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Introduction

In the last few years, online gaming has been making leaps and bounds. Internet connections are getting faster all the time, and game development companies are taking stock. Just about every gaming genre has at least one major online game. From RPGs like Ultima Online or Everquest, to action games like Tribes or Team Fortress, online gaming is becoming a huge market. Simultaneously, game companies have been crossing genres and injecting new features into games in hopes of creating a more unique gaming experience. Now entering the fray of online-only gaming is a new company, Microsoft Research Games, with their first release, Allegiance.

Allegiance is one of those games that is hard to place into any particular genre. It might be best described as a space-sim-action-strategy game. You fly through galaxies, engage in dogfights, and do your best to conquer the universe. Being strictly multi-player, you won’t be alone in all of this, of course, since the game focuses on team play and coordinated tactics. Additionally, there is a strategic commander assigned to each of the factions in the game, who is responsible for directing the overall progress of his team. There can be up to 6 different teams, with a maximum of 15 players on each team. The game plays out on a large scale, involving several different sectors within each galaxy, or map. You can choose from three factions, each with its own look, advantages, and disadvantages. You spend most of your time as a combat pilot, flying to different sectors, staging attacks on enemy bases, and trying to “put out fires” as the enemy attacks your inter-stellar outposts. From a general perspective, the game plays very much like an RTS; think of playing a version of Homeworld where each and every ship is manned by a real, live human being. Upon closer inspection, Allegiance plays much like a space-action-sim. Allegiance could easily appeal to old-school strategy gamers and space-sim fanatics, or anyone who likes a good dose of action injected with some strategy.