published by Sierra Interactive
Fragile Allegiance is a deep space strategy game, that will appeal to those of you that enjoy an alternative to the majority of historical strategy games that are available on the market.
Those of you that have played with Sierra's Outpost will see a number of similarities between the two games, the major advantage Fragile Allegiance has it that it involves six other alien races (Outpost only had the resource management side of the game) - this is probably why Sierra are about to release Output 2 which features interaction with alien races.
On to the game. The year is 2439 and you represent TetraCorp, this company manages a franchise operation in the Fragmented Sectors (which is where you will be working). The idea of the game is to colonise asteroids, build defensive and offensive capabilities, and then concentrate on either establishing diplomatic (for the timid) or galactic domination.
Once the program has installed, you can select three installation types - 35MB, 100MB or 135MB, you get the usual introduction screen. Following the introduction the main menu appears, you have a number of options which include loading previously saved games, starting on of the pre-set scenarios or a custom game, running through the comprehensive tutorials and starting a multi-play session.
The tutorials are extremely good, they take you through single asteroid management to combat with aggressive aliens. The scenarios range from large friendly arenas with one alien culture to small hostile arenas with six nasty alien cultures all hell bent on using your colonies for target practice.
Playing the game is quite straight forward, you always start with one asteroid on which you construct all of the buildings available to you. This enables you to mine ore (which will be the primary source of your money in the future), build missiles, build scout ships, and build warships. You are able to purchase blue-prints that enhance all aspects of your mining franchise, examples of the blue-prints you can buy are: Advanced mining platforms, anti-missile pods, battleships, improved scanners, etc. (the list is large and will cost a lot of money to purchase all of the blue-prints - but they are all worth it).
Once your asteroid is up and running you may see additional asteroids appearing on the star chart, if none appear you will have to send out scout ships to search for new asteroids. Eventually you will find another asteroid and this is where you send your transport ship to start a new colony. It normally is not long before you find one of the other alien races asteroids or one of the alien races finds you, sometimes they are prepared to talk about treaties and non-aggression pacts, sometimes they just attack your asteroids and you end up on the wrong end of an all out war.
Once you are some way into a game you can start thinking about hiring colony supervisors to take over the running of one colony or a number of colonies while you concentrate on alien destruction. To aid you in the down fall of the other alien races you can hire agents that will carry out specific tasks for you, tasks can include things like: Defensive systems sabotage, asteroid location, treaty information, and much more. Obviously the more you ask an agent to do the more it will cost you, and there is no guarantee they will be able to complete the mission.
You are able to trade with representatives of the alien races you meet and other free-lance traders will appear from time-to-time. These traders sell anything - from food and medical supplies through to atomic weapons and illegal biological weapons.
The game is very addictive, you can quite easily lose four or five hours and still be struggling with only six asteroids whilst trying to fight off two or three alien races. I cannot find much wrong with the game, although it may be a bit to specialised for some of you out there. Graham has been waiting for this review for quite some time now, I was finding it difficult to shut down the game and write a review.
System requirements: DOS or Windows 95, 486/66 DX2, 8MB (16MB in Windows 95), 2 x Speed CD ROM, SVGA, Mouse and a Sound card.
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