Review: The Conduit [Wii]
josh, 29-Aug-09 » The Conduit review, by Josh
The Conduit, developed by High Voltage Software and produced by SEGA, is the most recent in a line of mature games produced by SEGA for the predominantly casual Nintendo Wii. Whilst I can’t fault them for wanting to bring the casual console a taste of the hardcore gaming genre, it’s fairly obvious that these games haven’t gone over as well as SEGA would have hoped. The Conduit is actually a good game, but it is let down by the very hardware it has been written to run on, it should be more of an interactive experience but this is not what I encountered.
The story of The Conduit is all mystery and cover ups by the Government of alien invasions. You take the role of Agent Michael Ford of the Secret Service, professional badass and one man demonlition squad (how else would you make it through the game?). You’re given an order by the boss of a secret governmental organization known only as “The Trust” to stop a terrorist, known as Prometheus, from escaping with a special object called the "All Seeing Eye". Then... DRAMATIC TWIST... the government screws you over! I know... highly dramatic and something that would never happen... right? Well anyway, the government has allied itself with an alien race known as the Drudge, and effectively you go on a mission to not only defeat the Drudge, but also to kill the mysterious boss of the Trust, John Adams.
Enemies and Weapons are well detailed and interesting to look at as you unload clip upon clip into the larger enemies.
Gameplay has you going through wave after wave of Drudge attacking force till you can eventually work your way to their spawn points, known in the game as Conduits (hence the title). Wash, rinse, repeat. No honestly... it doesn’t get much more involved than that. It’s difficult to aim long distance, but with most weapons having a scope, you can typically take out one or more enemies from a distance before they even spot you. If enemies get up close and personal, you can jab using the Wiimote causing your character to perform a melee attack, but you'll end up screwing up your aim so bad if you do that I actually only ever ended up backing up and shooting them to avoid the hassle. Grenade throws are achieved by making a throwing motion with the nunchuk, with a noticeable range change depending on how hard you make the motion.
Most energy weapons can be charged up for extra devastation.
Despite what seems like an endless stream of enemies coming through the conduits, the Drudge footsoldiers that you’ll be plowing through are not that difficult to defeat (at least on default difficulty) and the only time when you’ll feel really frustrated and in danger of death is when you are put into a large open area with lots of enemies, which unfortunately the game (as if to spice things up) does quite often. Putting one man up against about 10 enemies will not result in anything good, but the developers have given you a bit of respite and allowed regenerating health, so you just have to run away like a little girl anytime the bad aliens shoot you too much. The enemy types you’ll run into range from little mites (some scratch you, some attack, and others have not only guns but can heal the wounded Drudge) all the way up to the massive and invisible-to-the-normal-eye Drudge Scarabs.
At the end of the Drudge bloodbaths there is typically some sort of puzzle for you to solve, more often than not some form of organic lock. Here is where the All Seeing Eye, or ASE, comes into play. The ASE is apparently some sort of "super advanced code breaker" that not only can hack computers, but can reveal hidden Drudge objects and possible make tea or coffee (although we never saw it do this). The Wiimote makes a loud beeping noise anytime that you can use the ASE, and yes this can get very annoying if you happen to have anything left to kill when this occurs. The ASE can also detonate “Spirit Mines”, invisible bombs that are (for reasons unknown to you) suspended in midair and are clearly there to just annoy the hell out of you. As if that wasn't enough the ASE’s final "power" is the ability to reveal the large invisible Drudge units called Scarabs. If the Wiimote goes crazy in the middle of a fight, you better pull it out and find out where it is, otherwise you’ll be finished off quickly by the powerful melee attacks that the Scarabs use.
The Conduits (that glowing orange thing on the right) are the enemy spawn points and should be taken out as quickly as possible, otherwise you'll just suffer wave after wave of aliens that come through looking for your head.
Visually the game is alright. A lot has been made of some special software that makes it look as good as any typical xbox360 or PS3 game, however it’s an FPS, so none of that really matters. It won’t win any awards for aesthetics, but at the same time it definitely isn’t ugly. I know that’s not terribly clear, but most of the time you’ll just be focusing on clearing rooms of enemies, and not taking in the scenery, so it can be generic office building because you’re ultimately not going to be paying it much attention. Generic offices, corridors, sewers, and streetscapes abound in the game, but for such an action oriented game that really didn’t bother me. The guns and characters are all well designed, and getting up close and personal with a Drudge will give you a chance to check out the details while you swing the Wiimote wildly to do a melee attack.
The ASE allows you to unlock computers, disengage bio-locks and find secret rooms such as here. A type of combination lock is shown here and when unlocked typically reveals a superpowered weapon of some sort.
As I said earlier, the game suffers because of the console that gives it most of its unique quality. The way in which you turn is by pointing the wiimote at the edge of the screen, which is fine, but it does mean that if you have enemies behind you, you can count on a few potshots right into your head before you can return fire with your weapon of choice. The game allows you to adjust the bounding box of the Wiimote to allow you to turn when offscreen, however this doesn't resolve the issue. Aiming with the Wiimote is obviously very intuitive basically just point and shoot, but if you’re like me, you’ll find that you end up shooting to either side of the enemy, with about a quarter of your ammo being used on the wall behind the enemy rather than in their squishy bodies. This is acceptable in areas which feature ammo restockers, but when you are running out of ammo each shot has to count.
I was stuck in a situation near the end of the game where I had run out of ammo for my first weapon and was almost out for my second weapon. Locked in a room with mites and a couple of Scarabs. I had to use the ASE on a panel in the middle of the room and then just run for the door that opened as a result. I ended up escaping that, but right at the very point I entered the next room, a checkpoint, beyond which I knew there had to be a particularly nasty set of guards. I ended up chucking a few grenades in before entering, then running in to pick up the dropped weapon. It all worked out, but I was playing on default difficulty, you shouldn’t run out of ammo on default difficulty or if you do the game should give you some extra ammo just when you're gonna need it.
The Drudge have no issues taking over buildings, including the White House. The game takes place in Washington DC, so expect to visit many other well known tourist attractions in your adventure.
Final Thoughts: The Conduit was a good game, the plot was easy enough to understand through the semi-cutscenes between missions but was ultimately very predictable. Gameplay was fun and kept me playing, despite being frustrated with the movement and restricted field of view that the Wii provided (having enemies that can fly and putting things on the ceiling is very annoying if you don’t give your players the ability to look up). I would definitely recommend this game if you want a more mature game for your Wii, it is different from the usual Wii games, The Conduit tries to utilize the point and shoot nature of the console but if that doesn’t interest you or if you aren’t into FPS games then I would give this one a miss.
Final Score: 3/5 – Good fun game that is aided and yet harmed by its chosen console of the Wii.
The Conduit is rated M for mature and is now available in stores for $79.95.
We reviewed the Single Player campaign, but the game also includes a multiplayer online component.
The Conduit, developed by High Voltage Software and produced by SEGA, is the most recent in a line of mature games produced by SEGA for the predominantly casual Nintendo Wii. Whilst I can’t fault them for wanting to bring the casual console a taste of the hardcore gaming genre, it’s fairly obvious that these games haven’t gone over as well as SEGA would have hoped. The Conduit is actually a good game, but it is let down by the very hardware it has been written to run on, it should be more of an interactive experience but this is not what I encountered.
The story of The Conduit is all mystery and cover ups by the Government of alien invasions. You take the role of Agent Michael Ford of the Secret Service, professional badass and one man demonlition squad (how else would you make it through the game?). You’re given an order by the boss of a secret governmental organization known only as “The Trust” to stop a terrorist, known as Prometheus, from escaping with a special object called the "All Seeing Eye". Then... DRAMATIC TWIST... the government screws you over! I know... highly dramatic and something that would never happen... right? Well anyway, the government has allied itself with an alien race known as the Drudge, and effectively you go on a mission to not only defeat the Drudge, but also to kill the mysterious boss of the Trust, John Adams.
Enemies and Weapons are well detailed and interesting to look at as you unload clip upon clip into the larger enemies.
Gameplay has you going through wave after wave of Drudge attacking force till you can eventually work your way to their spawn points, known in the game as Conduits (hence the title). Wash, rinse, repeat. No honestly... it doesn’t get much more involved than that. It’s difficult to aim long distance, but with most weapons having a scope, you can typically take out one or more enemies from a distance before they even spot you. If enemies get up close and personal, you can jab using the Wiimote causing your character to perform a melee attack, but you'll end up screwing up your aim so bad if you do that I actually only ever ended up backing up and shooting them to avoid the hassle. Grenade throws are achieved by making a throwing motion with the nunchuk, with a noticeable range change depending on how hard you make the motion.
Most energy weapons can be charged up for extra devastation.
Despite what seems like an endless stream of enemies coming through the conduits, the Drudge footsoldiers that you’ll be plowing through are not that difficult to defeat (at least on default difficulty) and the only time when you’ll feel really frustrated and in danger of death is when you are put into a large open area with lots of enemies, which unfortunately the game (as if to spice things up) does quite often. Putting one man up against about 10 enemies will not result in anything good, but the developers have given you a bit of respite and allowed regenerating health, so you just have to run away like a little girl anytime the bad aliens shoot you too much. The enemy types you’ll run into range from little mites (some scratch you, some attack, and others have not only guns but can heal the wounded Drudge) all the way up to the massive and invisible-to-the-normal-eye Drudge Scarabs.
At the end of the Drudge bloodbaths there is typically some sort of puzzle for you to solve, more often than not some form of organic lock. Here is where the All Seeing Eye, or ASE, comes into play. The ASE is apparently some sort of "super advanced code breaker" that not only can hack computers, but can reveal hidden Drudge objects and possible make tea or coffee (although we never saw it do this). The Wiimote makes a loud beeping noise anytime that you can use the ASE, and yes this can get very annoying if you happen to have anything left to kill when this occurs. The ASE can also detonate “Spirit Mines”, invisible bombs that are (for reasons unknown to you) suspended in midair and are clearly there to just annoy the hell out of you. As if that wasn't enough the ASE’s final "power" is the ability to reveal the large invisible Drudge units called Scarabs. If the Wiimote goes crazy in the middle of a fight, you better pull it out and find out where it is, otherwise you’ll be finished off quickly by the powerful melee attacks that the Scarabs use.
The Conduits (that glowing orange thing on the right) are the enemy spawn points and should be taken out as quickly as possible, otherwise you'll just suffer wave after wave of aliens that come through looking for your head.
Visually the game is alright. A lot has been made of some special software that makes it look as good as any typical xbox360 or PS3 game, however it’s an FPS, so none of that really matters. It won’t win any awards for aesthetics, but at the same time it definitely isn’t ugly. I know that’s not terribly clear, but most of the time you’ll just be focusing on clearing rooms of enemies, and not taking in the scenery, so it can be generic office building because you’re ultimately not going to be paying it much attention. Generic offices, corridors, sewers, and streetscapes abound in the game, but for such an action oriented game that really didn’t bother me. The guns and characters are all well designed, and getting up close and personal with a Drudge will give you a chance to check out the details while you swing the Wiimote wildly to do a melee attack.
The ASE allows you to unlock computers, disengage bio-locks and find secret rooms such as here. A type of combination lock is shown here and when unlocked typically reveals a superpowered weapon of some sort.
As I said earlier, the game suffers because of the console that gives it most of its unique quality. The way in which you turn is by pointing the wiimote at the edge of the screen, which is fine, but it does mean that if you have enemies behind you, you can count on a few potshots right into your head before you can return fire with your weapon of choice. The game allows you to adjust the bounding box of the Wiimote to allow you to turn when offscreen, however this doesn't resolve the issue. Aiming with the Wiimote is obviously very intuitive basically just point and shoot, but if you’re like me, you’ll find that you end up shooting to either side of the enemy, with about a quarter of your ammo being used on the wall behind the enemy rather than in their squishy bodies. This is acceptable in areas which feature ammo restockers, but when you are running out of ammo each shot has to count.
I was stuck in a situation near the end of the game where I had run out of ammo for my first weapon and was almost out for my second weapon. Locked in a room with mites and a couple of Scarabs. I had to use the ASE on a panel in the middle of the room and then just run for the door that opened as a result. I ended up escaping that, but right at the very point I entered the next room, a checkpoint, beyond which I knew there had to be a particularly nasty set of guards. I ended up chucking a few grenades in before entering, then running in to pick up the dropped weapon. It all worked out, but I was playing on default difficulty, you shouldn’t run out of ammo on default difficulty or if you do the game should give you some extra ammo just when you're gonna need it.
The Drudge have no issues taking over buildings, including the White House. The game takes place in Washington DC, so expect to visit many other well known tourist attractions in your adventure.
Final Thoughts: The Conduit was a good game, the plot was easy enough to understand through the semi-cutscenes between missions but was ultimately very predictable. Gameplay was fun and kept me playing, despite being frustrated with the movement and restricted field of view that the Wii provided (having enemies that can fly and putting things on the ceiling is very annoying if you don’t give your players the ability to look up). I would definitely recommend this game if you want a more mature game for your Wii, it is different from the usual Wii games, The Conduit tries to utilize the point and shoot nature of the console but if that doesn’t interest you or if you aren’t into FPS games then I would give this one a miss.
Final Score: 3/5 – Good fun game that is aided and yet harmed by its chosen console of the Wii.
The Conduit is rated M for mature and is now available in stores for $79.95.
We reviewed the Single Player campaign, but the game also includes a multiplayer online component.
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| Category: | Game Reviews |
| Posted: | 29-Aug-09 6:32:15 pm |
| Author: | josh |