Publisher: Sega
Developer: High Voltage Software
Genre: First Person Shooter
Release date: Available now

When Nintendo first unveiled the Wii, fanboys paged through their wish lists of new iterations in the Mario, Zelda and Metroid series and began to dream up new and exciting applications for their favorite genres. The so-called hardcore crowd immediately conjured up lightsaber battles as a no-brainer use for the Wiimote, while others saw the ability to closely replicate the pixel-perfect mouse-driven controls that PC first-person shooter afficionados have enjoyed for years. And while a handful of FPS games have trickled through the deluge of shovelware ports, none have lived up to that initial fanboy fantasy. Enter developer High Voltage and the much-anticipated The Conduit, a Wii exclusive that endeavors to deliver hardcore action thrills while rewriting the book on how a console FPS should be controlled.

The Conduit drops players into a Mulder and Scully fever dream. You control top secret agent Mr. Ford, a specialist for the U.S. government, who quickly discovers that aliens are among us and could be in league with his employers. Without spoiling too much of the intrigue, the game initially sets Ford against a wily terrorist named Prometheus, who could be an agent for a nefarious group of space invaders who have decided to take aim at Washington, D.C., and finish off what Dubya started. (I kid. I KID!!!)

While the game offers a fairly standard single-player experience that is engaging while it lasts (roughly eight hours), High Voltage has really filled a void left wide open on the Wii by including a robust multiplayer suite that significantly enhances the game’s replay value. The online multiplayer allows for 12-player matches, most of the deathmatch variety. However, there are some unique objective-based modes, including the addictive ASE (All Seeing Eye) Football mode and Bounty Hunter, which tasks the players with only hunting down a specific target; you are penalized for shooting the wrong guy.

As a single-player game, The Conduit nicely fills a niche that really ought to be a bit more expansive this late in the Wii’s development cycle. We expected the Wii (with its unique control schemes and large install base) would make a tantalizing target for FPS developers, but thus far that hasn’t happened. High Voltage saw an opportunity and took it. With a lack of competition, a fairly boilerplate single-player adventure actually shines a bit brighter, offering a brief but enjoyable trip through the shadowy halls of extraterrestrial espionage. Fans of Rare’s N64 classic Perfect Dark will find a kissing cousin in The Conduit, both in its setting and its design structure, which eschews contemporary FPS plotting (gone are overly scripted scenarios) in favor of a refreshingly nostalgic run-and-gun experience. The single-player action slows down from time to time, granting you the use of an alien artifact dubbed the All Seeing Eye, which is used to activate portals and to scour the environments for cryptic clues to the global conspiracy. Unfortunately, the game ends a bit suddenly, leaving you pining for a sequel.

The Conduit truly shines in multiplayer, providing a similar experience to that enjoyed by FPS vets on the other competing systems. While Master Chief disciples are unlikely to abandon their nightly Halo skirmishes in favor of The Conduit’s online mayhem, for those gamers who have made the Wii their system of choice, The Conduit provides a nice online forum to scratch your FPS itch. The only thing that hampers the experience is the communication hurdle created by Nintendo’s online policies. While WiiSpeak is supported, not enough gamers have the microphones to really facilitate game communication. While this doesn’t impact the pure deathmatch modes too greatly, some of the team-based games suffer. On the plus side, the control scheme created by High Voltage is excellent, offering players the ability to remap the controls to find the best fit for their play style, including manipulation of the bounding box, which can significantly aid pinpoint targeting. This is a feature I expect many console developers would like to copy, although it appears best applied to the Wii. Deep customization coupled with the Wiimote leads to some deft, dexterous movement abilities – a boon for the FPS devotee.

For the last year, anticipation for The Conduit has risen, buoyed by some promising demos at E3 2008. Gamers saw this shooter as a bright spot in a dim lineup that catered to “the casual” and put the pressure onto a modest developer to elevate the Wii to the lofty heights they initially imagined for it. Well, believe the hype. While it may not revolutionize the FPS world, The Conduit connects tightly with those core gamers who have longed for the new play experiences promised by the Wii.

Our Score :

Our Recommendation: