Here we have The Conduit, a supposed “Xbox 360 game on the Wii”. But is it really up to that standard? Can a Wii game actually compete on the same forum as Microsoft’s console? Unfortunately, not really it doesn’t. It is extremely generic shooter that seems to take a lot of concepts that have been abandoned by other games in the genre for years.
The story of the game is about a strange series of events that give cause to a government conspiracy that involves an alien presence on Earth and its wish to destroy the human race. It’s all very strange and unfortunately generic; you are set as Michael Ford, a Secret Agent who is to wage a one man war against this alien invasion.
The developers seem to have looked at some of the most successful games around and then cherry picked the most interesting parts from them to make up this game. Which is sad to say as most of what they have chosen just doesn’t sit well with the game as a whole. The narrative is told through the use of what can only be described as the Metal-Gear Solid codec briefings, which is about the only one of the picked elements actually work within the game. But there is plenty that doesn’t for example; Ford has a floating ball ‘thing’ which works in a similar way to the Bond vision used in Everything Or Nothing. The ball is called the All Seeing Eye or ASE for short, and it basically shows you where to go in the level and also reveals hidden buttons to press to solve puzzles.
Speaking of the puzzles, the ones that feature in this game are nothing really to shout about. These are one of the concepts that I mentioned that other FPS’ have abandoned long ago. The concept of most of the puzzles are a little too simplistic for what should be in games nowadays, the majority of the puzzles involve some very simple button hunting. What is needed to do is take out the ASE and used it as a node finding torch, which will pick up any of the these nodes and highlight them on the currently surface that your facing. In a lot of respects it is a shame about this section of the game as it could have amounted to something it handled more like Tomb Raider or the old school Point and Clicks.
It was claimed that the graphics in the game, due to the Quantum3 engine, would be comparable with that of the PS3 and 360 graphics, (something that is said not to be possible on the Wii due to the hardware limitations) but unfortunately while the graphics are more impressive than what you would see on a normal Wii release it is not near enough to the calibre of Sony’s or Microsoft’s consoles. The graphics situation is not helped by the fact that the areas in which you traverse are some of the most dull I’ve seen and I’ve played Velvet Assassin in which the only palette colours the developers seemed to like to use is brown and a dark green. Another thing is that the enemies you face are pretty much the same as each other, which just adds to the blandness of the game.
While the majority of this review is negative there are a few things I like about the game. One of them is the control system. The control system is very similar to the systems seen in Metroid Prime 3 and Medal of Honor: Heroes 2, the character movement is mapped to the Nunchuk’s analogue stick while the aiming is set on the Wiimote. The B button fires your selected weapon while the directional buttons allow you change weapons. The Wiimote’s and Nunchuk’s motion sensing ability is used for melee on the Wiimote and throwing a grenade on the Nunchuk. This works really well especially as after a short while with the game it feels like second nature.
Another element of the game I enjoyed was the online multiplayer. This works excellently, there are 13 modes on offer, offering some very different gameplay options. There are the normal team death match and team-based death match, but also there are variations of the free for all modes these include: Marathon, in which you must compete against other players to get the most points/kills within a given time limit. Another variation is Three Strikes which works in a similar way to the Conversion mode in Resistance: Fall of Man, players have three lives in which to kill as many of the opponents as possible the player who still have lives at the end of the match is the winner. Finally and most interestingly there is a mode called ASE Football, in this mode you have to capture the ASE and hold it for as long as possible, much like King of the Hill game modes seen in other FPSes.
There is no doubting that from a Wii perspective this is a game to have. There is very little like on the Wii and it is actually one of the best games I’ve played on the Wii that is exclusive to the console. But the claims that the graphics will be on par with the 360 or PS3 were a pipe-dream in all honesty, but the graphics are not all a game is. The Conduit is a solid game, with some very good gameplay elements just a shame that they weren’t original and at points don’t sit well with the game. If you like FPSes and you only have the Wii or are bored of everything else then this is a game for you.
Nometet.com says: 
