Gameplay

If Only All Wars Were This Short

Allegiance games are long. If you want to play from start to finish, expect to stay a few good hours at least. Fortunately you can also join a game in-progress, but then you miss out on the early skirmishes and find yourself feeling a bit like someone who reads a book from the 100 page mark. The game might be nearing its end or just starting out. You never know. Unfortunately, this also means that you won't have a say in what gets researched, where your team expands, etc. It's not uncommon to have a 50% or more turnover rate over the course of the game. People leave because they've had enough, or they have something in real life, etc. Replacements are usually quick to follow.

Asteroids Are Everywhere

Hehe, that Stealth is dead

Combat is a bit on the slow side early on, but will become fast and furious as bigger, badder ships and weapons appear on the scene. Though defensive measures improve, the guns will outpower them as time goes on. In FreeSpace one of the coolest feelings was being just one of a dozen fighters clashing with twice as many of the enemy - a full-fledged furball would ensue. Allegiance takes that one step further - you'll be in massive fights with real live human opponents. No AI in the world can compare to a human being. If it's challenging, it often cheats or feels… mechanical. If it's easy, it's dumber than any human could be (er… usually.)

At least I died near my base

Cool looking ship

The game has a slightly weird feel to it that comes from its physics. Though it doesn't have true-to-life momentum, it has its fair share. Make a sudden turn and it'll take your ship a second or two to start moving in that direction.

Scouts, Fighters, Stealths, Interceptors, Bombers, Cap Ships!

Wooo… is there a lot of stuff to play with in Allegiance! Just like Tribes had its specialized player classes, Allegiance has specialized craft. Scouts are, well, scouts. They go in with their superior scanners and see further than anyone else - they're great for finding hidden enemy bases and patrolling for incoming attacks before they reach your base.

Fighters are your general, run-of-the-mill fighters. A jack of all-trades, if you will. While it can't out-fight an interceptor or do recon as well as a scout might, fighters are good all-around ship. Plus, late in the game, they can get galvonics - a powerful gun just perfect to punch holes in the armor of bombers. This is probably the biggest reason anyone could have for having a fighter.

Missiles Away!

Post game gg's

Stealths are not invisible or impervious to radar - they're just bloody hard to find with scanners. However, in a straight fight they are weaker than their counterparts (ie, stealth fighters can't stand toe-to-toe with regular fighters, and the same goes for stealth bombers.) At the moment they feel a bit underpowered, though.

Interceptors are short range heavy fighters. They're fast, tough and deadly. Unfortunately they don't have shields, missiles or the ripcord (an emergency teleport.) They eat fighters for breakfast and can, with the proper weapons, duke it out with bombers with a half-way decent chance to win.