Wii Review – The Conduit

The Conduit
Published by: SEGA
Developed by: High Voltage Software
Genre: First-Person Shooter

ESRB Rating:

Reviewed by: Justin Alderman

There’s a lot riding on The Conduit and High Voltage Software knows it.  If sales fail to materialize it will send a signal to the video game industry that the audience for third-party core games just doesn’t exist on the Wii.  That might be an unfair burden to place on one title but that’s the way things have worked out for Nintendo, SEGA and High Voltage.  After spending several hours with both the single player and online multiplayer portions of The Conduit I’m happy to report that the effort that High Voltage has put into the title has paid off.

In The Conduit’s single player mode you take control of Agent Ford, a highly skilled operative working for a secret agency known as the Trust.  Agent Ford’s mission is to help the Trust fight against an alien invasion.  The story includes several twists and turns as you fight your way to the end but truth be told it’s the weakest part of the game.  It’s not that the story isn’t good because it is.  The problem is that just when things are starting to get good the game suddenly ends without any resolution to the plot.  It’s an obvious setup to a sequel and it’s disappointing that the story doesn’t stand on it’s own.

There is about 6 to 7 hours of gameplay in the single player mode, more if you take the time to go through and find all the hidden collectibles.  The level design is linear and anything hidden can be found on the beaten path (mainly because The Conduit doesn’t have an unbeaten patch to explore) using the All Seeing Eye or ASE.  Because of the linear, run and gun, nature of the levels the ASE ultimately feels like it was underused and at times a little pointless.

It may sound as if I’m running down The Conduit a little but I’m not.  Each level is incredibly well made and a lot of fun to play through.  At no time did any part of a level ever feel like a chore to get through.  It’s just that the entire single play experience is very basic and straightforward.  You run through each level shooting at everything that moves until you reach the end.  It’s a fun and solid experience but also very simple one.

Where The Conduit really shines is with the controls.  I’ve long believed that the Wii’s IR pointer, while falling just short of the precision of a keyboard and mouse,  is far superior to dual analog sticks for first-person shooters.  The Conduit takes this point and really hammers it into the ground.  Right out of the box every aspect of the controls works like a charm, even the motion controls for throwing grenades is flawless.  But if there is anything you have a problem with, or if you just feel like customizing the experience a little bit, The Conduit also features one of the most robust option menus in recent memory.  Every aspect of the controls can be changed, from the exact horizontal and vertical size of the dead space (the area where you can more the pointer without turning around) to mapping any action to a different button.  You can even change the grenade throw from a motion control to a button press.  In my opinion there are no legitimate complaints about The Conduit’s controls.  If you don’t like them it’s your own fault for not changing them to your liking.

Where players are going to be spending the majority of their time with those fantastic controls is in The Conduit’s online multiplayer mode.  The Conduit does use friend codes but you can also play against random opponents worldwide.  Wii Speak is supported but only for those on your friends list.  Aside from the standard death match and team death match modes there are a few new additions that I haven’t seen anywhere else before.  My favorite of those is the Bounty Hunter mode.  In Bounty Hunter you are assigned one person out of the other 11 to kill and they show up on your map in yellow.  There is also one hunter after you but you don’t know who it is.  You are penalized points if you kill anyone that isn’t either the player in yellow or the person hunting you.  The setup is the same for each player and changes every time you spawn or kill your prey.  It’s a fun mode and feels really fresh.

I’ve played several matches and about 85% of the time everything works flawless.  The other 15% of the time I’ve experienced some lag, disconnects from the server etc.  Depending on your connection speed you might have better or worse luck than I did.  For me the fun that I’ve had when it works properly more than makes up for the few times it doesn’t.  Also, there already seems to be a thriving online community.  The only chance that I have to play online is generally at 4:30 am (not the most opportune time for finding others online) but I haven’t played in an empty game yet.

Finally, I want to say a little something about The Conduit’s overall presentation.  This game is polished to the hilt.  The 3D engine that High Voltage created to run The Conduit pulls off some pretty amazing visuals and runs at a mostly steady framerate (there are a few dips here and there but nothing too distracting).  Everything from the menus to the title screen is well done and easy to navigate.  The Conduit truly raises the bar for third-party efforts on the Wii and High Voltage deserves all the praise I can heap upon them for the obvious blood sweat and effort that they poured into this title.

Recap:

The biggest mark against The Conduit is for it’s sudden ending and basic (but solid) gameplay.  In every other respect High Voltage has crafted an amazing first-person shooter.  The 3D engine pulls off some impressive visual effects and The Conduit’s controls are better than any other console shooter out there.  Add to that a robust online multiplayer mode and you’ll have a hard time finding a reason to take The Conduit out of your Wii for the next several months.

Simply put if you only own a Wii The Conduit is a must have title.  If you have other consoles there are better first-person shooters in terms of story and gameplay out there but The Conduit is still worth taking a look at for it’s multiplayer and superior controls.

Final Score: 08/10 – Great!