![]() There are three different factions and nine ships, each with special abilities and complexities, while cash earned by playing can be spent on levelling up said ships and slapping new components onto them. The playing field isn’t even, for instance. It takes a few cues from MOBAs and MMOs, too, shaking up the routine of looting and hunting players. Replacing people with boats is, at this point, enough to make it stand out from the rest of the battle royale lot, but it’s not just a twist there’s a clear effort being made to take the nascent genre in a different direction. It manages to fit all the looting, ambushes, chases and the looming threat of the shrinking play area into brief matches that are frequently over in ten minutes The ships are fast, the cannons are powerful and there’s no risk of being sniped by some invisible bastard. Maelstrom’s a nautical battle royale, pitting fantastical ships against each other in damp arenas. And Orcs, unfortunately, aren’t strong swimmers. Sandwiched between the two of them, there wasn’t anything I could do. ![]() After a painful 180, I came bow to bow with my old rival. I impotently tried to turn, crashing into the rocks. I’d already committed myself to the course when another ship appeared, heading in the opposite direction. With sea monsters closing in, our naval battlefield was shrinking, making me aim for the centre of the safe zone, taking me right through a narrow corridor with huge cliffs on either side. I pinched the loot and cut through the water, as fast as I could, leaving my surviving enemy in my wake.Īt least I thought that’s where I left them. That’s when it dawned on me to do something I hadn’t attempted before: leg it. Battered and bruised I wasn’t looking forward to another fight. I managed to extricate myself and lob some cannonballs, finally sending the Dwarves for a cold swim. Quickly the duel became a mad tangle of ships and ropes as we all slammed into each other and tried to board. ![]() The Dwarven ship was looking worse for wear and I was just lining up a shot on its starboard side, where I’d smashed up all of the armour, when some Johnny-come-lately swans out of the mist, immediately firing at both of us. Wood and metal and, of course, shark collided, followed by a barrage of cannonfire. So when I saw the Dwarven ship on the horizon, there was a storm brewing inside me, and I pointed my shark-drawn Orc ship at the stumpy corsairs and increased speed. I wasn’t any kind of pirate, really not with only a series of failed fights and a major lack of booty to my name. This week, Fraser's running away from sea monsters and hunting down galleons in nautical battle royale, Maelstrom. Premature Evaluation is the weekly column in which we explore the wilds of early access. ![]()
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