Trent Petronaitis sinks his teeth into the Conduit- been one of the big players this holiday season, is it really something to pick it up?

Lots of people for the past year have been following High Voltage’s FPS for the Nintendo Wii console- explaining it to be the god send for the system and what more will bring a flourish of good titles to the system.

This game was said to be the end all of the casual market on the system- and showing the world that yes the Wii can do high graphic first person shooters. It’s graphical engine which High Voltage developed from the ground up was said to be breathe taking and the best stuff the Wii can do- and even close to braking the Wii in terms of how awesome the graphic engine is.

So we saw the screenshots and looked at the footage- and thought “well this looks alright” some jumped off the idea, some jumped so far they could glide home. The fact is people responded to these remarks.

Fast forward to when the game is released, people pick it up to see how well High Voltage has done their mission. Has the game they set out to develop work?

I was originally going to pick up the collectors edition- but due to the cost and the fact the retailer I was getting the game from ran out of copies- I voted for the much much cheaper option of just the retail game. No big difference anyway- just a fancy art book in a cardboard box.

The first thing I did like all people was hop straight into the multiplayer. It was here where I spend most of my time with this game- and where I learned the most about the flaws and the pros of this title.

Multiplayer is online, and there is no local multiplayer. I can’t remember the developers reasons for this. I think in the end it was a time problem. But the fact of the matter is- that is a big bummer. Because multiplayer is the only thing this game has going for it.

Reading forums I heard that this single player mode was the dreaded beast of the west- something to avoid and for the most part very boring and liquefied in a bad B grade movie plot. I took the step to play this single player and found that the story line is indeed a B grade movie style plot. Which makes no scene and over all squishes the game down with it. It feels like Halo crossed with Half Life gameplay wise and in this day and age isn’t something to be proud of making it just another generic first person shooter experience. And for those who rallied up when the Australian version of Medal of Honour missed out on its online- unlike that title the single player experience isn’t worth two cents.

Lets go back to the Wi-Fi experience, playing with everyone is like all online titles- you get some people who are respectful and in team environments back up your advances on the other team. But you also have people who are Halo-tards. I was playing online in a team environment for the first time and this fucker was taunting his kill first thing I thought was “oh great team play is full of halo-tards”.

Fear not because team play has another side, a side which is like CTF and the best part is its separated from the Halo-tard team play mode. You have some pretty funky CTF style missions as well. One of them involves just one “flag” (which is a ball) that plays pretty awesome- after I got the hang of it.

Friend play is pretty awesome- but to bad its not local or like Mario Kart- 2p local and Online at the same time. Now that was shit awesome. So sadly The Conduit doesn’t take prize there either- as been the best Wi-Fi game on the Wii.

Playing the title online feels very restricted by what Nintendo has put in place- at least the title does have Wii Speak support which sadly only works for friend matches.

Every so often I play online and get loaded out of the level or I can’t find anyone in the search or the search finds someone, kicks them out then I’m playing against myself online? The hell. This experience alone makes it feel like your playing a beta product – or at least online isn’t debugged enough.

Weapon sets are another pretty dodgy problem in this game. You have “halo esk items” in a few of the sets which do crap all damage- but if you can master them and learn your timing they do epic damage. It seems to me that these are stupid weapons. In fact lots of the weapons are riddled with reloading issues, varying degrees of to much or to little power etc. I just hate loading up a Wi-Fi match to find some idiots picked one of the sets with these horrible weapons.

Now earlier I talked about how High Voltage prised this game as possibly the best graphics on the Wii- no it doesn’t even come close. While the engine they have developed is impressive, overall its pretty weak to a few other titles out there. If they say their close to reaching the Wii’s potential with this engine then they need to really reshape how their engine works because other titles a few from Nintendo and even Ubisofts Red Steal look equally as good or better. Overall graphics are pretty over-rated by both the developer and the fan base.

Music I do have to say the score for The Conduit is impressive. Though the game lacks variety in its music and thus then again is lacking.

Overall the game is one of High Voltages first original IP’s and while it stands- it doesn’t stand tall. For those without any other titles they could play (meaning those with out say an Xbox or a good pc) the game is a great first person shooter for the Nintendo Wii. But otherwise its holly title with a few good pointers which puts it with the rest of the crowd making it just another first person shooter.

Score: So-So

Its a type of game which you must like it to get into it- remove all its flaws and take it like it is. Over all it feels like your playing a beta game.