Title: The Conduit
Release: June 23, 2009
Genre: First-Person Shooter
Developer: High Voltage Software
Publisher: Sega
Platform: Wii
Rating: T (Teen)
Product Link: http://www.amazon.com/Conduit-Nintendo-Wii/dp/B001HKPUKC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1246406157&sr=8-1
Website: http://www.conduitgame.com/index_us.html
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No more ambiguous release dates. No more stage control demos. No more lies. The game billed as the definitive Wii FPS has finally hit retailers’ shelves. The Conduit was built from the ground up to run on the Wii console and developer High Voltage Software staked their company and future on the success of the game. No other developer has put more on the line to ensure the quality and execution of a shooting game for Nintendo’s console and that is what makes this whole project such a tragedy.
The Wii is not a graphical dynamo. High Voltage Software created their own proprietary graphics engine for the sole purpose of squeezing every last drop of magic out of the Wii and the game still looks dreadful. The textures are muddled and off-putting while the intentional distance blurring effect acts to cover up the lack of detail and articulation of the boring, linear level design. The weapons are rendered well, as are the character animations, but everything else in view is reminiscent of the original Half-Life for the PC—a title released in 1998. Metroid Prime 3 was a much more impressive looking game on the Wii and offered a rewarding FPS experience even if it was considered by many to be more of an adventure title instead of a pure FPS. The Metroid Prime 3 developers knew their limitations and accepted them instead of forcing the technology to fit their needs.
The Conduit is an artifact or antique that would have shocked the world a decade ago. Today, the game play struggles to generate entertainment at every opportunity. The weapons are uncomfortable to use and often do more damage to your character than the enemy you are aiming at. Enemy artificial intelligence is sub par and feels purposely marred in order to assist the player in using the controls effectively—or at least give the illusion that the controls are sound. The campaign is unforgivably short and can be completed throughout the course of a day or even in one dedicated sitting. The game feels like it is trying to compete against Halo, an archaic game in its own right, and it loses considerably. The story is nonsensical, clandestine, evil government plot that never really comes together in a satisfying way. The “surprises” story-wise are easy to spot well ahead of their big reveal and simply come across as flat. Multiplayer is equally archaic with rudimentary modes consisting of “deathmatch”, “team deathmatch” and “capture-the-flag.” The matchmaking protocol is much more fluid than other online Wii experiences due to the foregoing of friend codes in random match-ups. The online play itself runs slow as lag ultimately kills most of the fun. The one original feature boasted about at every press event was the intricate customization of the controls. This feature is the only aspect of The Conduit that lives up to the hype and even this meager victory is stifled by a flawed default control setting that forces the player to work for hours trying to make the controls work.
Despite all of The Conduit’s faults, one would be correct in stating that the game is one of the better FPS titles for the Wii. The fact of the matter is that the Wii is a unique gaming platform capable of creating very enjoyable content specific to its motion controls, but the Wii sacrifices horsepower in order to create that content as well as produce an affordable platform. That sacrifice has yielded the inevitability that some genres will not excel on the platform and first-person shooters just happen to be one of them. High Voltage Software did the best job they could with the resources at their disposal. This situation lead to garbage polishing and no matter how long you polish garbage you will end up with nothing but crap on your hands.
Overall Rating: * ½ / 5
M. Michael Chwedyk "The Gamekok"- MuzikReviews.com Sr. Video Game Reviewer
June 30, 2009
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