along the way. Overcoming these obstacles in a clever way is what separates visionaries and pioneers from cocky youngsters on the lookout for for their big score. The game at hand is not really part of either categories, but it certainly tried very hard to be different, which is commendable.

Maelstrom is a unique experiment in the real-time strategy genre, because it introduces a variety of interesting new mechanics into the mix. Starting from the fact that you can directly influence and mold the environment to fit your needs, all the way to the additional third-person perspective during combat, there are plenty of reasons to be intrigued by the game.

The story talks about a grim future for the planet Earth, one in which the environment suffers greatly from pollution and it makes life rather difficult for everything else out there. There are three factions fighting over resources and supremacy: the Remnants, the Ascension, and the Aliens. Naturally, they all come with different gimmicks and they each require different play styles.

Although the core mechanics are the same as in any other RTS, you do have to keep an eye on a variety of other things as well. In order to recruit troops, you need to have energy and water, the latter of which is rather scarce and slow to harvest. It is also possible to modify the environment using terraforming techniques, in order to create natural walls, or dig trenches for your troops.

However, all of these elements may sound innovative and unique, but the technical execution leaves to be desired. There are plenty of problems when it comes to the interface, while all the other interesting mechanics function rather poorly as well. Pathfinding can be gruesome, the graphic animations are very basic, and the combat is incredibly disorienting.

Maelstrom had the potential to become a standard in the genre, especially since it tried to introduce so many intriguing mechanics. However, not a lot of work went into implementing these new elements, which means that it’s a real hassle to make use of them.