The Conduit Review

Don't you open that conduit, 'cause there's something down there.

It started with developer High Voltage looking at the Wii and thinking "that controller's made for FPS games, so why aren't there any real stand-out ones on the platform? Let's make one!" And lo and behold, they did.

The main problems they had to overcome were controls (Red Steel) and graphics (Medal of Honor Heroes), and from the beginning they set out to have the best of both. And by 'eck, they've succeeded. There are problems with both of them, much like a seemingly delicious doughnut that you find has no jam inside, which I'll get to later, but first let's look at what The Conduit gets right.

Apart from Metroid Prime 3 (which I'd argue wasn't even a true FPS), no FPS controls using the Wii-mote have ever felt quite right. Finally we have one that does, for the simple and blindingly obvious reason that you can totally customise the controls. I've no idea why so many console games force you to use a certain setup (often provoking comments of "stupid bloody controls" in reviews) when it's simple to allow people to assign what they want.

I personally found the default setup was actually pretty good anyway, although it does suffer a little bit by what I shall call "Resistance PSP syndrome", wherein the developer adds more functions to their game than is needed and so over complicates what should have been a simple control system.


Just like how Resistance Retribution didn't really need a secondary-fire mode, The Conduit doesn't really need a second type of grenade and an extra button to swap between them. So if you want to change weapons you only have one button to do it (default: right on the D-Pad), which is always tricky to do in a frantic fire-fight and more often than not ends with you zooming in (default: down on the D-Pad) with a rifle that has no ammo.

The graphics are very nice for the Wii, and they certainly have a lot of potential if High Voltage plans to license it out. However, despite the nice visual effects in The Conduit, it still manages to look awful. Environments are drab, lifeless, and built without any imagination or flair whatsoever.

The design problems also extend to the layout, featuring weird or clichéd decisions (why are there explosive barrels in an airport?) and the most generic enemies I've ever seen. Everything else is indestructible, something even GoldenEye managed to get right (albeit admittedly with exploding chairs).

Programming is similarly odd, such as enemies respawning from dead-ends that I'd just cleared. Despite the titular Conduits already offering an in-game justification for infinite enemies, sometimes the developers obviously just wanted places where they'd keep magically appearing anyway, creating infinite frustration instead.


Some moments are just bafflingly unfair. I must have played that huge-marble-steps-leading-up-to-some-museum moment about twenty times, as aliens poured out of the building from four of those damned Conduits, and you have to be really close to them before you can take them out. This was only about level three and nearly stopped me from progressing any further. After discovering later that I couldn't look up and shoot the flying enemies that hovered above me, I nearly jacked it in again. The only reason I didn't was because I had a review to write.

I've just realised that I was supposed to be talking about the game's good points. Well, that's tough, because I want to talk about the story and characters now. I'll be quick: High Voltage needs to hire itself some writers. The main character is presumably a particularly boring android (otherwise he's just boring), and the plot is sheer nonsense - why exactly are human soldiers fighting alongside the aliens that want to destroy humanity?

There are plenty of glitches too. For example, on one particular raised concrete platform, aliens would clip straight through the whole thing and start attacking me from within the solid floor - and I couldn't shoot at them either. The hit detection on explosives seems massively off, too.

However, while all this seems to be heading straight for bargain bin hell and a below average score, let me assure you that despite everything, I did get some enjoyment from The Conduit. The weapons are pretty satisfying, with a diverse and fun range from Disintegrator Pistols to Freezing Guns.


The controls work fine, and combining Wii motion controls with a solid setup goes a long way. The AI isn't spectacular and the enemies are boringly designed, but they are pleasingly tough and I thoroughly enjoyed filling them all with lead/lava/liquid nitrogen/orange snot/whatever.

Then there's the multiplayer. It's fun I guess, stable, and runs very well (better than some PC shooters on the same wi-fi connection), which is high praise indeed for a Wii FPS. Unlike every other system the genre hasn't really ventured online much on Nintendo's console, so for The Conduit to do it and do it well must have taken real effort. The multiplayer actually reminded me a lot of Perfect Dark on the N64...although that might just be the drab real-world environments.

Online does suffer from only having three basic multiplayer modes; Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, and a sort of Team-based Objectives thing like a basic version of Assault from Unreal Tournament. Unfortunately I couldn't try the two Team affairs as only two people were playing in my part of the world (!)

Deathmatch had a full roster, however, and it was fun in a traditional Deathmatch kind of way. Although I don't know if there was armour or something, because I found that I died easily and others could take two grenades in the face and survive.


If you like online FPS games and you want to play one on the Wii, The Conduit is really your only option and you're lucky that it's pretty well done. If you want to play with friends though, you'll have to deal out those meddling Friend Codes that Nintendo loves so much.

The Conduit has a heck load of problems, and High Voltage clearly had a vision of a great Wii-only FPS that they were incapable of delivering. However, if you see it on sale and you simply must have a Wii FPS, you could do a lot worse than this. And I mean that seriously; it's on the Wii after all.

6.5/10

Chris Capel