The Conduit (Wii, 2009)

The conduit was going to be the hardcore gamer's dream. Nintendo has been lacking in that department for quite some time, and high voltage came to the rescue. They promised AMAZING and BREATHTAKING graphics, and totally customizable gameplay. Great wi-fi battling, where Wii Speak is compatible (only to talk to friends regretably). Now, the question is, did the Conduit measure up to all the boasts and brags it made?

The graphics on this game are truly amazing for the Wii. I've never seen anything so beautiful, and it is one of the greatest things about the game. Your reflection appears in water, detailed skin texture of aliens, and more. This game pushes the limits of the Wii's graphics.

The controls also belong in the pros. They're totally customizable, to vertical sensitivity, turn speed, running speed, and which buttons control your gun shooting, how your character crouches, and jumps. This really helps for those who hate normal configurations of wii controls, and make playing the game much more fun and enjoyable.

Within the levels there are data tracks, that unlock concept art and cheats. So the game does have its longetivity. It can be beaten in as little as 6 hours if you really just scrambled through the levels with no care for the hidden treasures. The all seeing eye is a gadget used to reveal hidden messages and open doors and locate bombs. This can be tedious and stressful at times, which made the game a little short of getting a 5/5 rating, but not the only con.

Some of the levels are also ridiculously hard. You may run into a room where hundreds (maybe I exaggerated) snipers that can kill you in an instant. There would be no way to avoid this unless you had already known of this evil little trap. The enemies are challenging, but not in a bad way, because they use the environment around them. Taking cover, and regrouping. The hidden bombs really became a nuisance when you were trying to fend off attackers and search for them at the same time.

The online player offers 12 player multiplay action, a good number of multifarious maps, and 20 weapons or so. There are many different modes you can play with, such as bounty hunter (eliminate a certain player or be penalized) capture the flag (I doubt if anyone hasn't heard of this), and team battles, ASE football (you try to hold onto a gadget the longest without being killed) and more. The connection varies, the greater number of people you have and internet speed affect whether your experience will be wonderful or filled with lag. Lag is nearly unavoidable though, and the good battles usually make up for it. The levels do seem somewhat restrictive as you're sometimes in tunnels and enclosed areas, making huge groups of people fighting at once impossible.

Overall the Conduit is a most reasonable effort to give the Wii something to talk about. It excels farther than other third parties for Wii, and offers smooth totally customizable gameplay. The story mode for one player is fun, and lasts a decent amount of time, and the online play will keep you going for months to come. High Voltage Software really gave us a great FPS, but not the perfect one. The voice work is great, and the music doesn't get annoying. I would recommend buying this game, if you love a great First Person Shooter. It's the best on the Wii (IGN says so too). Amazing graphics, great gameplay, great game.

(please vote on the helpfulness of this review, thank you)

-thefam2007

I'll start this off by saying that I bought this game with having read multiple reviews and critics smashing this game in all its areas, so I didn't expect too much. This game was just "fun". Nothing more, nothing less. One of its strengths was how the game was played. It was very easy for me to get into this game right from the get-go and it never let me down until the ending. Then there was the "ending". The game just "ended". Truely a bummer, but there is some replay value I suppose. I'll just make up a few catagories and end this review with that. If this game had a 10 star selection instead of the 5 star, I would have given it a strong 7/10, so giving it the 4/5 is being generous. For $12, it was worth the purchase and it's a welcome to my Wii library of games. Looking forward to see where this series goes in the future...

Graphics - 8/10 (Detailed environments, too many flickers in the background of some of the stages, but not enough to fully distract. If I'm not mistaken, I'm seeing a bit of normal mapping and realistic enemy textures!)

Gameplay - 9/10 (From the start, I never had an issue with the way the game plays. Hell! Even my eleven year old daughter started playing the game without much assistance and managed to get past the opening levels. I love how you can customize the control schemes as well.)

Music/Sound - 7/10 (Music was the weakest of the two, but there were a few tracks that were more ambient and fitting the story. Tons of vocalizations between the Protagonist and other in game characters.)

Replay Value - 6/10 (After the single player missions are completed, there's still online multiplayer to "try" out. I didn't really like how this part of the game is set up. There were a few things that I was not able to acheive on the first go-around in which (if I get really bored and have nothing else to do) I'll go back through and gather to make 100% completion.)

OVERALL 7/10

Don't believe the hype that High Voltage software built up for this Wii exclusive. This is an average - 3-star - game. In fact The Conduit is pretty disappointing, in my opinion. Overall the levels, weapons and bad guys were pretty generic and the story was underwhelming. Also, I found there were too many necessary controls to map it to my Wii Perfect Shot Gun from Nyko, which would have been blast and a half to play with. I purchased this game on day one and sold it within a few weeks. I played the first player campaign only and did not get into the online content.

In retrospect it's no wonder Nintendo's first party games sell the best when Sega and other companies are making sub-par, okay at best - games.

There's definitely a lot of promise for future first person shooters on the Wii though, especially with the release of The Wii MotionPlus. I'm certainly hoping Nintendo releases a new Wii remote with the Motion Plus system built right in!

If you are looking for a good first-person shooter, I would recommend the Metroid Prime Trilogy Collector's Edition, three great games in one package - it's practically Value City!

I am I first person shooter fan. Personally I do not love gore, but I like a little blood in a game, like the conduit. The graphics are a breakthrough for the Wii. The Wii is falling behind and the creators usually don't have lunch together anymore. I played this game and the first level was a little shaky but I got used and I play it so many more times. The guns are beautiful and creative. Like the semi-auto sniper or the SPAS-12. The aliens guns are the best to use. At first i was really frustrated because of the first level where desperatlely needed to find health packs. If you are looking for another great FPS game for the Wii, then I would try Medal of Honor Heroes 2.

I don't like the multiplayer, first you have to connect to Wi-Fi, then you have to wait about five minutes to play and authorize people, then you have to wait a while for the level to load. After about seven minutes you can play. Also on world wide, it doesn't work, so do regional. The maps are unbielevable though, with every man for themselves, capture the flag and team battle. The problem with multyplayer is the hacking thats going on, people are able to shoot at least five explosives at a time while it takes a while to reload one.

Conclusion:
The Conduit has its ups and downs, but I highly recommend it if you have a Wii and is looking for a good FPS game. You can find it at your local Gamestop.

-Sparkelyfrog324

This is a solid game, I think if more people gave this game a chance they would like it. The controls are great and the graphics are some of the best I've seen on the Wii. The story could use a little work and the campaign mode is kind of short but not without a challenge and the online multiplayer is a lot of fun. At the price it is going for on ebay this is a must have for the more hardcore Wii gamer.