It is notable for providing a mix of real-time strategy and player piloted space combat gameplay.

Although the game was well received upon release, its sales turned out disappointing, selling fewer than 29,000 copies in its first year.

On the other hand, individual units are controlled by other human players instead of a computer AI which faithfully carries out the commander's orders.

One of the most important ships in Allegiance, the scout is responsible for finding all of a map's sectors and alephs at the beginning of the game.

Teams earn money in Allegiance through the use of miners, drone craft which harvest Helium-3 from special asteroids.

The Tactical path allows the team to fly stealth fighters, which excel at destroying drones such as miners and constructors.

The Expansion path creates interceptors: tough, maneuverable craft specializing in defense and short-range dogfights.

With a Supremacy Center, the commander can research fighters: versatile ships capable of teleporting to special bases around the map.

Most games in Allegiance end with the destruction or capture of all one team's major bases, and each techpath has tools to accomplish that goal.

Both the Supremacy and Tactical techpath rely on some variation of the Bomber, a base destroying ship originally researched at the team's Garrison.

[17] In 2008 Emmet Longstreet founded GigaCorp, allegedly through a series of shady dealings involving the consolidation of many powerful aerospace companies (as well as other technical industries).

With a surprise strike, the UN forces end the siege with military action and take over the rich He3 deposits in Leonov Crater.

In the wake of this incident, attempts to claim He3 deposits become increasingly violent, leading to a series of minor conflicts involving the UN Coalition forces, independent prospectors and GigaCorp.

By 2079, scores of asteroids arrive daily in Lunar orbit, but the lack of a central traffic control system causes problems.

To allow the player community to maintain Allegiance themselves, on the commercial end-of-life the source-code was released under a shared source license in 2004.

Even with good reviews and a loyal playerbase, the game's steep learning curve[12] made it unattractive to the average gamer.