Maelstrom on Steam - User reviews, Price & Information
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Command the seas in Maelstrom! Engage in fast-paced naval battles with powerful warships and colossal sea monsters. Customize your fleet and dominate the Abyssal Ocean. Are you ruthless enough to survive?
Maelstrom is a pirates, battle royale and naval game
developed by Gunpowder Games, Inc. and Tideturners
and published by Forthright Entertainment.
Released on September 20th 2019 is available only on Windows
in 10 languages: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish - Spain, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese - Portugal, Russian and Simplified Chinese.
It has received 2,572 reviews of which 2,139 were positive and 433 were negative resulting in a rating of 8 out of 10. 😎
The game is free to play on Steam.
The Steam community has classified Maelstrom into these genres:
Media & Screenshots
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System requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS *: Windows 7 64-bit or later
- Processor: Quad-core Intel or AMD processor, 2.5 GHz or faster
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 470 GTX or AMD Radeon 6870 HD series card or higher
- Network: Broadband Internet connection
- Storage: 7 GB available space
User reviews & Ratings
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
I've been playing for about a week now, It's very fun. Pros. Ships are cheap to buy so you can play many different ships quickly Gameplay is fun, balanced NO PAY TO WIN Custimization is good, you can choose different crew mates / perks to fit your unique playstyles. Game loads fast and ques are short Player base is is very friendly and helpful to new players Discord is active Cons Player base is small, when the game gets bigger it will be amazing. Only 9 different total ships, but the game is in early access so thats expected. No Campaign yet, Its coming soon though. Single battle royale game mode, I would enjoy objective maps as well! Maps are pretty small, I would REALLY enjoy like a 40 player map. Conclusion For the price It's a good game. Doesnt take a lot of skill to get into, you can choose many different builds / playstyles so the game doesnt get boring soon. Fun simple pvp.
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Lots of fun. Easy to pick up, hard to master. Skill is rewarded but RNG is a big factor as well. Matchmaking queues are relatively short and the matches themselves usually last between 15-20 minutes. US, EU, and Asian regions are available but I have found that I am able to play on all servers equally (Something I am not accustomed to). Latency is not an issue for the most part and the game is well optimized. Currently three races exist. Humans, Orcs, and Dwarves (more are planned). Each racial faction has three unique ships. Humans for instance are the glass cannon types. Orcs are rammers and boarders. Dwarves are heavy hitters and tanky but slow and cumbersome. These are generalizations for the most part but I think you get the gist. I have max tiered a ship in all three factions and I can honestly tell you they all play and feel completely different from each other. There is a ship to match different playstyles. Some prefer to zip around like speedsters, others prefer to bombard from afar, and others still prefer to go toe-to-toe and trade ramming and point-blank barrages. NPC ships roam the seas and provide you a buff to your own ship once sunk that lasts the entire duration of the match. These stack and one can easily buff themselves to monstrous numbers simply by avoiding players and hunting the respawning npc ships. When you sink another player, you can pick up all their accumulated boons as well. Which means by the end of the match when only a few remain, players are usually pretty buffed up with stacks of extra dmg, armor, speed, etc. Combat is fast and furious and a LOT of FUN. I enjoy switching between ships and alternating playstyles. This game has a promising future and is already very enjoyable in its current state. There is a progression system in place and you can earn Captains (each has a unique ability) and Shipmates (extra bonuses of varying quality) that provides a level of customization to your ship (along with the ship upgrades themselves). Anyways, if you enjoy fast and furious combat and the fantasy naval setting then I highly recommend this game. See you on the Seven Seas!!!
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I won't lie, I bought this because I'm really salty at Sea of Thieves right now...Plus, this game has an actual sea creature not just some tenticles. Still salty... I can't remember the last time I played a game some much in one sitting. I'm a game h0re and can't seem to stay loyal but the booty in this game is so phat I stayed on it for 8 hours straight. I don't think this will be a 10/10 or an "Overwhelmingly Positive" title but it's pretty fun to me. You get into the matches really quick, I don't notice much lag and to my surprise I just saw there's a party feature and this whole time I've only been double teamed once. I don't know if that's because the game's just new or what but I am loving this free for all fighting !! Orc ships seem to be strong AF and fast, and Dwarf ships are tanky AF and seem to ram me to death. I maxed out the 2nd Human ship and I don't ever see none of these human ships really killin' nobody so I think I spent my money in the wrong place, Although, I'm freakin' holdin' my own with this maxed out Lv2 Human ship and it really was because I finally understood my abilities and learned to kite. Humans have...I'm not quite sure what they excel in really most of the time it's Orcs and Dwarves that are the killers. Real quick, tips I learned before I forget... Abilities 1-3 on your hotkey + Spacebar (It's your Ultimate ability but you have to have a captain equipped) 1. Attacks the players health. 2. Attacks the players sails (slows them down) 3. Attacks the players crew (if the enemy has no crew and you have a crew battle they take direct damage) Right Click - Hook Attempt (If successful you engage in crew battle, automated combat on ships by AI you can't see. You can still fire cannons.) Space Bar- Ultimate and varies upon what captain you have equipped. 3 Captains per race. That's all I got for now. It's really fun. The end of the map gets smaller like PUBG and you don't want to be in the black sea. Hope you sink you soon !! ^_^
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This is what a video game should be. Reasonable up front cost for many hours of fun gaming. Developers seem to be taking the early access status of the game seriously with regular updates and improvements based on community feedback.
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Introduction This is by far the most polished and most stable early access title i stumbled upon in years. I've always been in love with those little sailing games, so I just had to immediately pick up this little gem and boy it is worth it. Gameplay The gameplay consists of a 15 player battle royal map. The map shrinks as more ships are taken out. Outside of the safe zone you won't take consistent damage like in other battle royal games these days but there will be seamonsters, you can escape for a short period time through maneuver but you should focus on getting so safe waters. Inside of the "arena" players will try to take each other out or collect bounty and powerups to strenghten up their ships. Ultimately you want to be the last ship alive to win but there are good rewards even for not getting a top score. Ships have armor and hull values, armor protects your ship but you just have one layer of armor on every side. If it is broken, you will take direct hull damage. If this reaches zero, you sink and drop all your collected powerups und a chunk of your gold for the other players to collect. Aside from regular hull damaging shots you have chainshots to to slow down your opponent by tearing apart their sails and grapeshots to demolish an other ships crew. A damaged crew won't be able to repair your ship and sails or reload your cannons as they used to but they do regenerate over time. Ships and stats There is a ship for every playstyle. There are nine ships so far, three for each race. You can just tank through everything with your slow dwarven stormanchor or run and gun with your small but fast human cinder. If you are more interested in melee you can always pick up the orc bloodfin and ram your opponents to death. These are just a few examples of playstyles and you can always modify your ships through unlockables to fit them into your personal playstyle. Every stat in the game can be modified by your mates, they drop randomly after matches and can give your ship a cutting edge over the opponent by giving a substantial boost to one or two of your ships stats but you can always just equip three of them. Balancing Being a PVP game, balancing is key. In Maelstrom they did a really good job on emphasizing every ships strengths and weaknesses so it feels very balanced for me. Maybe if I were the developer i would make the dwarf cannons a little bit more reliable but they are definitely in a good viable state. Visuals There are two maps so far and both are designed with so much love. There are little towns hanging on the cliffs, little maritime gimmicks everywhere, the player ships and minor ships are crafted with so much detail. Everything blends together perfectly. Sound/Music It's damn high quality for being in early access for just a few days. The music sounds good and perfectly fits the setting. The sound effects are somewhat basic but being a PVP game you can determine the enemy ship just by hearing it and differentiate between races, giving you just a little bit more intel for your playstyle. TLDR If you are looking for a smooth competitive experience with many things to unlock in a beautifully crafted maritim world you shouldnt pass up on this. It's relatively easy to get going and each playstyle has its own unique learning curve. Did I mention orc ships have sharks attached to them?
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Frequently Asked Questions
Maelstrom is free to play on Steam.
Maelstrom is not on sale because is already free to play on Steam.
Maelstrom received 2,139 positive votes out of a total of 2,572 achieving a rating of 8.00.
😎
Maelstrom was developed by Gunpowder Games, Inc. and Tideturners and published by Forthright Entertainment.
Maelstrom is playable and fully supported on Windows.
Maelstrom is not playable on MacOS.
Maelstrom is not playable on Linux.
Maelstrom offers both single-player and multi-player modes.
Maelstrom offers both Co-op and PvP modes.
There are 3 DLCs available for Maelstrom. Explore additional content available for Maelstrom on Steam.
Maelstrom does not support mods via Steam Workshop.
Maelstrom does not support Steam Remote Play.
Maelstrom does not currently support Steam Family Sharing.
You can find solutions or submit a support ticket by visiting the Steam Support page for Maelstrom.
Data sources
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Additionally, we incorporate data from the SteamSpy API, which offers insights into game sales and player statistics. This helps us present a comprehensive view of each game's popularity and performance within the gaming community.
Last Updates| Steam data | 08 March 2026 22:26 |
|---|---|
| SteamSpy data | 08 March 2026 14:00 |
| Steam price | 08 March 2026 22:26 |
| Steam reviews | 13 March 2026 13:52 |
If you'd like to dive deeper into the details about Maelstrom, we invite you to check out a few dedicated websites that offer extensive information and insights. These platforms provide valuable data, analysis, and user-generated reports to enhance your understanding of the game and its performance.
- SteamDB - A comprehensive database of everything on Steam about Maelstrom
- SteamCharts - Analysis of Maelstrom concurrent players on Steam
- ProtonDB - Crowdsourced reports on Linux and Steam Deck Maelstrom compatibility
Game modes
Multiplayer
Online players
2
Developer
Gunpowder Games, Inc.,
Tideturners
Publisher
Forthright Entertainment
Release
20 Sep 2019
Platforms