Allegiance sets forth a goal and achieves it on almost every level.

I think of all the phrases the gaming public has coined, I hated 'Massively Multiplayer' the most. The reason for my hatred of this addition to the electronic language is its blatant misuse by publishers who think it will help sell more games. Because of this, I am automatically skeptical of any game that bears this moniker, and perhaps that is too harsh. In my opinion, many online only games narrowly miss the mark of being completely enjoyable. I personally didn't like Asheron's Call (though I thought Everquest was pretty good) so when I picked up Allegiance, I was worried I would feel the same way. Man, was I wrong.

Though role-playing games certainly lend well to online play with their lavish and immense worlds and countless quests, if you think about it, a space game offers even more. Instead of a large world, you can have a large universe, with endless things to do, and countless places to explore. Allegiance does take the universe into play; it doesn't, however, offer countless things to do. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I wouldn't want someone to go into this title expecting that.

Allegiance puts you in the cockpit of a spaceship, cruising throughout the galaxy looking to take on your enemies. You can immediately hop right into the action, engaging other starfighters in dogfights. Allegiance, at least from the get-go, is all about action. Take the Wing Commander series, cut out the elaborate plot, and you have a pretty good idea of what Allegiance is all about.

The game goes like this. A player sets up a game, and becomes the leader. He is the one that will direct research, control resource mining, and pretty much acts as commander. He can give you orders (which you don't necessarily have to follow) and he guides the attack on the enemy. In order for the game to succeed, you need a good leader, one who allots resources correctly, and who manages research in a way that provides you with the right weapons and spacecraft. If he or she does this poorly, well, then, you're going down in flames.

In a loose sense, Allegiance resembles the Tribes setup of play. You can choose to do any number of things, ranging from being a miner for resources, a scout to investigate the enemy, a bomber who attacks enemy garrisons and strongholds, or a starfighter, out to protect your leader's investment. From there, you can also choose to hop aboard a larger craft and act as a turret gunner, which in many ways is similar to jumping aboard a personnel carrier in Tribes. You are given total freedom in this, thus allowing you to cruise the galaxy on your own, if that's what floats your starship.

Not anyone can do everything, however. In order to become a miner or a bomber, you need money. Getting cash is one of the more difficult and confusing things to do in this game, and it requires some experience. You can gain such experience by moving up the rankings through enemy kills and the like. The game has an excellent ranking system.

What a game like this needs to succeed is a good physics model, and a good navigation and communication system. Allegiance has both. You travel from system to system via wormholes. Getting to these requires some patience, however, because you spend a good deal of time coasting through space waiting to get to your desired destination. There is no direct teleport system, which adds realism, but sometimes the going gets slow. You can use your afterburners to get there faster, but they require fuel, which is in limited quantities. Burn all of your fuel, and you'll be stuck on cruise control. You have the option of teleporting (ripcording, its called) to your home system, but this gets aggravating if you traversed several systems. The navigation system works well enough, and when the game informs you of action in another sector, it isn't too hard to figure out how to get there. The physics are also near perfect, and remind me a lot of Colony Wars for the PlayStation.

Allegiance plays like an action RTS in space, if that makes any sense to you. Each team has to build resources and gather funds before heading off for a major confrontation. This is no FPS-type of game, where you just go in and kill off as many of the enemy as possible, mainly because after you are killed, you can respawn by flying your lifepod to the home base. I like the lifepod setup because, mainly, if you get ejected from your ship, you really can't just hit the space bar and re-enter the fight. Some games allow the lifepod to ripcord to the home system, but this takes away a major strategic element to the game. When you kill an enemy ship, you might be enticed to blow away the pod of your enemy as well. If you do this, he is automatically sent to the home base and can re-launch. If you kill your enemy far from home, you're better off letting him navigate his way home. His allies can come pick him up, but that doesn't always happen. It's all about strategy, and for a game that on the surface seems shallow, it's got it in droves.

The graphics in Allegiance are excellent, conjuring up references to Freespace and Wing Commander. There are excellent weapon effects and ship details, and with the right card, the game looks absolutely gorgeous. Considering the scope of this game, it would have been understandable if the game's graphics were a notch below the best space games out there. This game can stand toe to toe with almost anything out there. Really.

The sound is also great, with explosions, weapons, speech and ambient sounds coming across cleanly. Attribute this to the game's heavy reliance on DirectX. With a good soundcard and speakers, you'll feel like you are involved in a science fiction movie.

I have been a big critic of Microsoft's Gaming Zone since its inception. For some reason, the Zone just didn't seem to have a strong enough backbone to support the games it offered. Allegiance can only be played over the Zone, and I wasn't to excited about this. However, I have logged in a ton of hours on the game, and besides a few coughs and some minor lags, I have had absolutely no problem playing Allegiance. I haven't been logged off, and I haven't encountered any of the screen freeze problems I have experienced with the Zone in the past. It has been a trouble-free ride, and I think, considering the amount of players this game supports, the Zone is doing a wonderful job. (Okay, I ate my crow, can I go home now?)

Microsoft did this game just right. They kept it simple enough to allow instant enjoyment, and they included enough detail and strategy to make it fun over the long haul. If you enjoy space games, and think that playing them with a slew of people online is a great idea, then Allegiance is a must-buy for you. Even if you remotely enjoy space games but love to play anything online, Allegiance is a welcome break from the FPS and RPG fare that seems to be synonymous with online play. As far as the phrase 'Massively Multiplayer' goes, this game can carry that label, and it actually does it justice.

Reviewed by John Misak.