The Conduit

Coming from someone who's played all the "quality" FPSs like CoD 4 and Halo 3, I really like this game. Sure, it's generic, but so were the last two said games. So, really, the game is just fun to play.

The game’s story just starts off with your character saying that he’s the only one who knows the truth because he was there. The game will take you on a road with some interesting twists. You can tell the focus in the game wasn’t really it’s story though(which I actually thank for that), considering it’s not really the most original, but you can tell they put some work into it. It’s hard to talk about the story without revealing the surprises, so I’ll let you play this game for yourself to figure out.

This is one of the few Wii games with actually good looking graphics. The game can be pretty nice to look at with all the textures, levels, and enemy design. Overall, the game looks really nice. It can actually be compared to some earlier 360 games. Sure, the game is no Mario Galaxy, but it’s still nice looking. The main gripe about the graphics though is that the frame-rate can slow down occasionally. This really isn’t a big issue though, because it doesn’t do it often and even when the frame-rate does slow down, the gameplay doesn’t get dragged down, which is good.

The sound in this game is standard. The music not to memorable and the weapon sound affects don’t really have their stand outs either. The voice acting game is good though, and is the actual stand out to the sound department. Sometimes, it’ll almost sound a bit out of place though, because the characters kind of speak in a monotone voice though. At least they’ll sound convincing and do a good job speaking out in the game, but a little more emotion would have been nice.

So the game is no Half Life in terms of story, the graphics are good but there are some games that look better, and the voice work can lack emotion. But the good thing is, is that this all doesn’t drag down on how fun the game can be, and man, can the game be fun!

Of course, being on the Wii, the controls are the unique thing about this FPS. It was perfected Metroid Prime 3(though, technically, it’s not a FPS), so developers would probably learn from this game into making the controls work. The controls do work in this game, but the real beauty of it, is that the controls are completely customizable. You can turn up the sensitivity, adjust the zone on where you’ll point and turn, and even control your own HUD. That’s actually pretty unique from a lot of FPSs! With the customizable, it can work for anybody! There are things where a motion will be required to do a certain action, but there are only two of those.

The melee attack can be done by thrusting the Wiimote forward, which can actually mess up your aim, but it can be fixed if you hold down the lock on button, so your view will be fixed on a position. To throw a grenade, you just simply flick your wrist with the nunchuck of the controls. You’ll be surprised of how well this works. You just simply point and throw. Most of the other controls don’t use motion to perform an action and the layout is pretty standard for a Wii shooter.

Within the game, you’ll be facing across some pretty tough enemies. You’ll have some soldiers and aliens to fight across throughout the game. The enemies are actually decently smart, they’ll use cover well. They’ll also run back when they realize that that they’re getting hit hard from you. The enemies do have some problems though. Some actually like to run into certain death and stand around occasionally. With that said though, the enemies are challenging. I actually found myself on more than one occasion throughout the game. There’s also some variety to be had with the enemies too. There are some giant enemies that can actually take in a lot of damage, and there will be instances where you’ll have to fight more than one of those. The game’s big point on the campaign is all the weapons you’ll be using, and there are different varieties. All the weapons are fun to use, and each has its own unique affect.

There are some breaks in between fights where you’ll have to use the ASE to find certain things to unlock doors. ASE is a device you find within the game that helps you open doors, hack into terminals, find hidden weapons, and reveal secret messages. The game also has you constantly doing things besides just shooting the crap out of aliens and going to the next room to do the same thing again. The game will also have you doing objectives throughout the game. With that said, the game almost reminds of Goldeneye in the campaign, where you will be doing objectives and all that. So the game has some variety, even though it’s not a lot, but it’s enough to keep it from getting boring.

The game is basically a ride all the way to the end. It’s incredibly fun, the little bit of variety makes it nice, and it’s just an overall good game. The big thing that this game does is customizable controls, but other than that, the game doesn’t do too much that first person shooters already have. But what the game does, it does incredibly well. The game is rather short though. I actually beat this game on the day I got it. In fact, the ending kind of hits you like a freight truck. I guess I would say “I hate it when that happens”, but this is actually the first game where I actually felt like I got hit. I guess that what happens when you buy it on the day it’s available, but the game actually makes it to where you think there’s going to be a little bit more, but than it ends. Well, I won’t say too much, but I can tell you that there’s going to be a sequel, so we’ll be looking forward to that!

If it’s one thing that this game gets incredibly well is its multiplayer, and you’ll have a blast with multiplayer. This is actually the big part of the game where I was reminded of Goldeneye, the pacing in the multiplayer feels exactly the same. The game supports up to 12 players with different game modes. Between each match, you can vote on the weapons you have, the game type, and the map.

The game actually requires you to think a little on using cover, teaming up with your teammates, and seeing how you can take the other guy down. You’ll want to use different strategies in order to bring down an enemy. The people in multiplayer can take up some damage, so you’ll have to be careful on how you go throughout the maps. That’s why team work is affective in this game. It’s helpful on bringing the enemies down faster. The game is just fun this way, and I’m surprised on how well it is. Really, I'm actually enjoying the multiplayer in this game more than other multiplayer FPSs out there.

Though, as fun as it can be, there are things that they need to work on. One thing is that matches don't exactly run smoothly. Though, I played it on regional matches instead of world wide matches, and that made it so much smoother to work with. Still, there are still some cases where the game gets jumpy on you. There are times when you'll see players running through walls because it actually got pretty laggy. Plus, one on one combat got kind of crazy. Not the ones where matches just went from 1v1, but the ones where you find only yourself going up against one enemy. Just seemed like most of the time, we found ourselves killing each other at the same time, because after playing through matches, I actually found that it takes a split second for the person to die once his health drops. When I got a one hit kill with a shot gun, I found him getting back at me with that split second of life. Also, the framerate in the game drops for the multiplayer. So, it felt like everything was kind of slowed down.Thankfully, the developers have taken note of these problems, so hopefully they'll get the chance to fix them. My only major gripe is that it lacks a split screen mode.

Still, as big as these problems sound, they aren't actually that big. Those are actually kind of minor complaints, because once you get down to it, the game is still really fun. In fact, I'd say that the reason to get this game is the multiplayer. If it weren't for the multiplayer, I'd say to probably just rent it. I mean, the singleplayer is fun, but it won't hold you're attention for long, so, really, the reason to get the game is for it's multiplayer. It has it's problems, but it's definitely functional. It's actually the main multiplayer game that's holding my attention for right now!

So, the game is fun. The singleplayer in the game is challenging, but fairly short. But that's where the multiplayer steps in. The multiplayer will probably hold your attention for a while. All in all, I'd recommend this game to anyone who ones a Wii. It's fun with an addictive online component. The only problem is that it's generic, but it still doesn't stop the game from being as fun as it is.