Codemasters Carl Johnson takes a look inside Maelstrom
By Michael Lafferty

“We had a lot of fun with the character designs, getting everything visualized was a huge step for us and it was great to see.”

A bleak future made even darker by the lack of resources and an alien invasion force. This is the setting for Maelstrom, a game from Codemasters and developer KDV.

Billed as a strategy title, Maelstrom offers an immersion level that will step up to the graphics plate and belt out a solid hit.

As for the story … according to the press release:

“Maelstrom takes place on a devastated future Earth where, in the wake of an apocalyptic ecological disaster, the planet is threatened by an alien invasion. In this savaged world, water has become the most valuable of resources and divided the remaining humans into two factions. Now, they must wage war against the invaders and each other in a desperate struggle for supremacy and survival.”

GameZone.com wanted to know more and so we got the chance to speak with Carl Johnson, lead game designer for Maelstrom and Codemasters.

Question: What engine are you using for the graphics and how will the game's graphics differentiate themselves from other games that have the same general period placement?

Carl: We’re working with KDV Games, utilizing their Vista Games engine. We’ve already worked with them on Perimeter, which was the reason we came to them with Maelstrom. The Vista Engine allows us to have fully interactive environments with real-time weather effects, including day/night cycles, wind, rain, snow, etc. On a more technical note, it allows for total design control of the game, from content to environment and the graphics are incredibly detailed. The Vista Games engine allows players to use an extreme camera zoom which brings them as close to the action they want. That is something that people will really notice, the fact that in high zoom – you’ll be able to see the face of the soldier clearly and with detail and blades of grass moving in the breeze.

Q: Tell us a little bit about the combat elements. What will make them stand out as unique?

Carl: There are a few things that really make the game stand out. You have the Ascensions with fully transforming technology. Any non-human unit or building that they have can transform into a completely different unit - which gives a duality of function that is unprecedented in the RTS genre. The aliens are a totally bio-engineered race, so instead of vehicles you’ll encounter three tiers of units from light to heavy. These aliens are actually able to communicate with and control natural disasters. Imagine an enemy force running up on your base and you unleash a tornado right down the center, hurtling their units halfway across the map. I’d say that stands out.

Q: With water the prime and most sought resource, how does the battle for it figure into the overall scope of the game?

Carl: Water really has two functions in the game, fresh water as a resource and water as an environmental influence. You will need to access wells that are located throughout the map; you’ll then capture it and build your own pump on top in order to harvest it. There is always going to be a battle over wells that lie within enemy territory. Like any resource, if you can cut it off, you’ll hurt your enemy. The environmental water was meticulously designed to have physics that are incredibly true to life. Water will run off of a mountainside and always seek sea level, it will also fill in depressions or canals. Overall it can be both asset and hindrance depending on your faction. The aliens happen to be a semi-aquatic race, so they are always trying to flood the land with “mutagen” water from their special pumps. On the other side, Remnant and Ascension vehicles can experience problems traveling through water (upgrades are available to enable water travel). The water can even be frozen by certain Ascension units – trapping your enemy and allowing you to destroy them.

Q: How many levels or hours of gameplay is there, and does the game have multiplayer elements?

Carl: There is a three-part campaign that you’ll be working your way through. There is a total of 23 campaign missions. The story is linear so you’ll work your way through the story playing as Remnant, Ascension and eventually Hai-Genti. We have also included fully integrated multiplayer for 2-6 players over LAN and Online, complete with a stat-tracking ranking system. In terms of hours of gameplay, to be honest at this point I am not sure, as we are still tweaking many missions.

Q: Do players get to pick a character and if so, is there much in the way of customization? How does a character skill up or raise attack capabilities?

Carl: Every faction has certain hero characters that you’ll be able to utilize in battle, depending on the situation. For example, the Remnants have their leader James Buchanan, second in command Marcus O’Neil and ally Sasha Antonova. Each of the hero characters will level up with gameplay, access new abilities and progress the storyline. As far as your regular units they are almost all fully upgradeable through research laboratories- from weapons to armor to certain special abilities. The Ascension’s transforming units need to be upgraded for that function; they can also increase standard lasers to advanced electro-weaponry. There are tons of upgrades available for both heroes and standard units.

Q: With so many options for the setting, why choose this particular one? What makes it conducive to the structure of the game?

Carl: Many of us are huge Sci-Fi fans and when we first got together with KDV Games to work on this, it was one of the topics that we all sort of “clicked” on. From there we narrowed it down a bit to some of our collective favorites (Mad Max, Starship Troopers, Aliens, etc.) and in collaboration with veteran Sci-Fi writer James Swallow, we came up with this. The setting drives the story just as much as the characters and events. Another point is that the setting is something that could happen someday, who’s to say an asteroid won’t hit the Earth and cause massive damage? Who’s to say that nuclear fallout won’t happen? 

Q: What do you think will set this title apart from the competition and draw gamers in?

Carl: Aside from the combat aspects we’ve already gone over, I think the environmental and visual assets are fantastic. We’ve really gone the extra mile when it comes to designing the models in the game, in conjunction with KDV Games’ tech, we want people to get close and still see a phenomenal image. Traditional top-down RTS games really never gave people the opportunity to zoom in as close, and even when they did the quality always suffered. We want to go beyond the norm and hopefully gamers will enjoy the fact that they can get down and dirty on the field level. We’ve even included a great third-person mode where you can take control of a single unit and control it in the third-person, over the shoulder view. On top of that, the fully destructible environment and the ability to harness of forces of nature is unique and compelling. 

Q: What were the toughest elements of the game to realize and what are your favorite aspects of the game?

Carl: Well the whole process of getting the game together in the early months was quite difficult. There were a lot of influences we wanted included in there, but ultimately we needed to really narrow and define our direction. Once we got everything under control and James came up with the story things began to gel. We had a lot of fun with the character designs, getting everything visualized was a huge step for us and it was great to see. The guys at KDV Games are great with what they do, and my hat really goes off to them. Some aspects of the game, the water physics and the environmental effects were really tough for us to get, but they worked on it tirelessly until it was where we wanted it to be. Personally the Ascension’s transforming mechs are one of my favorites, always fun when you can have giant robots kicking ass! Also I think the environmental “attacks” used by the Hai-Genti are stunning. There’s nothing like raining down a meteor on a group of infantry, then watching them fly off in the explosion. We wanted to make one of the most destructive RTS games that anyone has ever seen and I think we’ve really succeeded in doing so.

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