Quick Take

Stop reading this and start downloading the game from the web site. While it downloads, come back here and read on...

Part space sim, part real-time strategy, Allegiance has a steep learning curve, a rabid community, zero cost of entry, and full open source code for anyone who cares to download it.

Microsoft produced Allegiance a few years ago; I was on the early beta tests. Sadly, Microsoft had a lot of difficulty getting the game balanced and preventing cheating. I lost interest in Allegiance shortly after it went gold, but the feeling that Something Really Cool was going on would not go away.

Then, one fateful day, I stumbled across the website of the Free Allegiance Zone, a group of Allegiance devotees who are keeping Allegiance alive. In a stunning move, Microsoft released the game to the player community for free.

On the surface, it's just another space shoot-em-up a la Wing Commander. Under the hood, Allegiance sports complex ship upgrade paths, a fully-developable tech tree, bandwidth-friendly network code, and a new twist: you must play as a team. It isn't possible for a lone hotshot to swoop in and save the day.

Allegiance hardware requirements are low: any 400Mhz Pentium system with a 3D accelerator can handle it. Download it! Now!

GamePlay Videos

Thus far, I only have videos that other folks have assembled. I may get brave sometime and build my own.

• Game play from Allegiance, with music overdubbed: 1 MBit or 256 KBit if you have a slow connection.

Tech Tips

• For best results you need to know how to forward ports through your Internet router.
• Forward ports 2302 to 2311 to your Allegiance system.
• For more consistent results, run DXPort from PuffinSoft.com; pick File/Port Range and pick the 2302 to 2311 port range. Minimize it and play.

Newbie Tips

Stuff I learned the hard way.

• Sign up for a forum account at www.freeallegiance.org. The material is essential to enjoy the game and understand the community.
• Good at circle-strafing in first-person shooters? You can configure sidethrusters in Allegiance to slide sideways, similar to a helicopter or hovercraft.
• Situational awareness is essential. Think like a commander, and you will become valuable to your commander.
• Know when to run. If you are outnumbered 4 to 1, you will die. Unless you have a definite mission to finish, run.
• Manage your signature; master stealthiness. Enemies cannot kill you if they cannot see you.
• The training missions are bare-bones but essential.
• Some of the pilots you encounter in Allegiance have been playing for years; you will be crushed very often at first.
• When the combat training simulation destroys you in the first wave or two, you can expect similar results in a real game.
• When the combat training simulation destroys you in the first wave, it's because
  a) you are outnumbered 2 to 1 and didn't realize it and
  b) went running in guns blazing without realizing you've got medium range missles.
• When the combat simulation training mission becomes boring after 4 waves, you are on your way to being a good pilot.