Set against the violent ecological meltdown of Earth, players will be able to unleash a tide of carnage with colossal transforming robots, crush enemies by raining down fire, level entire mountains, and freeze the oceans. In this ravaged world, water has become the most valuable of resources and divided what remains of mankind in two: the urban freedom fighting Remnants and the technologically advanced Ascension. Now they must wage war against a new threat, the invasion of a savage alien race, the Hai-Genti, and each other in a desperate struggle for supremacy and survival. The Remnants, Ascension and Hai-Genti form Maelstrom's three playable factions, each superbly different in terms of theme and play strategy:

The Remnants
- Led by ex-US military General James Buchanan, take charge with the heroic Remnants, as you modify your units on the fly to deal with the situation.
- Use stealth to infiltrate enemy lines, and guerrilla tactics to devise lethal traps involving napalm, proximity mines, bomb cluster chains and devastating nuclear weapons.
- Turn enemy units against their masters, as you hack into and control the Ascension's ruthless transforming tech, the Mechamorphs.

The Ascension
- Dominate with the insidious Ascension, headed by Arlan Khan, as you command the all-powerful Mechmorphs with their transforming technology.
- Fear no one with your advanced technology and shielded units, with their laser weaponry, cryogen rays and orbital weapon platforms, which strike down death from above.
- It's not just the Ascension's weaponry that can transform; if you need to relocate your base or buildings, these too can be transformed and moved on.

The Hai-Genti
- Attack the human factions as you command the full strike force of the invading Hai-Genti.
- Take on an altogether alien strategy and you fire down spores from the skies to grow an army of vicious bloodthirsty beasts.
- Launch surprise attacks and tear the humans limb from limb to feed your ravenous spores, the literal hearts of your campaign.
- Sacrifice your own units to produce even more vicious and deadly mutated monsters. After all, they're only fodder for the cause.