They look different, they play different and they sound different, although boy do these guys talk too much! For example, factories make comments every time they start and finish building a new unit. Well actually I do, because unlike some other recently released real-time strategies, notably Supreme Commander, these factions are completely different to each other. The enemies come in three flavours: the Remnants, a bunch of ragtag militarised political activists the Ascension, the futuristic lapdogs of a mega-corporation who have traded their briefcases for laser guns and whole lot of attitude and the originally named, Aliens – need I say more? It’s also a good idea to kill the enemy while you are at it and luckily Maelstrom gives you lots of ways to do that. Build a base, build some troops and capture strategic points to gain more resources and thereby increase your dominance of the battlefield. In terms of structure Maelstrom is comfortably familiar.
