The Conduit

The Conduit has a much-talked about development history.  Whether you are hyped from seeing the unending amount of trailers and screenshots, or skeptical of the success of a more mature third party product on the Wii, talking about The Conduit never seems to get old.  Regardless, the end product is a real game, something you can really play and experience.  Does it hold up to all the talk?

To start, The Conduit has a made-for-TV approach to its story.  The sci-fi plot is riddled with enough story archetypes and deceit to make a conspiracy theorist's heart flutter.  To some, there's no award-winning writing here, but that surely isn't the intent (nor should it be by most video game standards).  Really, The Conduit does a great job in motivating players to continue moving through the single player campaign, and uses in-game devices and interactions to push the plot along.

You are agent Michael Ford, part of a secret government operation seeking to eradicate an alien threat.  Or a government threat.  Or both.  The story has plenty of twists and turns that it wouldn't be right to spoil everything here, but the expression "everything isn't what it seems" certainly applies.  Similar to Metroid Prime's visor scanning, giving players a glimpse of the history and backdrop that makes its story, The Conduit employs a device that adds layers of environmental conspiracy to the plot: the All-Seeing Eye.

Eliminate invisible threats using the advanced All-Seeing Eye.

The All-Seeing Eye (or ASE) is a mechanical ball that Ford "holds" (it really hovers over his open hand) and explores the game's areas with.  The ASE will sometimes detect invisible mines, hidden messages scrawled on walls, small puzzles that open up doors to goodies and hidden weapons, and more.  Possibilities appear endless with what the ASE can do, which makes Ford a target as long as he retains possession of it.  It shines a light on different textured surfaces (helping show off the power of the Quantum3 engine that runs the game) and shoots a "beam" to unlock these hidden elements, using the Wii Remote's pointer and replacing your gun with the click of a button, the plus button.

Actually, the plus button by default.  The controls have an incredible amount of customization, truly making a landmark in first-person shooting. Players can easily spend a cool hour toying with control settings to find everything that works for them in the game.  While the default controls work well, some may find reason to complain about things like sensitivity settings.  No complaints needed, of course, when every bit of it can be adjusted.

Now is a good time to shoot.

For instance, the bounding box (an invisible square/rectangle that defines whether your character is looking around or actually turning his body) can be completely tuned on the x and y axis.  So players that prefer free reticle movement to scan the environment can make the box larger, and those that would rather use most of the pointing surface to turn their character can make it smaller.  This customization is nearly pixel perfect, and provides an entirely new control scheme with each tweak.  But it doesn't end there.  Players can re-map every button and the two Nunchuk and Remote gestures to whatever in-game action they want.  Would you rather jump with C, crouch with B, and shoot using A?  You can do that.

A majority of the more important facets of control customization come in sensitivity settings.  Players can use preset "heads" that change the limits their character has on how they look around based on creatures in the game.  Otherwise, your Remote's pointer can be adjusted to decide how far to each side, and above and below, that your player can look.  How fast Ford will run and strafe can be adjusted, or even whether you prefer to leave actual character turning to the joystick on the Nunchuk.  The options are not only endless, but they are unprecedented in first-person shooters.  These controls are the best I've seen in any shooter, period.

The HUD of the game is entirely customizable too.  Aside from changing the transparency settings of your health bar, ammo supply, radar, and all that jazz, you can click and drag each of the windows around the screen to your liking.  Would you prefer every window to clutter up the center of the screen?  Feel free to do so (and I'd love to take you on in a match like that).  Add to that, all of the control and HUD customizing can be done at any time from your in-game pause screen.  So if you're finding issues with how the game operates, you can modify your experience in real-time.

Familiar locations like the White House are home to an alien invasion.

Having controls that work is one thing, but what about things to shoot at?  The fairly linear levels aren't entirely interactive, but they are littered with kill rooms that aren't new to first-person shooters.  Drudge creatures and shady, possessed armed forces infest practically every corner you turn, trying to pump bullets and laser beams into you.  These linear levels almost feel archaic in nature, with winding "load-time" corridors dividing stages out by checkpoints.  With this in mind, I'd have to agree with valid comparisons to older shooters like Goldeneye 007 and Perfect Dark from the Nintendo 64 days. Albeit feeling a bit enclosed on the player, The Conduit boasts a decent variety in levels, with many familiar and monumental Washington DC locations being devastated by an alien invasion.

The Conduit's main draw on the Wii is the capability for 12-person online multiplayer matches. Players can enter matchmaking with strangers in "Team Objective" and "Team Reaper" modes, or duke it out in "Free For All." Team-based matches had varying rule sets that used the ASE to spice things up, with "capture the ASE" and Single ASE style games being popular choices. ASE Football "keep away" game is fun in Free-For-All, but match variation begins to feel like Smash Bros. Brawl afterwards, as different modes will make use of limited lives for each individual or each team, or an objective of meeting a quota of kills/ASE captures, and mixtures in between. Even so, the online multiplayer part of The Conduit has 13 modes, carrying seven different maps and 18 weapons. Players vote for each of the three categories, being modes, maps, and weapon sets, in the lobby between bouts.

Online multiplayer keeps players coming back for more (punishment).

The Conduit plays well online, with a few drawbacks. The maps are (mostly) wide enough to make the maximum 12 player matches feel roomy. Glitches like picking up newly spawned weapons with empty chambers and spawning outside the map or in a wall (forcing the player to either wait until the match ends or reset the console) are frequent enough to be a concern. Of course, for a free online system, High Voltage makes enough use of it to keep gamers coming back for more multiplayer mayhem.

Sharp shooting. The weapon selection, divided out by Human, Trust, and Drudge classes are diverse and provide advantages and unique draws for each one.

Best shooter controls. The amount of customizable elements in terms of controls is incredible, and sets the precedent for future titles.

Achievement unlocked. A wide range of hidden gems, unlockable achievements, and difficulty settings offers core gamers a good challenge.

Online multiplayer. The Conduit delivers a variety of multiplayer modes with a competent online system to boot, friend codes aside.

Conspiracies. From the cover of the game to the ending sequence, players are given an "upfront" and fun science fiction experience, all clichés aside.

Looks hot. This may be one of the best looking games on Wii, with true widescreen support and progressive scan modes being only the beginning. Texture and bump mapping, as well as lighting and water effects narrow the margin between The Conduit and early games on other next-gen systems to the level of indistinguishable.

Corridor crisis. Levels can feel narrow and linear, with winding corridors serving as both an opportunity for the game to load upcoming areas, and as a game-staggering device.

Son of a glitch. The online mode is home to a concerning amount of reasons to reset your Wii.

Lack of local multiplayer. While it may not be as fun (or as feasible), even two player dual-wielding would be welcome to the title.

While the qualifier may seem cringe-inducing, The Conduit is excellent as a Wii title. It would be doing the massively customizable control scheme a disservice to say it would never stand out on another console. However, the actual plot and play progression isn't anything to write home about. The Conduit isn't about what we expect from a Wii shooter, it's about what we can really get from a Wii shooter. To some, it's even about whether a great Wii shooter is possible by today's standards. With this game, High Voltage certainly proves that yes, it is possible.