Allegiance

Herald rating: * * * *

Microsoft, PC

All ages, $99.95

Review: Peter Eley

Like the recently reviewed Asheron's Call, Allegiance is another of Microsoft's on-line "premium" games, ones that you have to pay a monthly fee of $US9.95 for, as well as the cost of the software.

It's an impressive game, as good as most single-player titles graphically and its multiplayer focus gives it huge playability and depth.

Allegiance is set in 2140, just after a rogue asteroid has hit Earth. The remnants of humanity form three rival factions and their internecine conflicts form the basis of the game.

Team play is essential: you can be a pilot, gunner or base commander but co-operation is vital. Games allow up to 32 players in anything from two to six teams.

It is not an easy game and it's made harder by the lack of a quick-start single campaign.

Connecting to the game is straightforward: install the Micro-soft Gaming Zone software from the disk, subscribe, and you're checking your shield defences before you can say Uranus.

Allegiance does require some hefty hardware. A Pentium 11 300 with a 3D accelerator is recommended.

This could explain why only 300 or so were logged on to Allegiance, while 11,000 were playing Asheron's Call, which needs only a Pentium 166.

The Zone is fascinating, and has a lot of free stuff. My favourite is Age of Empires 2, which usually has 4000-5000 players logged on.

Rainbow Six and Rogue Spear are free, too, and usually have 2000-3000 logged on.

Card games such as Hearts, Bridge and Spades usually attract a few thousand players, who tend to be more mature.

If you're seriously into cards, there is a subscription-only Bridge Club, which links tournament players worldwide for $US99.95 a year.

The one thing to watch out for is latency time lag caused by a poor connection. The Zone puts coloured bars next to logged-on players and green indicates a good connection, yellow adequate and red poor.

E-mail: peter_eley@herald.co.nz