Remember Maelstrom, the last-ship-standing game of naval combat that entered Early Access last year? The one where you can be captain of an orc ship pulled by giant sharks, and the shrinking battle-royale circle is a section of Dead Water hiding a colossal sea monster that will just straight-up eat you?

Back when it cost $20, our own Christopher Livingston said, "The toughest part of Maelstrom, from what I've played, has been getting a full match." When you could get a match it was pretty fun swinging around whirlpools launching broadsides at your enemies, and going free-to-play will presumably give player numbers a bump.

"All gameplay and progress can be unlocked by playing the game for free", say developers Gunpowder Games. "No additional purchases are needed to enjoy the game to its fullest extent. There are no ways to purchase a competitive advantage in game."

You can however buy boosts to accelerate progression, and of course there's a variety of cosmetics and a battle pass in the store. "There are no loot boxes", they add. "All Items are directly purchasable in the store."

Those who bought the game during Early Access receive a bunch of freebies, including all ships, the seasonal battle pass, 10,000 gunpowder (that's the premium currency), and a bunch of mates and exclusive stuff. 

There's a roadmap too, which notes that an undead fleet and a duel mode are on the way. Maelstrom's available on Steam.

Maybe it's that I kinda miss Sea of Thieves—despite enjoying it I haven't made time to play since the first week of its release—but anything with ships, sails, cannons, and sea monsters will draw my eye these days. Maelstrom, now in Early Access, has all of those, plus it's a battle royale game. Fifteen ships enter, one ship leaves.

I can't say Maelstrom takes place on the open sea: at times it feels like there's precious little room to maneuver in this ocean filled with jagged rocks and towering islands that both provide cover and damage your ship if you collide with them. And naturally, more and more of the map is being closed off as you fight. As players are eliminated, dead seas encroach and push the remaining ships together in the center of the map. It's not just a forcefield this time: the dead seas signal the approach of sea monsters who will rise from the blackening waters and smash your ship into splinters. This isn't a battle royale game where you can hide outside the safe zone and apply bandages to win.

There are three races in Maelstrom: human, dwarf, and orc, and each race has three different ships to choose from. Each ship has different perks and drawbacks: one might have better armor but slower speed and less maneuverability. A dwarven steamship I'm fond of doesn't just have cannons along the side but also at bow and stern, allowing you to fire in every direction—though in much smaller volleys than other ships. It all depends on how you want to approach combat: decide if you want to be better at long-range attacks rather than close-up combat, choose between being fleet and nimble or something more like a floating tank. You pick one ship as your first vessel, and can buy the rest later as you accumulate gold from playing matches.

Cannons aren't the only way to damage enemy ships. You can ram them as well, and certain ships are built more for ramming than anything else. You can also board other ships, sort of: pull up alongside another ship and activate the boarding attack, and you'll throw grappling hooks over, latch onto the enemy hull, and your tiny, unseen crew will do some damage before the attack expires. There are also special abilities you can earn: the only one I've gotten so far is a fireball that explodes from my bow, sweeping across the water and doing damage to anyone in its path.

It's a fun and fast-paced game as you swivel around to unleash broadside attacks, try to stay out of the line of fire as your cannons are reloaded, grab currents to speed yourself up and dart between the islands, and race to collect the floating goodies dropped when another ship is taken out. 

As you play and earn gold—there are NPC ships floating around the arena that you can sink and plunder—you also progress. As you level up you can add shipmates that give you faster sails, quicker repair abilities, and other bonuses. This means you might wind up facing ships that have better cannons than yours, improved hulls, and special attacks you haven't unlocked yet yourself, something I hope is taken into account via matchmaking. It's one thing to reach the end of a battle royale match and find yourself outgunned, but it's something else to be at a severe disadvantage right at the start.

Maelstrom is a nice-looking game built in Unreal 4, with pleasing effects and sounds, and lots of enjoyable details in the world and ship design (orc ships, amusingly, are pulled by two armored sharks). I only wish there was a bit more elegance to it: your hull integrity is displayed as a big, chunky white grid around your ship, and a massive indicator shaped like a trident extends into the water to let you know when you can fire. It's helpful that these elements are so easy to see, so you're never confused about your ship's health and capabilities, but it detracts from the art and design for these indicators to be so overbearing.

The toughest part of Maelstrom, from what I've played, has been getting a full match. Several times I've spent long minutes cruising around the lobby with three or four other players, ramming and bombing each other while we waited for more to show up, only to eventually quit because they never did. A successful battle royale game needs a solid playerbase so matches can begin quickly, and with a progression system it's doubly important to ensure players can find appropriate opponents. Maelstrom doesn't appear to have drawn much of a crowd, at least at this stage of Early Access. Here's hoping that changes soon, otherwise it might just sink.

Maelstrom is a game of "fantasy naval combat" set on an inundated world where land is at a premium and wars are fought constantly to control what little dry territory remains. In case that's not bad enough on its own, what lurks beneath the waves is even worse: Monstrous creatures, larger than the biggest ships, hunt the treacherous "Dead Waters," waiting to destroy any who cross their path.   

At first glance, Maelstrom sounds quite a bit like Sea of Thieves, but it's a faster-paced game, with ships controlled by single players rather than crews. Developer Gunpowder Games described it as kind of a cross between Sid Meier's Pirates! and the Man o' War tabletop game. The Orcs, Dwarves, and Humans will each bring unique abilities and tactics to the fight—Orcs are "brutal boarders," while Dwarven ships are slow but incredibly tough—but gameplay is more arcade-style than simulation, with "an emphasis on action and moment-to-moment choices."   

Maelstrom is on Kickstarter but the campaign is actually wrapping up instead of just beginning, and it's already achieved its $10,000 goal. That's a relatively tiny slice of a development budget, but the studio said the primary goal of the campaign is to help build a community around the game. 

"Maelstrom will launch on Early Access regardless of the funding goal but we're really behind on our community building," the studio said. "The Kickstarter is meant to help us connect with genuinely interested players, willing to back the product and help build the game with us before we launch on Early Access." 

The Kickstarter campaign says Maelstrom will be focused on multiplayer, but four-player co-op is on tap as a stretch goal at $30,000 and a full-on single-player campaign at $100,000. That's an awfully distant goal—the campaign is currently sitting at a little over $11,000 in funding, with five days to go—but never say never and all that. The Maelstrom Kickstarter ends on March 27, and will likely hit at least one stretch goal before it's all over, while the Early Access launch on Steam will follow on April 11.