Mankind has unleashed ecological destruction and eradicated a large proportion of Earth’s population as a result. The Remnants are all that remains of the army, and are locked in full-scale  war with mega-corporation The Ascension (think Microsoft with advanced robotic death machines) over the resources that remain. The premise is not exactly new for a Real Time Strategy game, so what makes Maelstrom worthwhile?
Well, Codemasters have excelled in creating three factions that are totally different but at the same time very well balanced; quite an achievement in an RTS and one that certainly makes it stand out against the other big release, Supreme Commander.

To begin with you play as the Remnants, before moving on to play the Ascension, experts in robotic manipulation with a fun array of machines, from small forward attack vehicles such as the Viper to the impressive looking Colossus. As you progress, you find pretty much every vehicle in the Ascension arsenal can transform into another vehicle to fulfil a different function.

Once you have completed The Ascension campaigns, you finally get the chance to play as the Hai-Genti, aliens visiting Earth in the hope of drowning its remaining inhabitants and colonising the planet. The Hai-Genti are masters of bio-engineering, using an impressive variety of species to attack their enemies, and quite unlike anything you’re likely to have come across in a RTS before.

The destructible landscape that can be terraformed defensively and offensively by the two human factions and flooded by the aliens is incredibly well done, and some of the graphics for vehicle movements and battles are supremely entertaining. Unfortunately, there is a major downside to all this.

The developers seem to have forgotten some of the basics of RTS gameplay with Maelstrom: way-pointing is pretty appalling, often requiring you to micro-manage troop movement if you don’t want units wandering aimlessly around the battlefield; the named heroes for each faction are ineffective and underused; and the campaign mode is largely pointless and irritating, as well as containing some of the worst animated cut-scenes I’ve ever seen. I’d recommend only playing up to the first Hai-Genti mission before moving over to the skirmish or on-line play modes to get the most out of this game.