Sound

Kablooie!

Sound in Allegiance is a lot more important than you'd think. Not only does it have to convey normal, entertainment battle sounds and warnings for dogfighting, it also has to give warnings to the commander, who's essentially playing an RTS.

He's in a hurry

Blind is NOT good

Allegiance does both in excellent fashion. Sounds are crisp, original and clear as well as utilitarian. Missile lock warnings in the middle of a major furball are often your only indication that it's time to drop some chaff or get blown sky high. You'll simply be too busy avoiding enemy gunfire to check your tail for a missile or attempting to evade a lock.

So does this mean you'll have to learn every single blip and blop in the game? Hardly. Most of the warnings are actually voice-actuated. You'll always be warned when someone knocks your shields off or when your armor is getting low. This is probably the best solution, since it is hard to keep track of those HUD indicators when fighting for your life. Since the warnings actually tell you what's wrong, you don't have to worry about deciphering a bleep from a blip either.

Home sweet home

Believe it or not, those are 'bullets'

Yipyap

The voice acting in Allegiance is considerably different than what you'll find in Starlancer or Freespace. There is no story to convey and your AI wingmen won't constantly spam you with inane messages. Instead, that job is left to their living counterparts. There are voice-commands for just about everything in the game. From simple warnings to requests for certain technologies, if it's related to the gameplay, it's in the game. There's even a "Oops, wrong voice chat" sound in case you goofed during selection.

He's sooo dead

Rockets away!

These sounds are nothing short of vital to efficient play. If you don't have the time to check the status of your shields and armor during a fight, then odds are you're not going to read every line of text scrolling up. The quality of the voice acting is nothing stellar, but the important thing is that it is clear. Tribes didn't have the best voices, but they were effective and clear, which is what counted. The same reasoning follows when judging the voice acting in Allegiance.

Allegiance's music is "ok". It isn't that great but keeps the tension up during slower moments, which is all that matters to us.