The Conduit Review

After over a year of anticipation and hype, it’s finally time to step into Mr. Ford’s shoes and battle the alien menace known as the Drudge. High Voltage Software, a relatively minor development team up until now, has provided constant updates on the title, promising a First-Person Shooter (FPS) experience worthy of Wii owners, with twelve-player online multiplayer, and more control customization than you can shake a stick at…whatever that means. After building momentum for months and months, The Conduit has arrived, ready to make a big splash on the Wii. It may not be the tsunami that many were hoping for and expecting, but there are some fun if rough waves while the ride lasts.

In the single-player campaign, you take the role of government agent Michael Ford, who is enlisted by the shadowy Mr. Adams, leader of the secretive government program called the Trust, to help fight a terrorist named Prometheus who has stolen the valuable All-Seeing Eye (ASE). Also, there are aliens. And conduits. It starts off decently but by the second half of the game the story takes a rushed and incomplete turn. There are a number of twists in the plot, few of which are terribly surprising and none of which make any effort to explain why there is an alien invasion or why the Trust is there. Like most bad video game stories that try to leave you eager for more, The Conduit ends on a horrible cliffhanger. The problem is, it’s not a cliffhanger, the story is just incomplete. It feels like you’re missing the last two missions of the game once the credits start rolling, which is just bad story formating in any media. Far from leaving you anticipating the inevitable sequel, the ending will more likely just annoy you for missing anything remotely resembling a conclusion.

Hacking computer terminals–just one of the ASE’s uses.

Despite the anti-climactic plot, each level of the single-player campaign is packed to the brim with run and gun action. Though not incredibly extensive, the game provides several different weapons that you can collect and use throughout each level. The best thing is that each gun is very unique, from the standard human weapons to the powerful laser-like Drudge weapons which are often hidden in secret rooms. Yes, it’s not all shooting in The Conduit, as you soon recover the ASE and can use it to reveal hidden rooms, decode messages from the Drudge, and find data discs that will unlock concept art. Though these are optional, there are other important functions that the ASE provides, including unlocking doors and safely detonating hidden mines. With an item like the ASE, there’s a danger of under-utilizing its abilities. The Conduit, however, makes good use of it, and if anything, is in danger of overusing it. As soon as you clear a room of foes you’ll want to whip out the little gizmo and scan for hidden items or concealed locks. It creates a nice balance between the action portions and pauses when you can breathe again. You’ll need those breaks, because some of the later levels in the game are beyond hectic, throwing you into large rooms with enemies all around you. Even on the default, normal difficulty it can be a little frustrating–but for the truly insane, there are three higher difficulty levels that will push you to the breaking point of your FPS skills. The campaign will only last around seven hours for a basic run through, but there is endless game time potential with the online multiplayer mode.

Like most modern FPS games, the real draw of the gameplay is not in the single-player campaign, but in the multiplayer experience. The Conduit supports up to twelve players in online multiplayer, either in friend matches (with Nintendo’s requisite friend codes) or in random public matches. There is a ton of options available as far as game modes go, from standard free-for-all death matches, team battles, or the clever bounty hunter mode, where you are given one target to hunt down and eliminate, and lose points for killing people that are not your target. And of course, you are rewarded for playing well. Though there is no customization of your character’s weapons, you can adjust his appearance and earn experience points to rank up, giving you a goal to shoot for while playing. Ranks do not change anything aside from the icon next to your name, but it still distinguishes you as a top player.

There are a lot of possibilities with the online games, but if you’re playing public matches, you run the lottery-like risk of the voting system. Before a match, each player can vote on what game mode they want to play, what weapon set to use, and what map to play on. As democratic a process as it may be, you have little control over how the next match will play, so you’ll have to resign yourself to playing with explosive weapons on the same map over and over. However, the voting system is much more efficient in matches with friends. With Wii Speak, friends can speak with one another, and it helps organize the games more easily and, of course, allows you to smack talk during battles. With only thirty-two slots for friend codes, though, you’ll have to be selective about who you register.

A handy radar icon lets you know where enemies are in multiplayer.

The actual connection on the game of course varies from player to player, depending on location and internet connection quality, but there does tend to be some lag in online matches. Not so much that you can’t play, but you will occasionally see enemies inexplicably jump from one space to another as the game works to render their current location. The big problem, though, is in glitches. Opponents will sometimes disappear into walls (which will even occasionally happen during the single-player missions), leading to some jumbled and confused conflicts. Furthermore, the game will sometimes freeze as you try to enter a match, leaving you with no other option but to shut off the Wii altogether. It is incredibly annoying to wait several minutes to join a match, only to see a frozen screen, forcing you to start the whole process over. As previously stated these problems occur on a person to person basis, but they do exist, and can be frustrating when you’re just trying to jump into a game.

Before it was released, one of the biggest features in The Conduit to be touted around was the fully customizable controls. Everything from button layout to aiming sensitivity can be adjusted to your personal taste–truth be told it can be a little overwhelming just how much customization the game allows. But you can adjust any and all of the controls at any point during a mission, so it is incredibly handy to be playing and realize you need a slightly faster turn speed or larger dead zone for aiming, and quickly and easily make the refinements on your control scheme. There are only a few things you cannot fully alter, and unfortunately these can be somewhat annoying. You can change which button controls crouching, but you have to hold the button or else you’ll revert back to an upright position. Zooming is the exact opposite: press the aiming button once to zoom in and you’ll stay zoomed in until you press the button again. These aren’t huge problems but they are a little awkward and can take some getting used to, especially for fans of other FPS games that use a different method. Overall, though, the controls are impressively fluid and give you so much control over so many details that it’s hard not to find a system you like.

Chargeable weapons take a few seconds, but can unleash powerful blasts.

The Conduit’s visuals are rather striking; not for a sense of style, but for the flair of colorful weapons and enemies. Drudge weapons are particularly detailed with vibrant colors and an alien-like appearance, and Drudge soldiers–particularly the massive Invaders–are impressively rendered. Otherwise, the environments are decent, though the generic human settings (hallways, offices, sewers) lack the same visual charm as the alien menace. There are also a few glitches that pop up, such as the already mentioned enemy stuck in the wall problem, suggesting that even the single player missions aren’t completely streamlined. The game is fully voice-acted, from the conversations between Mr. Ford and his contacts to the radios scattered throughout each level, providing background information on what is happening in the world. It starts off fairly strong but the voices get a little tired by the end of the game–Kevin Sorbo as Prometheus has a particularly rough way of delivering lines, sounding artificial and breaking the atmosphere of the game.

With a lackluster single-player campaign and extensive but shaky multiplayer mode, The Conduit has a rough time living up to some the expectations established before its release. It’s not a bad game by any means–run and gun fans will get their fill from the single-player action and mayhem of online battles–yet it lacks the flair and polish of a truly complete FPS experience. The fully customizable controls cannot quite redeem the sub-par story and various glitches that pop up both online and off. In the end, The Conduit feels like the first step in creating a superb FPS for the Wii; an admirable effort, but with various faults that can detract from the experience.

7/10

~Eliwood