Took a Conduit break from Monster Hunter Freedom Unite

I came home with The Conduit today, and after spamming a bunch of Gathering missions in Monster Hunter Freedom Unite, I decided to give this much bally-hooed Wii first-person shooter a whirl. Quick, bulleted impressions:

+ Great control options. This is pretty much a known quantity going in, what with all the previews talking about High Voltage Software's dedication to customization. I like this because I always tweak my settings on PC first-person shooters just the way I like it, and I like being able to do it here. Some people say, "Shouldn't they just get it right?" No, getting it right is allowing me to tweak it. The way I see it, for a first-person shooter, there is no "right" set of settings. Not allowing us to tweak is "getting it wrong" every which way you look at it.

- The framerate, while mostly consistent so far, is nowhere near as silky smooth as that of Metroid Prime 3 or Medal of Honor: Heroes 2. This goes a long way in making shooting with the Wii-mote feel good. In terms of responsiveness, it's at about the same sensitivity as Call of Duty 3 on Wii, which wasn't bad, but wasn't entirely great either. A 60 frames-per-second framerate would have been much appreciated.

+ On the flip-side, it's easy to see why the framerate had to be "locked" at 30. The enemy models, while not entirely varied, have great lighting and detail to them. You're not going to mistake this for an Xbox 360 game after you stare at it for a few seconds, but it's very, very high quality and at first you might do a double take. It's certainly a level of detail we've not seen on Wii before. Faux depth-of-field blur while reloading is cool, too. Some environment textures are nice, too.

- However, much of the environment seems flat. It doesn't help that the jaggies come out to play. Oh how I wish we had some sort of anti-aliasing. The environments just aren't entirely interesting yet, either. I'm on the third "level" so to speak and I haven't seen anything exciting.

+ Lots of fun, cathartic run-and-gun action.

- But as a result, lots of "killroom -- clear a space out, go to next" or "corridor shooter -- let's play whack-a-mole with soldiers popping out of doorways and from under cover" gameplay. Oh, and don't forget the exploding fuel tanks :P It depends on what you're looking for, but if it's the old-school linear heart-racing type of shooting you want, it's very hard to top Half Life 2.

+ Then again, Half Life 2 isn't on Wii, and perhaps this is The Conduit's saving grace: If you only own a Wii or just badly want to shoot stuff with the Wii-mote, this definitely beats dual analog control (but then again, you know how I feel about dual analog...blech) and is certainly a fine option...

- ...as long as you haven't been spoiled by Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 or Metroid Prime 3's smooth control.

Quick preview evaluation would be one thumb up, but not two.