Inventive controls meet bland design
Ever since the Wii Remote was first unveiled, I've been saying that it should be a great boon for first person shooters. It just felt like the logical next step past dual analog control, and I had high hopes that The Conduit would be the game to finally take advantage of such technology. And while the control scheme in The Conduit doesn't disappoint, the rest of the game isn't quite as fleshed out as you might want. The result is a mixed bag of ingenuity and staleness, providing a completely up and down experience that's kind of hard to recommend one way or the other.
First and foremost, those controls that proved to be The Conduit's main selling point leading up to its release are fantastic. High Voltage Software has implemented a lot of really interesting ideas, and ultimately nailed how shooting should feel on the Wii. Aiming is just as accurate as you'd expect, and moving your pointer around the screen has a snappy quality to it that allows for a lot more precision than that of the standard dual analog layout. Even better, The Conduit allows you to customize literally everything about your controls- I'm talking button layout, run speed, cursor sensitivity, etc. By far the most interesting of these is the "dead zone", which determines at what point you start turning as you move your cursor towards the edge of the screen. It's a genius idea, and lets all sorts of players have things their own way. You can't really complain about any aspect of The Conduit's controls, since you can simply change anything you don't like.
Unfortunately, most everything else about The Conduit doesn't hold its weight. As far as first person shooters go, The Conduit is a competent, yet shallow experience. The weapons are pretty bland, the enemies are boring, and the level design is extremely linear. The boss fights are a snore fest, and the frequent infinite enemy spawns are just annoying. The few puzzles the game tries to throw at you are super lame, and the story is totally uninteresting. In fact, other than its stellar controls, the only other standout feature in The Conduit might be its visuals. Technically, this is an impressive game on the Wii, and brings in a handful of nice visual effects. However, the artistic side of proceedings is anything but, as most of the game's uninspired backdrops leave much to be desired. So while The Conduit does pretty much everything you'd want a shooter to do, it does it with such a resounding level of indifference that it makes it hard to really care. The game's finer points are just dull- plain and simple.
What could have been a great shooter in every way ultimately became a hit and miss affair. The Conduit's control scheme is brilliant, and only validates my claim that the Wii Remote is perfect for first person shooters. This is exactly how you'd want a shooter to feel on the Wii, and perhaps someone will someday take up the mantle. Until then, however, we'll have to settle for The Conduit's overall shallowness. It should be fun for those who are eager to experience great shooting controls on the Wii, but The Conduit still manages to be too boring to give a strong recommendation to anyone else.
