Review: The Conduit (Wii)

When the Wii’s motion controller was first revealed, FPS fans everywhere rejoiced. Here was a console that had the potential to offer the best, most innovative FPS controls seen since the mouse and keyboard PC combo. With the announcement and trailers of Red Steel, gamers all over the world were salivating at the chance to be literally in the shoes of a shooter’s protagonist. Well, it has been a while since Red Steel came out, and that turned out to be a whole lotta meh. Now, High Voltage Games set out to make the ultimate Wii shooter, with extremely customizable controls, utilization of Nintendo Wi Fi connection, and even sporting compatibility with Wii Speak. This is The Conduit.

All Within My Hands

Let’s get this out of the way as quickly as possible- The Conduit has the best controls of any Wii game I have ever played to date. This is caused not by a stellar default setting, but rather by the extremes to which you can customize controls yourself. For example, I  didn’t enjoy pressing Z on the nunchuck to lock on. In fact, I wanted crouch and jump on the nunchuck instead. There was no problem in doing so. All that is needed is to point at a set command, decide where you want it, and swap it out with something else. It’s very simple to use and I express great gratitude for this inclusion.

There are a decent variety of enemies, but Therm-mites can suck it. They act as kamkikazes and somehow have a greater blast radius than a missile launcher.

In the words of the late Billy Mays, “But Wait, There’s More!” Not only can you customize button layouts, but you can change how far to the sides of the screen you can point to turn your character around. If that’s not enough, you can even change camera settings, movement settings, and even HUD settings. Oh yeah, and it has subtitles too. The point is that The Conduit has intuitive controls, which is exactly what a Wii shooter should have.

Didn’t See THAT Coming!

In the single player campaign, you play as Ford, a Trust agent after a powerful artifact which was stolen by a terrorist known as Prometheus. In a twist that happens entirely too soon on the second level, the actual story of alien invasion and government conspiracy unfolds. The storyline of The Conduit is like a cliche sandwich served with a side of Generic Cola. Although the game will take you through some interesting locations and progressions, some of those environments are repetitive and the whole game has an air of “been there, done that” around it.

The ASE is used to solve puzzles,find secrets, and disarm mines. Lots and lots of mines.

That isn’t to say that the single-player wasn’t enjoyable, though. Near the end of a campaign of fairly decent length, things really start to pick up: the story gets more interesting, the enemies get smarter, and the firefights become infinitely more intense. It’s a shame that the rest of the game didn’t match up to the stellar finale, as it shows how great the game could have been, rather than being merely good and competent. Setting aside the campaign’s very forgettable plot, though, The Conduit brings some good things to the table. It showcases some pretty impressive graphics on the Wii, some of the best I’ve seen on the console. It has a nice variety of weaponry that are a (pun alert) BLAST to use. It has in-depth game statistics and nice extras. Taken as a whole, it is NOT the amazing title that would revolutionize the system as I thought. Luckily though, the single player isn’t the only draw.

Wii Finally Have a Great Online Title

Playing The Conduit over Nintendo Wi Fi Conneciton is almost as much fun as I’ve had playing any FPS online on the 360, my original console of choice. Considering that the Wii has annoying authentication issues, no gamertags, ridiculous friend code systems, and general uber-frustration surrounding it (through no fault of the developers), I’d say that is a big deal. Getting into a match is pretty simple: choose to play with friends, in a regional match, or in a match with players from around the world. After connecting to players you can vote on the game rules (deathmatch, capture, etc.), weapon sets (human, explosive, Trust, etc…..), and maps (just pick Streets, it kicks ass). Once you are in the game, it controls as perfectly as it does offline. The online modes are tremendously fun and often frantic, and it is exactly the kind of online experience Wii owners have been yearning for. There are, of course, a few downsides. The framerate can often be choppy, the connections can sometimes go laggy, and  the authentication process takes so long at times that you might as well just turn off the Wii. But for lack of a better online alternative, it’s as good as I’ve seen on the Wii yet.

Online play is fun and frantic, though a little on the choppy side.

The Bottom Line

The Conduit is like a strand of perfect DNA – one that should be exploited and copied and built upon. It is a perfect example of how a shooter *should* be done on the Wii, but it isn’t very great in itself – yet. I hope that other developers see what High Voltage has done with The Conduit, steal its pitch-perfect control cutomization, and then build a shooter with a remarkable story, memorable characters, and even BETTER online modes. As it stands, The Conduit is just too generic to be taken as a console shooter messiah, but it is exemplary and an excellent reason to dust off your Wii for a while.

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