GENRE
	First Person Shooter
	DEVELOPER
	High Voltage Software
	PUBLISHER
	SEGA
	NUMBER OF PLAYERS
	1
	WI-FI ENHANCED
	Yes
	DS COMPATIBLE
	No
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The development and release of The Conduit has been a fascinating story to watch. Developed at the previously unheralded offices of High Voltage Software, The Conduit went from being a project without a publisher to one of the most hyped and anticipated Wii games to date. And for good reason: the game promised to give Wii owners a first person shooter that maximized Wii’s graphical abilities, was fully customizable, offered robust online gameplay, and -- most importantly -- wasn't set during World War II. High Voltage has largely delivered on those promises, and while The Conduit is by no means the Second Coming, it is still one of the best shooters on Wii.

The game is a prototypical science fiction first person shooter, in the vein of Halo 3, Resistance: Fall of Man, or (perhaps most accurately) an updated version of the N64 Rare classic Perfect Dark. Fans of this kind of game will be pleased to know that all the favorite weapons are here: handguns, sniper rifles, machine guns, and rocket launchers, not to mention a wide assortment of weapons that have their origins in either secret government labs or alien planets. The locations, too, come in all kinds, ranging from claustrophobic underground tunnels to wide-open urban landscapes.

There are two ways to play the game: the storyline mode and the online multiplayer mode. The storyline mode is a fun, if all-too-brief, romp. The plot centers around an agent named Michael Ford who is drafted into service by a secret government organization called the Trust. What follows are nine missions that are full of plot twists and are generally entertaining, especially for conspiracy buffs. Sadly, it’s all over within about five or six hours, and the replay value is not all that high.

Most of the single-player gameplay is run-and-gun across linear levels. Players will typically receive an objective, proceed to that objective, eradicate enemies, and move on. The game does mix things up with the All Seeing Eye (ASE), a handy device that can detect invisible objects, emit a charge, hack computers, and even uncover game unlockables, among other functions. Unlike Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, though, this is a shooter, not an adventure, so expect to see a lot more gunplay than puzzling.

The other side of the game -- and its real legs -- comes in the online multiplayer mode, which offers a multitude of options for up to twelve players. Players can add friends (via exchanged friend codes), invite friends (via integrated functionality with the Wii console’s Friend List), set up private play sessions for friends only, and join friends in the room they are in. Players whose friends are online can also set up voice chat via Wii Speak. For players who don’t have friends on The Conduit, the game also offers regional and worldwide matchmaking options for playing against the general public.

Online game types come in three types: free-for-all, team reaper, and team objective. Free-for-all can be played in a standard format but also offers some unique variations, including an “ASE Football” mode that turns an ASE-toting player into everyone's target and a unique “Bounty Hunter” mode that gives each player a single enemy player to eliminate. Team reaper is essentially a team deathmatch. Team objective is a team version of capture the flag (the ASE is the flag) and can be customized with additional ways to win, such as kill count. All of the rules for any one game are decided ingeniously, if simply, by a pre-game vote among the participating players.

For the most part, the online multiplayer works well. The gameplay itself generally is smooth, with only the occasional bit of lag. Wii Speak takes some tweaking to work right -- putting the microphone at eye level of the player, turning up microphone sensitivity and turning down music volume all helps tremendously -- but works pretty well once established. The maps are well-conceived and offer a lot of variance in tactical approaches.

However, at the time of this review (shortly after the game’s release), there are still a few technical issues with the online component. The initial process of jumping into combat typically takes one to two minutes, but in some cases can take upwards of five minutes, which is unacceptably long. More troubling are the game-crashing bugs associated with online play; several members of our staff ran into a bug where they would be deposited into a map but would be stuck with a half-reticule and unable to move. The bug, in most cases, forced us to shut down the system and restart. It’s not clear what causes this, as some of our staff members encountered it and others did not. It’s also not clear whether this is something that can be resolved at the server end or not.

Our staff also made note of a few other nitpicks with the online component. There are no leaderboards or rankings, and while there are stats and achievements, it’s unclear what utility they serve other than as a small icon before and after contests. Joining friends in a public combat room can be hard because rooms are often full, in contrast to Call of Duty: World at War, where friends could venture into a public battle together.

From the very beginning, High Voltage’s two biggest promises related to innovative control and system-pushing graphics. In both of these areas the developer delivered spot-on. The controls are about as completely customizable as is humanly possible; nearly every characteristic -- from button mapping and nunchuck sensitivity to bounding box size and turn speed -- can all be altered. While the default settings are actually pretty good, the complete customization is nothing short of a Godsend. Even the HUD display of the game can be rearranged.

Visually, The Conduit is one of the few games to really give Metroid Prime 3 a run for its money. The trailers and footage shown on the internet do not do The Conduit justice -- it is just a really pretty game. The weapons are detailed, varied, and memorable, the weapon effects are visceral eye candy, and the secondary special effects -- the reflective water effects, the flashes, the blurs, the explosions -- are a real sight to behold, especially the first time they appear. This is not a game that will be confused with Killzone 2, nor is it a game really bursting with unique art style, but it is a game that clearly looks post-GameCube.

On a related note, the game sounds pretty good, too. The ambient music is pretty good and changes during the single-player campaign in response to tense situations. The voicework is done by Hollywood talent, with the most notable being Hercules himself, Kevin Sorbo, who does a nice run as the mysterious Prometheus. The sound effects are also very good, especially when it comes to alien weaponry, although the game could use a more satisfying audio response when it comes to clubbing an enemy with a melee attack.

Taken as a whole, The Conduit is a solid effort on Wii, although it is more of a jack of all trades than a master of one. Its single player storyline is solid but is not as long or deep as Metroid Prime 3. Its multiplayer mode is good but not as robust or reliable as Medal of Honor Heroes 2 or Call of Duty: World at War. What’s more, the game suffers from a couple of online technical hiccups that other Wii shooters do not have. Those liabilities notwithstanding, The Conduit is a solid shooter that offers a welcome break from the well-worn World War II trail and looks great doing it. Kudos to High Voltage Software for a good first retail effort. Hopefully this marks the start of a franchise.

8.5/10