The Conduit

Overview

Set in Washington, D.C. in the not-too-distant future, The Conduit follows the story of secret service agent, Mr. Ford, who is recruited by a mysterious government agency called The Trust to eradicate an invading alien force (the Drudge) and find the truth behind their incursion. The Drudge are divided into four main types of enemies: Drones, Mites, Skimmers, and Scarabs. Drones are the foot soldiers of the Drudge, and carry different types of weapons. Mites are smaller, some of which can fly and explode.

Skimmers are alternate forms of Drones that can fly, and Scarabs are heavily armored Drudge with heavy weaponry, and a powerful exoskeleton. The Drudge will also use many different devices to hinder Agent Ford. Conduits are one of these devices, which are essentially spawn points for the Drudge. They will also use "Pulse Boxes" and "Regenerative Units". The "Pulse Boxes" will damage the player when in range of the device, and the "Regenerative Units" heal enemies and the player.

Players move Agent Ford through the environment from a first-person perspective and have access to a wide range of different weapons and technologies (human, alien, and hybrid) to use. Weapons include handguns, scope-enabled submachine guns, and Half Life inspired extraterrestrial weapons such as a missile-like projectile launcher that allows you to control the projectile after launch with your on-screen reticule. The player also has access to a unique handheld sensor, the All Seeing Eye (ASE) that can be used to detect otherwise invisible alien forms, find new weapons, and discover collectibles.

Control

The Conduit features fully customizable infrared sensor controls, including real-time in-game dead-zone adjustments (the invisible box that separates aiming from turning), and fully-mappable button and motion functionality. The game allows for on-the-fly customization of cursor sensitivity, camera look angles, auto centering, and run speed.

Levels

Level Introduction Transcripts

• Threshold
• Contagion
• Enemy
• Trust
• Gridlock
• Invasion
• Homeland
• Checkmate
• Closure

Secret Messages

• Threshold
• Contagion
• Enemy
• Trust
• Gridlock
• Invasion
• Homeland
• Checkmate
• Closure

Multiplayer

In addition to a single player campaign, The Conduit also features an online multiplayer mode with support for up to 16 simultaneous gamers. The Conduit supports in-game chat through Nintendo's WiiSpeak microphone peripheral. The Conduit utilizes Nintendo's Friend Code system for connecting with friends online. The game features a lobby system as well as random matchmaking. There is also a ranking system for the multiplayer, though it will not affect the player's gameplay.

Gametypes

Free-For-All

• Quick Match
• Marathon
• Three Strikes
• Last Man Standing
• ASE Football
• Bounty Hunter

Team Reaper

• Quick Match
• Marathon
• Shared Stock Match

Team Objective

• Quick Match
• Marathon
• Killing Override
• Single ASE

Weapons

Conventional Weapons

Weapon	Stats	Image
USP .45 Main Page: USP .45
SCARMain Page: FN SCAR
MP5KA4 Main Page: MP5K
SPAS Main Page: SPAS-12
SMAW Main Page: SMAW

Drudge Weapons

Weapon	Stats	Image
Warp Pistol
Shrieker
Hive Cannon
Strike Rifle

Trust Weapons

Weapon	Stats	Image
TPC Launcher
Deatomizer Mk4
Carbonizer Mk16

Prototype Weapons

Striker

HVS45

Deatomizer Mk9

Grenades

Fragmentation

Radiation

Flash

Technology

The game's developer, High Voltage Software, has developed the Wii-proprietary Quantum3 game engine, which facilitates the output of graphical effects and fidelity seldom associated with Nintendo's console. These effects include real-time shadow casting, dynamic environment mapping, bump mapping (with selectable embossed-style bump lighting), camera-space RGB gloss maps, texture-space RGB gloss maps, and standard tangent-space normals maps (with real-time adjustable bump intensity). The game has a control scheme inspired by Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and Medal of Honor Heroes 2, both Wii games with well-received control schemes. The UI technology that was used to create this acclaimed UI was Scaleform GFx, a flash based UI solution used throughout the industry.

Voice Acting and Score

The games' main character, Mr. Ford, is voiced by Mark A. Sheppard--best known for his work on Firefly, Battlestar Galactica and Supernatural. Additionally, his father William Morgan Sheppard served as the voice of the character John Adams and Kevin Sorbo, who played Hercules in the TV series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Captain Dylan Hunt in Andromeda, lent his voice to the character Prometheus.

In addition to the game's primary score, which was composed by Diego Stocco, The Conduit's soundtrack features original guitar accompaniment written and performed by Cheap Trick's Rick Nielsen.

Release Schedule

SEGA served as the publishing partner for The Conduit. The game was released to North American audiences on June 23, 2009. The Conduit, was released in Europe on July 10 2009.