Allegiance

Review

by Benjamin Ellison

Scenes from old Buck Rogers films and Battlestar Galactica come to mind while playing Allegiance. Space combat has never been this fun -- or this frustrating. Combining elements of flight simulations with components of real-time strategy and squad-based tactical games, this online multiplayer tale creates an intense experience for just about anyone interested in space combat simulators.

If you fancy yourself a hotdog pilot, polish up that blast helmet and get some moleskin for your joystick because you'll be going up against some of the best virtual pilots around. The dogfights are fast, furious and often over before you can scream the first syllable of "Mayday," especially if you're unlucky enough to be in the crosshairs of an elite pilot. And even though finding yourself adrift in a life pod can be oddly comforting, giving you a chance to bond with your character, watching all the action from the sidelines gets old quickly.

Luckily, if you flunked out of Fighter Jock 201, you might still enjoy a slot as a turret gunner on a capital ship where you get a nice big weapon and nothing to distract you but targets -- and that incoming bomber. If you have the urge to fly something a bit different than a space combat fighter, there are many choices available, ranging from several wallop-packing capital ships to bombers and scouts. Bombers are terrific at dealing out serious damage to the larger ships but you need backup firepower to keep enemy interceptors from chewing holes through your fuselage.

Most beginning pilots will likely spend a large portion of their time in scout ships, which are a real asset in the game. It's mandatory for any fledgling pilot to get to know the ropes, learn how to plant minefields and deploy remote sensor platforms to assist his or her commander in tracking enemy ship movements. This type of information can come in quite handy if you have the aptitude to command your own forces.

Armchair admirals will find their hands full organizing various mobile and stationary assets and making critical decisions about what areas of research to develop. If you're more of the command from the front lines type, feel free to jump in a ship and join the fray. However, without access to certain strategic information, you could shortly end up in charge of a flotilla of lifeless wreckage, slowly circling some distant dwarf star. Being a commander is a real fun job, as long as your teammates are patient and forgiving. But, if it were easy, there wouldn't be a rank structure.

Since Allegiance is an online multiplayer game, it would be negligent not to mention how easy it is to find decent competition. You have access to either local network-based games for those all night pizza-fests known as LAN parties or you can choose from the myriad of MSN Zone or free games always available. Membership in the Zone requires a low monthly subscription fee but grants you 24/7 access to other games as well as regularly scheduled large-scale battles of epic proportions. Don't worry about logging into a game full of pilots far exceeding your skill level -- there are usually plenty of new player games to join.

If you're in the mood for action and are either an excellent virtual pilot or a gamer patient enough to wait repeatedly for your life pod to dock or be rescued, free up some hard-drive space and test your space combat skills in Allegiance.