The Wii certainly has the market cornered on minigame collections, and games where you take care of virtual pets... but one genre doesn't get a whole lot of play on Nintendo's machine: the first-person shooter. Now, animal husbandry is great and all, but sometimes you just want to make with the bang-bang. Sega and developer High Voltage Software give us that opportunity with The Conduit. The Wii certainly has the market cornered on minigame collections, and games where you take care of virtual pets... but one genre doesn't get a whole lot of play on Nintendo's machine: the first-person shooter. Now, animal husbandry is great and all, but sometimes you just want to make with the bang-bang. Sega and developer High Voltage Software give us that opportunity with The Conduit.The game's X-Files-esque plot mixes the old "aliens attacking Washington D.C." bit with a healthy dose of conspiracy theory. Secret organizations and mysterious diseases brandish spooky sounding names like "the Trust" and "the Bug," respectively, and you end up forming an alliance with a terrorist (or is he really the good guy?!) named Prometheus. The story tends to take itself a bit too serious for a game that involves killing aliens while running around in the White House, and the fact that it's only advanced through voice-only radio chatter doesn't make it any more interesting.
Still, who plays an FPS for the plot? The main draw is the action. If you're one of those people that checks out the options menu before diving into a game, you'll see that High Voltage went to considerable lengths to ensure that The Conduit takes full advantage of the Wii's unique controller capabilities. The default controls work great, with the nunchuk being used to move and the Wii-mote to aim. Even the motion controls work well (shake the nunchuk for a grenade; shake the Wii-mote for a melee attack). If the standard controls don't suit you, they're freely adjustable. Not only that, but darn near everything else about the game can be rearranged -- from the placement of HUD elements to how far from the center of the screen you have to aim your cursor before the camera starts to pan.Given the complexity of the control settings, I was a bit surprised to see just how basic the actual gameplay is -- the bulk of the stages are fairly dull. Linear maps frequently drop the game into a "enter a room, shoot all the bad guys, walk to the next room, repeat" rut. Not to say that a simplistic FPS can't be fun, but the action tends to get a bit repetitive, even considering the game's relatively short campaign mode.For a bit of added variety, you're given control of the All-Seeing Eye (ASE), an orb-shaped technological doodad (read: glorified flashlight) that allows you to see hidden doors, objects, and puzzles. Unfortunately, its implementation makes it feel less like a valuable tool and more like a forced gimmick.
I can forgive these flaws, though, thanks to The Conduit's fantastic online multiplayer mode -- which supports up to 12 players per match. The maps are well-designed for fragging, and the ASE is only used to play this game's version of "kill the guy with the ball." The Wii's dreaded friend codes are present, but they're only used if you want to specifically play with your buddies. If you don't mind shooting strangers, you can immediately dive into a game with random players from your local region or around the world. The Conduit offers a good variety of different multiplayer modes, and all of the matches that I played were refreshingly lag-free. The game even supports the Wii Speak accessory, which is great for all those fans of both FPS games and Animal Crossing (yeah, I suppose you could just buy the mic separately, if you'd like).Wii owners have been waiting a while for a top-notch FPS to call their own, and although the single-player mode has its faults, The Conduit's multiplayer experience helps to lessen the pain. Hopefully, other companies follow Sega and High Voltage's lead. Who knows? Maybe one day the Wii will have as many quality first-person shooters as it does Petz games.
Still, who plays an FPS for the plot? The main draw is the action. If you're one of those people that checks out the options menu before diving into a game, you'll see that High Voltage went to considerable lengths to ensure that The Conduit takes full advantage of the Wii's unique controller capabilities. The default controls work great, with the nunchuk being used to move and the Wii-mote to aim. Even the motion controls work well (shake the nunchuk for a grenade; shake the Wii-mote for a melee attack). If the standard controls don't suit you, they're freely adjustable. Not only that, but darn near everything else about the game can be rearranged -- from the placement of HUD elements to how far from the center of the screen you have to aim your cursor before the camera starts to pan.Given the complexity of the control settings, I was a bit surprised to see just how basic the actual gameplay is -- the bulk of the stages are fairly dull. Linear maps frequently drop the game into a "enter a room, shoot all the bad guys, walk to the next room, repeat" rut. Not to say that a simplistic FPS can't be fun, but the action tends to get a bit repetitive, even considering the game's relatively short campaign mode.For a bit of added variety, you're given control of the All-Seeing Eye (ASE), an orb-shaped technological doodad (read: glorified flashlight) that allows you to see hidden doors, objects, and puzzles. Unfortunately, its implementation makes it feel less like a valuable tool and more like a forced gimmick.
I can forgive these flaws, though, thanks to The Conduit's fantastic online multiplayer mode -- which supports up to 12 players per match. The maps are well-designed for fragging, and the ASE is only used to play this game's version of "kill the guy with the ball." The Wii's dreaded friend codes are present, but they're only used if you want to specifically play with your buddies. If you don't mind shooting strangers, you can immediately dive into a game with random players from your local region or around the world. The Conduit offers a good variety of different multiplayer modes, and all of the matches that I played were refreshingly lag-free. The game even supports the Wii Speak accessory, which is great for all those fans of both FPS games and Animal Crossing (yeah, I suppose you could just buy the mic separately, if you'd like).Wii owners have been waiting a while for a top-notch FPS to call their own, and although the single-player mode has its faults, The Conduit's multiplayer experience helps to lessen the pain. Hopefully, other companies follow Sega and High Voltage's lead. Who knows? Maybe one day the Wii will have as many quality first-person shooters as it does Petz games.
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