Sega treated their ‘Guns & Gore II’ guests to a welcomed surprise in the shape of High Voltage Software’s upcoming first-person shooter game The Conduit. The game is High Voltage Software’s pet project as it were; having developed a portfolio, and importantly profits, from licensed titles they set about making a game for the Wii that would cater toward the “hardcore” audience. Sega recently made a deal with High Voltage Software to publish this game and while there is no set release date at present it is expected to hit shops around summer.
The first thing that strikes you about this game is the way in which it is reminiscent of GoldenEye, but for no discernable reason. Several people I spoke to that day who played it all said the same, it feels like GoldenEye in some way but nobody could quite put their finger on it. Regardless, this is obviously a good thing. I’m sure everyone reading this has played GoldenEye and I can’t recall anyone ever say anything too bad about it. Essentially what this means is this game filled me with optimism that it could be something special, an AAA title as they say.
However the game had to live up to this immediate feeling I gathered while watching others play it and I’m pleased to say it did. While my time was shorter than I would have liked (although in all fairness I would have liked to have owned it and played it all) what I did play certainly filled me with confidence.
For those who don’t know anything about the game here is a quick run down of its storyline; in the near future an alien invasion takes place in Washington D.C. in which aliens use Conduits, portals, to deploy their forces throughout the city. While most of the storyline is being kept under wraps Sega did promise us an intense storyline with a deep conspiracy at its heart. In the game you play a new agent by the name of Mr. Ford (voiced by Mark Sheppard who you’re likely to have seen in something) who is able to use a piece of alien technology that has been discovered. The spherical-shaped ASE (All-Seeing Eye) is the source of the game’s puzzle elements as it has many different uses during the game.
Obviously an important factor in any first-person shooter is the weaponry and The Conduit certainly delivers. There are three types of weapons in the game; man-made, alien and experimental. The weapon types are all slightly different in terms of style and mechanics, with the biggest noticeable difference being the organic nature of the alien weaponry. Only a few guns were shown but they showed a range of potential as to what to expect from the weapons; from the golden gun inspired one-shot-kills gun through to the alien gun they all handled uniquely. This is all obviously just scratching the surface of the weapons on offer in the final game.
The aforementioned ASE was used in several ways during the course of my play through. At one stage an alien lock was preventing me from progressing and I had to find two switches to get through. These switches however were not visible to the human eye and that’s where the ASE came in as using that it is possible to find these switches. Similarly at one point invisible alien mines were littered across the ground and the ASE had to be used to identify and destroy these mines. There will be many uses for the ASE in the final game and looks set to add a rewarding puzzle element to this FPS.
The enemies in the game were adequately difficult and intelligent. At one point of the play through we entered an area in which alien objects are attached to the walls that regain the health of those around it, both yourself and of the enemies. Thus, while it is possible for you to shoot them to easily take out the enemies they are still beneficial to you so it is good to keep them around. Furthermore the enemies can’t be teased out of this safety net, they hold their ground knowing that they can keep getting healed. This is only one example of what I’m sure will be many instances in which the AI will prove to be a credit to the game.
Speaking of the enemies, every time you kill one of them they leave behind some health and their weapons. While some people may see this as potentially making the game too easy the enemies you do come across are likely to put a dent in your health, particularly if you are new to the game. While we’ll have to see if ultimately it becomes too easy to constantly regain your health I feel confident that High Voltage Software won’t let you glide through the game so smoothly. When the enemies do overturn you and shoot you dead the camera will fall to the ground and you will see your own hand lying in front of you. This little touch really adds to the game’s sense of ‘realism’.
The game offers a high degree of customisation in how you play it. The controller itself comes preset but you can map it out however you want. While the controllers I played with had you swinging your nunchuck to throw a grenade you can just as easily set it so you swing the nunchuck to shoot, if you wanted to give your arm a serious work out. Furthermore the HUD (on-screen display of your ammo, health etc) can be fully customised so you can put your health in the middle of the screen, your ammo at the top and so forth. If you prefer a completely immersive first-person perspective you can turn them all off too. This attention to detail really sets The Conduit apart from other FPS games.
Overall I was surprisingly pleased with The Conduit. I will admit I didn’t know much about the game before going but I had looked into it beforehand and while it looked interesting it wasn’t until I saw it first hand that I became really excited about it. Speaking to the other people who attended ‘Guns & Gore II’ they agreed; this game could be a real system seller and while we played an early build it still managed to impress us all. This game has the potential to be huge…if it sells. Unfortunately it could enter a catch 22 situation; there are no games like it on the Wii and while this may make some people interested in The Conduit it could just as equally mean people won’t pick it up. While we’ll have to wait until we get a chance to play the final version it is highly possible that this game will become a must buy.
Extracts only
The Conduit has a blend of puzzle-solving and action that reminds us (superficially at least) of Half-Life. The levels that we got a chance to explore, which were all underground bunkers and military complexes, only reinforced that mighty compliment.
What makes The Conduit actually interesting as a Wii FPS though is the fact that, believe it or not, it actually plays pretty well. Unlike other shooters on the platform it doesn't force in boring minigames or require super-strenuous movements of you just to get your character to shoot. It’s also got multiplayer for up to 16 players which, though it isn’t enough to stand out on most other platforms, is a phenomenally impressive step for a Wii game.
That goes doubly so when the multiplayer aspect include voice chat and a variety of game modes too – it’s just a shame we didn’t get to have a go on the multiplayer modes. Thankfully though, the singleplayer part of the game was impressive enough...
Where The Conduit seems to excel though is in the actual balancing of the game and the way that the controls and obstacles have been so finely tuned that they’d make even Mozart smile – and he was a notoriously grumpy git.
It’s the biggest compliment that we can pay to developer High Voltage to say that they seem to have actually balanced the game perfectly and done away with these issues – mainly thanks to the fact that they took ideas for control configs straight from the community.
Not all of The Conduit’s apparent successes are so technical though; many of them rely on the way that the game has cleverly combined its arsenal of alien weapons with the Wii’s motion sensing abilities. Much of this is epitomised in the All Seeing Eye, a special bit of alien tech that Ford salvages early on in the game and repeatedly uses to thwart the Drudge.
It’s the way that you keep switching between gunplay and puzzles that we find most reminiscent of games like Half-Life too, as the idea of breaking up otherwise continuous gunplay is something that Valve has historically excelled at too. It’s a great way to give players a chance to slow down and relax before combat fatigue sets in.
It’s this well-paced fusion of different game styles that has us most exited about The Conduit too. The way that the combat and puzzle-solving has been mixed belies a deep understanding of how games in the developer and suggests that they’ll be able to make the mix work well through the entire game.
Granted though, there are weaknesses for the game. Graphically the Wii is pretty undernourished, we know, and The Conduit does a really good job with what it has to work with, maintaining a solidly playable framerate. Despite the technical successes though, The Conduit is distractedly ugly at times. Part of it is the lack of AA, but a lot of it is down to the palette used by the designers – the walls are all the same greys and browns, the enemies splattered with neon. The two just don’t go together that well, feeling a bit garish and immature somehow and reducing the hardcore appeal that is otherwise at the heart of The Conduit.
Still, as any seasoned gamer will know, graphics aren’t everything and The Conduit is still a thoroughly impressive game despite the jagged lines and conflicting colours. It’s the gameplay that really matters and that’s an area where The Conduit really excels, even if only in terms of what it can bring to the Wii and not what it can bring to gaming as a whole.
gamingeek said:Why are they ugly?
Because it took me a few seconds to realize this isn't a DS game.
Yarcofin said:gamingeek said:Why are they ugly?Because it took me a few seconds to realize this isn't a DS game.
Come on man 
robio said:Ummmm I guess this is good. I've just never been a fan of shooters. The ones I like are far and few in between. For the Wii's sake I hope it does well, but I'm afraid I'm not going to be lining up to buy this unless the reviews are just unreal.
I love shooters on the system. The only reason I buy shooters these days is because I can use IR to aim. If this gets 8.0 scores or higher I will get it, just to try it. COD WOW on Wii was pretty good too.
Actually looks great.
And so many jaggies.
Bad pics
ugh. more red Xs
The second one isn't too bad I suppose.
gamingeek said:
WTF?
---
Tell me to get back to rewriting this site so it's not horrible on mobile
___
Listen to Wu-Tang and watch Kung-Fu
bugsonglass said:at this moment in time this game reminds me of how i felt about geist prior to release. a shooter with potential to be different and good, but also with a great bit of uncertainty as to how it would ultimately turn out. i am hoping this will turn out much better than that game though
Different...? Just for a wii game? Cause otherwise this is about the most generic shooter out there.
I'm hoping it'll be good, though, don't get me wrong.
http://www.gamedaily.com/games/the-conduit/wii/game-features/eyeson-the-conduit/
Nintendo's Wii lacks quality first-person shooters, aside from Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and Call of Duty: World At War. Thankfully, The Conduit may deliver an action adventure experience that's so good, it might turn into an A-list game.
Plot-wise, the game revolves around a conspiracy involving the government and an invading alien race, the Drudge. An organization known as the Trust, led by the mysterious Mr. Adams, hopes to investigate and subsequently save the world. Adams recruits a Secret Service specialist, Michael Ford, to come up with some answers. The game features solid voice acting, courtesy of Battlestar Galactica's Mark Sheppard (as Ford) and Hercules himself, Kevin Sorbo, as the helpful Prometheus. Don't groan, he doesn't sound as bad as you think.
Before walking through the tutorial, High Voltage explained how users can modify the controls. You simply enter the menu interface and map the buttons any way you see fit, across the triggers, d-pad and face buttons. For instance, if you prefer to zoom using the remote's minus button, have at it. You can also adjust aim sensitivity and movement, via a helpful on-screen grid.
If things get difficult, always remember that you "Conduit"! Click to see more images from the game...
In between shooting aliens, you'll take advantage of the All-Seeing Eye, or ASE for short, is like a high-powered alien flashlight. This lets you spot things that you cannot see with the naked eye, such as hidden alien messages that the ASE translates on the fly. Doing this is a nice change of pace from the non-stop action, although The Conduit has plenty of that to go around.
What's great about the ASE is how it provides quite possibly the best lighting effects we've yet seen in a Wii game. The ASE's beam shines through the room in real-time, bending off objects and growing larger as you move closer to the walls.
Upon completing the tutorial, we entered an abandoned airport where there's trouble at every turn, as soldiers are running about and ducking behind chairs and walls. Again, there's a serviceable amount of effort put into the graphics so you feel the effects of the gun battle, to the point you might not even remember you're playing a Wii game. Yes, it looks that good.
While we didn't get to experience multiplayer yet, reps from High Voltage let us know that the game supports online play through the Wi-Fi Connection, spreading across three modes (Capture the Flag, Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch) and supporting up to 16 players. Hopefully we'll see multiplayer in action very soon.
With the impeccable amount of detail and frenzied combat, The Conduit should heat up action hungry Wii players when it arrives this summer.
There haven't been any videos for awhile have their?