Allegiance

DEVELOPER : Microsoft Research
PUBLISHER : Microsoft Games

 

System Requirements Pentium 200, 32MB RAM, 300 MB HD space

Recommended Pentium II 350MHz, 64+ MB RAM,  TNT or better 3D card

Ratings
Code Issues Graphics: 8 - Very fast, clean 3D support. I was able to run at 1024x768x16 on a PII 450 w/ a Voodoo 3 AGP. Very well implemented. Audio: 7 - Noteworthy for the immense amount of voice recorded to be used in inter-player communication. Otherwise, your standard suite of shield discharge/laser blast/booster roar sound effects. Interface: 8 - The Wing Commander interface isn't broken and they wisely chose not to fix it. All the standards are here, shields (which regenerate), armor (which doesn't), booster fuel, ammo for non-energy based weapons, etc.	Play Issues Solo gameplay: N/A Replayability: 8 - Very strong replay ability since it is practically worthless to research the entire tech tree in each game. Choosing your ultimate technology goal (stealth fighters, interceptors, etc) strongly dictates the type of game you're going to play. And different choices by opposing sides makes for incredible variety as these technologies match up. Multiplay: 9 - Advances the team-based multiplayer only genre significantly. Allegiance makes strong contributions in respawn design, inner-player communication, and non-combat player roles. Learning Curve: 7 - Directly proportional to the amount of space simulation gaming you've had. If you're a veteran, only the multiplayer roles will need to be learned. Otherwise, a slick design honed over a decade of games makes fresh faced players ease into the experience.
Other/Notes Documentation 6.0 – Not incredibly informative with regards to weapon variety, ship performance, and macro strategies. This is probably a conscious effort on the developers part however, and it does do a good job of detailing the mechanics of flying the ships. Pros: Strong team dynamics, interesting implementation of genre staples, innovative non-combat player roles. Cons: Uneven documentation, potentially a pay service to play on Microsoft's Internet Gaming Zone (though player support games are free). Overall: 8.8 A winning game for fans of multiplayer team games and space sims alike.

Allegiance is team based, multiplayer only space combat simulation from Microsoft Research. It focuses on expanding your faction's zone of control through numerous sectors of space, all of which are connected by a web of wormholes (here called Alephs). Players fulfill a variety of different roles for their faction, though surprisingly not all involve piloting spacecraft. Most of the action is presented from a first person cockpit view, where players can pilot a wide range of customizable fighters, capital ships, and turrets. For those with more strategic leanings, the role of commander is ambitiously rendered, using a more traditional RTS interface and sector map.

Allegiance challenges team-multiplayer genre conventions in many areas, but also recognizes the great strides made in titles like Team Fortress Classic and Tribes. An example of this (with impressive results) can be seen in how Allegiance handles respawning after death. Unlike almost every multiplayer game where fatalities are a common (and frequently consequence free) occurrence, Allegiance requires something of a toll to paid upon death. When forced to eject (which occurs upon your ships destruction), you enter the void in a life pod. This pod is slow, sluggish, and defenseless.

You are offered a number of options at this point. The first and most prevalent choice is to take the long ride home. Thanks to the game's wonderfully intelligent auto-pilot mechanism, this is a simple maneuver to execute. Another option is to try to avoid being 'gunned down' in your pod by a bounty collecting enemy. The more damage you do as a combatant, the higher the price on your head. While the enemy team will be hurting it's efforts by killing you (once your life pod is destroyed, you're instantly teleported to a friendly space station), they also get the benefit of a cash infusion. In short, if you're a good player, don't be surprised if you find yourself instantly teleported home. Yet another option is to call for assistance from your teammates. If a friendly ship comes into contact with your pod, you're rescued and teleported back to base.

This simple feature is an example of where Allegiance truly innovates. It takes what can barely even be called a feature in other games (respawning) and fleshes it out into something that really enhances and balances the game. Good players, who by simple fact they're talented, may often be out of action the longest on those lonely flights home from the front. It also promotes team play, in that now a whole new role is created for players to embrace, search and rescue. They also use this as a method of differentiating the various in-game factions. The Bios have the ability to ripcord (teleport) from the life pods, an ability that only some full ships have in other factions. This mechanism adds richness to an area of game play many titles simply skip over. While it's debatable as to how enjoyable the solitary trips are, what's clear is that respawning is an overlooked opportunity to take more control over the gamer's experience.

While it shares the genre with games like TFC and Tribes, the game plays much more closely to a military flight sim. Key to this is the fact that all vehicles in the game have radar signatures (sig). For those unfamiliar with the way this works in flight sims, your signature correlates roughly to how easily you're spotted by enemy detection methods. Increasing your signature (in military flight sims is achieved by high G turns, loaded weapon mounts, lowered landing gear, etc) increases your chances of being detected. Allegiance simplifies this mechanism while keeping the interesting game play elements it introduces intact. Basically, you're ship is given a percentage that determines at what range an enemy can 'see' you. A ship with 100% sig, can be detected at 400 meters, whereas a ship with 50% could be detected at 200 meters or one with 200% could be detected at 800. Allegiance allows players to alter their load outs with an eye on maintaining a low signature. One can also rotate high signature devices like shields and missiles off an active pylon into your cargo bay, with a corresponding drop in sig. Hiding behind asteroids and avoiding the use of high speed boosters can lower your sig as well. There are even classes of ships that focus on low signature combat (stealth fighters and bombers), who can activate a stealth generator to approach an almost invisible sig. This allows for some extremely interesting game roles to become viable. Hunting enemy miners with a stealth fighter is one of the most satisfying game experiences I've had. Unless the enemy is completely undermanned, you'll have escorts to contend with, as well as the nervous AI piloting the unmanned harvesters bugging out at the slightest sign of trouble. Even non dedicated stealth vehicles can take advantage of a low sig, though often by presenting an interesting choice (a hallmark of good game play). Do I disable my shields to reduce my sig to manage a hasty escape? What is the perfect load out for not broadcasting my location, but equipping correctly for the mission ahead?

The communication suite for team coordination is well executed, allowing players a fairly large vocabulary. By tapping a series of keys (many of the more common communications become second nature), you can plot with or against, insult and taunt those in your game. In a particularly nice touch, there is actual audio with the messages, so you can hear the other players as well as read what they said (a la Tribes). When playing at a high resolution (where the onscreen text can become tiny), this is a very nice feature.

Allegiance does a good job of populating the vastness of space with interesting terrain. In many space sims, considerable weakness in your tactical options stem from the fact that space is primarily empty. Here, you not only have asteroids of various shapes and sizes to contend with, but a wide range of space stations. While they don't sport any self defense mechanisms, they do allow for tactical retreats and surprise attacks.

One of the great triumphs of this game is when a task force is actually assembled and heads out looking for trouble. It's a vision seen rarely outside of epic science fiction films. These collections of capital ships, fighter escorts and interceptors, repair scouts, and bombers can absolutely tear a sector of space apart. It wasn't uncommon in my hours of play to see these forces blockade various alephs, hemming in the unfortunate faction on the other side. It also contributes a very 'naval', very pacific theater of WWII feel to many of the battles. While no capital ship launches it's own fighters, when fighters and capital ships engage each other, it's a spectacular and deadly display.

After playing Allegiance for a few weeks, I strongly feel that Microsoft should be rewarded for creating a truly unique and gripping gaming experience. During the 1990's people often associated Lucasarts with games that rarely innovated, but often excelled. They would let other companies break new genre turf, then duplicate much of their successful efforts and polish the results to a blindly brilliance. It's an accurate description of this game. They've obviously learned a great deal from the successes and failures of games like Team Fortress Classic, Tribes, and even their own Asheron's Call. With this concrete knowledge in hand, they then proceeded to craft an incredibly focused and coherent team based game experience. Their contributions to such specialized multiplayer game mechanics (like respawning and user configurable game roles) will no doubt inspire future games and designs. As an evolution of the recently conceived genre of multiplayer only games, it is a resounding success.

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Reviewed by Jeff Morris