Maelstrom (PC) Preview

[RainOfTerror]

Codemasters' Maelstrom is a strategy action epic which takes place on a devastated future Earth. In the wake of an apocalyptic ecological disaster, the planet is threatened by an alien invasion, thus becoming the battleground as a divided human race fights for survival. Launching next week, WorthPlaying (http://www.WorthPlaying.com) had one last peek at KDV Games' upcoming RTS, here is a snip :

The Ascension uses mobile construction vehicles known as Vanguards, which have the ability to morph into buildings, transform back into vehicles, and relocate themselves elsewhere. They are capable of changing into a variety of building models, which allows the Ascension to have highly mobile bases that can move to other parts of the map. Many of the Ascension units have the ability to transform into something else, such as the Viper, which can turn into a turret, and the Crusader tank, which can morph into a bipedal mech unit.Check out the full Maelstrom preview (http://www.worthplaying.com/article.php?sid=40625).

[Snarboo]

You can also take direct control of your heroes, which is a new and interesting twist. When you assume control of a hero unit, you switch to a third-person view of the character, with the camera positioned directly behind him/her. In this mode, you control your character in a first-person shooter fashion; you move your hero with the WASD keys, and you control the targeting reticle and fire your weapon with the mouse. Emphasis mine. The prospect of directly controlling an ornery army of mutant aliens is enough to make my mouth water. The graphics don't look shabby, either!

[drakkarim]

wow, talk about an fugly UI. that just took the game down a few notches for me.

there was a set of two games that did the direct control thing VERY well a while back, forgot the names of them... surprised that it hasn't been touched again until now.

[Nighthold]

For gods sake please do NOT spend money on this game. It is ugly, unoriginal, and controls like shit. Even the direct control portions are muddy. A completely negative experience all the way around.

[Nighthold]

wow, talk about an fugly UI. that just took the game down a few notches for me.

there was a set of two games that did the direct control thing VERY well a while back, forgot the names of them... surprised that it hasn't been touched again until now.

Battlezone?

Edit: Sacrifice?

[archon]

Man, that's rough. First an apocalyptic ecological disaster and now alien invasion?

[The_Darr]

Rise and Fall: Civilizations at War did "direct control" pretty well--too bad the overall game was sub-par as well as the fact that it contained starforce.

[drakkarim]

Battlezone?


BINGO!, loved those games :) i think there were two of them if i remember correctly. very well done i thought.

you're right in that sacrifice did do that as well, although i could never get into the setting of that game. plus i think battlezone was a more along the lines of what this game is trying to do, as far as settings go i mean.

[Nighthold]

BINGO!, loved those games :) i think there were two of them if i remember correctly. very well done i thought.

you're right in that sacrifice did do that as well, although i could never get into the setting of that game. plus i think battlezone was a more along the lines of what this game is trying to do, as far as settings go i mean.

The big difference between those games and Maelstrom, is that they were shooters/sims with RTS elements, as opposed to bad RTS's with shooter/sim elements. When you put a bunch of pieces together, none of which that could stand on their own as a quality work, then the end result is crap.

And yes, I LOVED Battlezone too. Sacrifice was so/so, I could never get into it the way some others do. I wish they would do a remake of Battlezone now though, it could be fantastic.

[drakkarim]

a remake would be nice indeed. don't know why they never do sequels of good games, or at least revive good games.

i hope i can find a demo of maelstrom eventually, to give it a try before deciding for sure.