The Conduit

Let’s get this out of the way first, this is not by any means an epic game. In fact there are some things that don’t work that have been in other shooters for years. That said, what this game promised us, it delivers. This has the best graphics on the Wii, best controls for the Wii, and I also believe the best sound in a game for the Wii.

Let’s start with the graphics. I played this game on a 46” 1080p HD TV and even though the Wii resolution is only 480p, the graphics look stunning. You can definitely tell that the image is being stretched but once you get into the game, you hardly notice it. Weapons look amazing, reload animations look even better, and the enemies really feel alive. Like most games, wall textures don’t look as good as everything else. But overall this game has the best graphics on the Wii.

Next are the controls. You have full customization over everything from vertical and horizontal speed, run speed, and bounding box. The bounding box is the area in the middle of the screen in which the crosshairs can move without moving your point of view which allows you to choose your own settings on how fast you turn. Besides those controls, every button is customizable which, being on the Wii, is nice because a lot of people complain that the Wii controls never work. So if you don’t like the controls, you have nothing complain about.

What I thought the really surprise me was the sound. The sound is fantastic, and I don’t just mean the music. The sound effects and the ambiance provided for an amazing atmosphere. The other thing that most games don’t have is directional sound (sound coming from a direction) and this game implements it beautiful.

Having said all that, there are flaws, not big ones, but they are noticeable. There was one time where I turned a corner and I could see right through the walls for a second. I tried to jump over a barrel, landed in the barrel, and manage to die because I keep taking damage. Some areas seem to have more health packs and the following areas have none. Another big flaw is that at times the AI seemed incredible dumb. I only noticed it at the beginning of the game, but as time went on it was fine. My problem was that I would creep up onto a wall look just past it, and I could see an enemy looking straight at me, but as long as I had part of the wall covering me, he didn’t even move. I used this mechanic many times just to kill enemies before I got ambushed. Annoying, but effective.

My finally conclusion to single player is that this is mediocre at best. This is not the life changing shooter people may have been raving about. But where this game does shine is in multiplayer.

If there is any reason to buy this game, it’s the multiplayer. Its the only first person shooter game on the Wii that has 12 players at once. Compared to other games on other consoles, this is nothing to brag about, but that fact that the Wii has had just the worst multiplayer ever allows this game to shine. The other thing is that most of the levels are somewhat small so having 12 players never feels lonely. One thing I did notice is that the graphics take a hit when playing online, but the end result reminds me of Unreal Tournament, the first one from 2000. This doesn’t bother me because it all blends very nicely and gives it a nice nostalgic look without being pixelated.

One innovative thing that High Voltage Software (Developers of the game) did do was how you choose match types. Before you go to a server, you can pick between three different categories which boil down Death Match, Team Match, or Team Objective and each one explains exactly what they are. Death Match is every man for himself, Team Match put you on a Team, and Team Objective is always a form of Capture the Flag (CTF). Once you pick that, you join a server. Beyond that you enter a lobby (unless there is already a game in session in which you go to the lobby after the match ends) and you actually vote on 3 different things: Match Type; Weapon Type; Level. In Match Type, each Game type has a few categories, most of which are similar. There’s timed matches, kill limit matches, the basics. One mode in particular though is in Death Match where you are giving a player to kill, and you can only kill that player. What is new to this is that once the timer for voting runs out, it picks at random what was selected to be played for the map. This means that the more an option is voted the more likely it is to be played.

Although the severs seemed a little laggy and sometimes where hanging when I tried to connect, they will probably work out all the bugs within the next couple of weeks.

Final Verdict: Must buy but only for multiplayer. The career mode is not worth the $50