Fragile Allegiance

Last updated

Fragile Allegiance
Fragile Allegiance title screen.jpg
Australian cover art of Fragile Allegiance
Developer(s) Gremlin Interactive
Publisher(s) Gremlin Interactive
Interplay Productions
Designer(s) Cajji Software:
Alex Metallis
Jon Medhurst
Chris Allan Mills
James Hartshorn Gremlin Interactive:
Kim Blake
Platform(s) MS-DOS, Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows Me
ReleaseMS-DOS:
  • EU: December 1996
Windows 95:
  • EU: December 1996
Genre(s) 4X, real-time strategy
Mode(s) Single-player, multiplayer

Fragile Allegiance is an open-ended 4X real-time strategy (RTS) game from Gremlin Interactive, released in 1996 for MS-DOS and Windows 95. The game begins on May 25, 2496, as the player begins their employment with TetraCorp (a large interstellar megacorporation) who have set up a new asteroid mining franchise operation in the Fragmented Sectors. There are six alien races competing with Tetracorp for these resources. Beginning with one building and one million credits, the player is tasked with building up a successful mining operation to sell as much ore as possible to the Federation. Diplomacy is crucial to the success or failure of this franchise operation as the players' colonies begin to encroach on one another.

Contents

The game features complex diplomacy between players and includes real-time lip-synced animations for in-game actors. Described as a combination of SimCity 2000 , Civilization and Risk , Fragile Allegiance uses an icon based GUI for all menus and game commands. Unlike other RTS games, there is no defined tech tree, with technology being unlocked by the purchase of 36 blueprints at any time during the course of the game. Fragile Allegiance is the spiritual successor to K240 and there are many similarities between the two.

Fragile Allegiance generally scored well with reviewers, with PC Gamer UK giving the game the Game of Distinction award and it was praised for its graphics, interface and sound. The game has problems running on Windows XP and later Windows versions, as it was designed for MS-DOS and ported to Windows 95.

Gameplay

Gameplay takes place in the Fragmented Sectors, an area of outer space filled with asteroids that are rich in mineral resources. The aim of the game is to colonise and mine the asteroids for the various ores found on them and then sell the ore to the Federation. The player can use the proceeds for empire expansion, purchasing new technologies, construction of buildings, ships and missiles, spying, trading and also to pay fines should the Federation impose any. Construction of the various missiles and ships requires quantities of different ores, so the decision to sell to the Federation is not straightforward. The game has a stock market where commodities can be bought and sold. There is also a black market offering unauthorised information regarding individual spies and colony supervisors, and illicit trade in rare ores and missiles. The manual states that any TetraCorp employee caught selling ore on the black market will be terminated. [2]

The Asteroid View screen shows the currently selected asteroid's surface. Here, a player can place buildings, construct ships and missiles and also is the only screen where ore is able to be loaded onto the federal transporter for sale to the Federation. A Terran Colony .jpg
The Asteroid View screen shows the currently selected asteroid's surface. Here, a player can place buildings, construct ships and missiles and also is the only screen where ore is able to be loaded onto the federal transporter for sale to the Federation.

Fragile Allegiance has a simplistic combat system with the player having no direct control over units when a fleet enters combat. Enemy asteroids can be attacked using ships, missiles and agents. During a battle, laser beams criss-cross the screen and buildings catch fire before being destroyed. Ground turrets fire back at attacking ships and anti-missile turrets shoot out incoming missiles.

Small ships are built in a shipyard while the larger ships require a space dock for construction. Ships range from the small Scoutship (used to discover new asteroids), to the gigantic Command Cruiser (which is used for transporting combat fleets over vast distances that they would otherwise be unable to travel without refueling). Each ship has a limited number of hardpoints to which weapons and other devices can be attached, and ships can be grouped together into fleets. [3]

There are a total of seven races in the game, but only TetraCorp (representing the human race) is playable. Upon discovering an alien race, diplomacy can be initiated in order to arrange actions such as non-aggression pacts and joint-combat treaties, as well as accuse them of spying or trading with the Mauna (Trading with the Mauna is illegal under Federation law). If a faction is found to be trading with the Mauna, Jane Fong (Federal minister for trade relations in addition to her role as Terran ambassador for the Fragmented Sectors) can be informed, who will in turn tell the Federation, which could result in increased hostility towards the offending faction from all others or, they can be threatened with blackmail and forced to pay a tribute in return for the players silence. Each race has a unique look and diplomatic strategies and everything happens in real time with highly detailed characters that are well animated and lip-synced. One of the factions—The Mauna—are not members of the Federation and are unable to be negotiated or traded with. [4] As the player's empire expands, agents and supervisors will make themselves available for employment. Agents are used for gathering intelligence on alien asteroids and can also be deployed on the players own asteroids for counter-intelligence. Other uses for agents include deploying APV's and destroying various buildings such as defense installations, life support, production, and other various installations. The chances of an agent successfully completing their mission and escaping detection are increased if there is a spy satellite orbiting the asteroid they are assigned to. Colony Supervisors are able to be employed to help manage the building and maintenance of asteroid colonies. There is no research in the game, as this popular mechanic is replaced with the Sci-Tek blueprint system which allows players to buy new technologies as needed. [5] Multiplayer is available over an IPX network with TetraCorp being the only playable race. [6]

Plot

The Asteroid Field View shows the entire game map. Here, a player can see all discovered asteroids and incoming enemy fleets and missiles. The icons to the right are the games user interface. The Fragmented Sectors.jpg
The Asteroid Field View shows the entire game map. Here, a player can see all discovered asteroids and incoming enemy fleets and missiles. The icons to the right are the games user interface.

The player begins the game as the latest recruit to TetraCorp's mining franchise operation and is tasked with selling as much ore as possible to the Federation, which is a coalition of six of the seven known alien cultures: the Terrans, the Artemia, the Mikotaj, the Achean Gatherings, the Braccatia and the Rigellians. The Federation was inaugurated in 2439 following a coup deposing the last Terran Emperor Dramon Salaria in 2437 and was established to encourage commercial competition rather than full-scale wars between its constituent parties. The authority of the Federation is constantly challenged — in part by those who helped to create it, and the further away from the Federal center a person is, the less the Federation can influence their day-to-day lives. The seventh alien culture, the Mauna, are not members of the Federation and it is revealed in the game that they are an untrustworthy and cruel species. It is not known if the Mauna were consulted with prior to the creation of the Federation, and trading with the Mauna is frowned upon by the Federation. [7]

Numerous megacorporations exist within the Federation and TetraCorp is one of the largest and oldest. Their sister company is Sci-Tek, which manufactures and supplies most of the technology that the player has access to. Sci-Tek also has blueprints for advanced technologies that the player can purchase. The opening cinematic plays like a corporate recruitment video and at one point is interrupted by a Terran male who tells the viewer that TetraCorp has a history of exploiting workers of all races and cultures with low pay and wretched working conditions. The movie is interrupted a second time by an Artemian who tells the player that Terran progression was responsible for 68% of all alien mortalities during the past three centuries and that the reason for this high percentage is due to megacorporations such as TetraCorp.

Development

For the US market, the box art omits the dead colonist in the foreground and the nuclear fireball; other elements of the image have been rearranged. Fragile Allegiance US box art.jpg
For the US market, the box art omits the dead colonist in the foreground and the nuclear fireball; other elements of the image have been rearranged.

Fragile Allegiance is essentially a remake of Gremlin Interactive's 1994 Amiga game K240 , with the graphics and user interface revamped for the improved PC hardware available at the time. The core gameplay elements of K240 are retained; the game is set in an asteroid belt, the Sci-Tek blueprint system replaces research and the player is tasked with building up a successful mining operation. Many of the buildings, ships and missiles have the same names and functions as those in K240 and in both games there are six alien races competing against the player. [8] The soundtrack for the game was composed by Patrick Phelan who also composed the soundtrack for K240. [9] The game was released in 1996 and competed against other empire building titles such as Ascendancy and Master of Orion 2 . [10]

Fragile Allegiance was marketed as an intense deep space real-time strategy game complete with complex face-to-face diplomacy. [10] It was the first game to use Gremlin Interactive's facial motion capture technology which allowed for highly detailed and realistic looking alien ambassadors, giving depth and adding atmosphere to the games diplomacy. [11] Two versions of the game were released — a European version and a North American version, with each region having different box art. There were two different demo versions, one with audio and one without audio. [12] A cheat code is available for the game and is entered slightly differently between the two versions. For the European version the code is "FRAGILE /cKim.Jon.fmsti", while "FRAGILE /c.Osiris.fmsti" must be entered for the North American version. These codes reward the player with decreased construction time, extra money, the ability to see all asteroids in play, the ability to change the game speed in-game and gives the player access to all of the information in the game. [13]

Historically, people reported that Fragile Allegiance did not work properly on Windows XP and later Windows platforms, as the game was designed for MS-DOS and ported to Windows 95. The most common issues being reported are no audio, the game failing to start, and the game crashing when trying to rename anything, including saved games. As no patch was ever released for the game, people have had to use emulators such as VDMSound or DOSBox in order to get the game to function properly but it may still crash when trying to rename a saved game. [14] The game is now however available for purchase from Steam and is packaged with a Dosbox build, making it compatible with Windows 7 and later versions of Windows.

Reception

Fragile Allegiance was generally well received, achieving average to good scores from reviewers. [15] [16] [18] [17] It was praised for its graphics and icon driven interface which was considered slick and well integrated but a little confusing at first. [16] [17] Reviewers noted that after figuring out what all the icons did the game was immensely engrossing, with the player always having something to do. [17] The game was criticised for its difficulty, its simplistic combat model, the time spent transporting ore between asteroids, and the large amount of micromanagement involved when the player's empire got large — although reviewers noted that the latter two could be countered by the "Ore Teleporter blueprint" and Colony Supervisors respectively. [16] [17] There were mixed feelings regarding the replacing of research with the Sci-Tek blueprint system, which meant that any blueprint could be bought in any order provided the player had the money to do so.

The game was also criticised for only having one playable race (TetraCorp). Despite these criticisms PC Gamer UK gave it the Game of Distinction award for Christmas of 1996 stating that the game takes a lot of work and concentration to play, but called the title a "completely engrossing", and awarded it a score of 91%. [17] Users of internet gaming site GameSpot rated Fragile Allegiance significantly higher than the site reviewer, rating it 8.6/10. [16] Gamezilla's review rated it at 75% while GameRankings gave the game a score of 65%. [15] [18]

Related Research Articles

<i>Star Trek: 25th Anniversary</i> (computer game) 1992 video game

Star Trek: 25th Anniversary is an adventure video game developed and published by Interplay Productions in 1992, based on the Star Trek universe. The game chronicles various missions of James T. Kirk and his crew of the USS Enterprise. Its 1993 sequel, Star Trek: Judgment Rites, continues and concludes this two-game series.

<i>Utopia: The Creation of a Nation</i> 1991 video game

Utopia: The Creation of a Nation is a strategy video game. It was developed by Celestial Software and published by Gremlin Graphics, in 1991 for Amiga, Atari ST and MS-DOS. It was later released for the Super NES in 1993, by Jaleco in the USA. This release made use of the Super NES Mouse peripheral.

<i>Master of Orion</i> 1993 video game

Master of Orion is a turn-based, 4X science fiction strategy game in which the player leads one of ten races to dominate the galaxy through a combination of diplomacy and conquest while developing technology, exploring and colonizing star systems.

<i>Descent: FreeSpace – The Great War</i> 1998 video game

Descent: FreeSpace – The Great War, known as Conflict: FreeSpace – The Great War in Europe, is a 1998 space combat simulation IBM PC compatible computer game developed by Volition, when it was split off from Parallax Software, and published by Interplay Productions. In 2001, it was ported to the Amiga platform as FreeSpace: The Great War by Hyperion Entertainment. The game places players in the role of a human pilot, who operates in several classes of starfighter and combats against opposing forces, either human or alien, in various space-faring environments, such as in orbit above a planet or within an asteroid belt. The story of the game's single player campaign focuses on a war in the 24th century between two factions, one human and the other alien, that is interrupted in its fourteenth year by the arrival of an enigmatic and militant alien race, whose genocidal advance forces the two sides into a ceasefire in order to work together to halt the threat.

Syndicate is a series of science fiction video games created by Bullfrog Productions and published by Electronic Arts. There are two main titles: Syndicate (1993) and Syndicate Wars (1996), both of which are isometric real-time tactics games. An additional first-person shooter Syndicate title was released in 2012, and a spiritual successor to the series, entitled Satellite Reign, was released in 2015.

<i>Allegiance</i> (video game) Free and open-source multiplayer online game

Allegiance is a multiplayer online game initially developed by Microsoft Research. It is notable for providing a mix of real-time strategy and player piloted space combat gameplay.

<i>Star Trek: Birth of the Federation</i> 1999 video game

Star Trek: Birth of the Federation is a 4X turn-based strategy video game developed by MicroProse and published by Hasbro Interactive. The game was initially released in 1999 for Windows personal computers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gremlin Interactive</span> British software developer

Gremlin Graphics Software Limited, later Gremlin Interactive Limited and ultimately Infogrames Studios Limited was a British software house based in Sheffield, working mostly in the home computer market. Like many software houses established in the 1980s, their primary market was the 8-bit range of computers such as the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, MSX, Commodore 16 and Commodore 64. The company was acquired by French video game publisher Infogrames in 1999 and was renamed Infogrames Studios in 2000. Infogrames Studios closed down in 2003.

K240 is a real-time strategy video game published by Gremlin Graphics and released for the Amiga home computer in 1994. It is a sequel to the 1991 game Utopia: The Creation of a Nation.

<i>FreeSpace 2</i> Space Combat Simulator

FreeSpace 2 is a 1999 space combat simulation computer game developed by Volition as the sequel to Descent: FreeSpace – The Great War. It was completed ahead of schedule in less than a year, and released to very positive reviews, but the game became a commercial failure, and was described by certain critics as one of 1999's most unfairly overlooked titles.

Actua Sports is a sports video game series published by Gremlin Interactive which competed with Electronic Arts EA Sports label during the second half of the 1990s, until Gremlin was acquired by Infogrames. The term "Actua" is a play on Sega's line of "Virtua" titled games, which included Virtua Fighter, Virtua Racing and Virtua Striker.

<i>X3: Reunion</i> 2005 single-player space trading and combat video game

X3: Reunion is a single-player space trading and combat video game developed by Egosoft and published by Deep Silver. It is the third installment in the X series and the sequel to X2: The Threat (2003), which in turn followed X: Beyond the Frontier (1999). X3: Reunion was released originally for Windows in 2005. The game was later ported to Mac OS X and Linux.

<i>Conquest: Frontier Wars</i> 2001 video game

Conquest: Frontier Wars is a real-time strategy game released in 2001 by Ubi Soft and developed by Fever Pitch Studios. A good amount of the development was done at Digital Anvil in Austin, Texas, a startup developer originally owned by Chris Roberts, Erin Roberts, Eric Peterson, John Miles, Tony Zurovec, Marten Davies and Robert Rodriguez. Once Microsoft purchased Digital Anvil, Eric Peterson and Tom Mauer left to form Fever Pitch Studios Inc, and lead a team to complete the game as originally intended by the team. On December 9, 2013, the source code was bundled with every copy of the game purchased on GOG.com.

<i>Wing Commander</i> (video game) 1990 video game

Wing Commander is the first game in Chris Roberts' space flight simulation Wing Commander franchise by Origin Systems. The game was first released for MS-DOS on September 26, 1990 and was later ported to the Amiga, CD32 (256-color), Sega CD and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and re-released for the PC as Wing Commander I in 1994. An enhanced remake Super Wing Commander was made for the 3DO in 1994, and later ported to the Macintosh.

<i>Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom</i> 1996 video game

Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom is the fourth main game in the Wing Commander science fiction space combat simulator video game series, produced by Origin Systems and released by Electronic Arts for the PC in 1996 and the Sony PlayStation in 1997.

<i>Sins of a Solar Empire</i> 2008 video game

Sins of a Solar Empire is a 2008 science fiction real-time strategy video game developed by Ironclad Games and published by Stardock Entertainment for Microsoft Windows operating systems. It is a real-time strategy (RTS) game that incorporates some elements from 4X games; its makers describe it as "RT4X". Players are given control of a spacefaring empire in the distant future, and are tasked with conquering star systems using military, economic and diplomatic means.

<i>X3: Terran Conflict</i> 2008 space trading and combat simulator

X3: Terran Conflict is a space trading and combat simulator by German developer Egosoft, part of their X series of games. Described as a stand-alone game, based on X3: Reunion, it boasts new plot lines, features and assets. It was first released in October 2008 for the European market and Steam.

<i>Premier Manager 3</i> 1994 video game

Premier Manager 3 is a football management simulator video game for the Amiga and MS-DOS platforms. It was released in 1994 by Gremlin Interactive. The objective of the game is to manage a football club successfully within the top 5 divisions in the English league system, starting from the 1994-95 football season. The game was re-released a year later to include updated teams and player details for the 1995-96 football season. Gremlin also released Premier Multi-Edit System, a software that allows the user to edit the statistics of football players and teams in Premier Manager 3 to their liking. Premier Manager 3 followed Premier Manager 2. There is an AGA version of Premier Manager 3 as well as a standard version for all Amigas.

<i>Alien Incident</i> 1996 video game

Alien Incident is a 1996 point-and-click graphic adventure game. It was developed by Finnish game developer Housemarque and published by GameTek for MS-DOS.

<i>Armor Command</i> 1998 video game

Armor Command is a military science fiction real-time strategy video game developed by American studio Ronin Entertainment and published by Ripcord Games for Windows in 1998. Set in the early 30th century, the game revolves around two factions, the United Terran Federation led by humanity, and the Vrass, a feudal slaver empire led by aliens. Armor Command was designed by Edward Kilham, known as the co-designer of Star Wars: TIE Fighter. Armor Command released to generally positive and lukewarm reviews, although seen as obscure in comparison to more notable games in the genre.

References

  1. ↑ "Online Gaming Review". 1997-06-06. Archived from the original on 1997-06-06. Retrieved 2023-04-16.
  2. ↑ "Selling Ore". Fragile Allegiance (Instruction manual). Gremlin Interactive. 1996. p. 11.
  3. ↑ "Construction". Fragile Allegiance (Instruction manual). Gremlin Interactive. 1996. pp. 20–21.
  4. ↑ "Comms". Fragile Allegiance (Instruction manual). Gremlin Interactive. 1996. pp. 32–33.
  5. ↑ "Fragile Allegiance Hints and Tips". Strategy Plus . United Kingdom: theGlobe. 1997. Archived from the original on June 3, 2011. Retrieved August 7, 2011.
  6. ↑ "Information". Fragile Allegiance (Instruction manual). Gremlin Interactive. 1996. p. 35.
  7. ↑ "Introduction". Fragile Allegiance (Instruction manual). Gremlin Interactive. 1996. p. 1.
  8. ↑ Dillon, Tony (May 1994). "K240 Review". CU Amiga . London, United Kingdom: EMAP. pp. 66–67. ISSN   0963-0090 . Retrieved April 16, 2011.
  9. ↑ "Amiga Games by Patrick Phelan". LemonAmiga. Retrieved August 7, 2011.
  10. 1 2 Presley, Paul (August 13, 2001). "Fragile Allegiance Review". PC Zone . London, United Kingdom: Dennis Publishing. ISSN   0967-8220. Archived from the original on December 8, 2007. Retrieved March 23, 2008.
  11. ↑ Giovetti, Al (December 20, 1996). "Fragile Allegiance Preview". TheComputerShow. Retrieved August 9, 2011.
  12. ↑ "Fragile Allegiance Preview". Interplay. Archived from the original on January 28, 1999. Retrieved August 12, 2011.
  13. ↑ "Fragile Allegiance Cheat Codes". GameWinners. Retrieved August 7, 2011.
  14. ↑ "Details for Fragile Allegiance". NTcompatible. Retrieved March 7, 2008.
  15. 1 2 3 "Fragile Allegiance for PC". GameRankings . Retrieved February 9, 2008.
  16. 1 2 3 4 5 Hudak, Chris (May 9, 1997). "Fragile Allegiance Review". GameSpot . Retrieved December 15, 2014.
  17. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Davies, Jonathan (Christmas 1996). "Fragile Allegiance Review". PC Gamer UK . No. 38. Bath, United Kingdom: Future Publishing. pp. 96–99. Archived from the original on March 19, 2002. Retrieved August 19, 2011.
  18. 1 2 3 Gerschwiler, Richard (February 24, 1999). "Fragile Allegiance Review". Gamezilla. Archived from the original on February 24, 1999. Retrieved August 9, 2011.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.