Thoughts on The Conduit

I've been really enjoying it to be quite honest. At first I was pretty apprehensive that the people behind so many bad licensed games
(Lego Racers anyone?) were doing a shooter. But these were also the folks who made the really fun Hunter games.
So I followed all of the news on it up until launch, and was intrigued.

Now that I've played it, here are some of my thoughts. I don't know if I'd call it a review, as I'm probably not good enough at critiquing to really use the word.
But, here are some musings anyway.

Like a lot of people, I really was taken back by what HVS was able to pull off with the Wii hardware. There are a lot of special effects in the game
that previously have only been seen in games running on id, epic, and crytek engines. Engines many have said would either not run, or run so poorly that they
wouldn't be worth attempting on the Wii.
Now, I'm no programmer, so I couldn't tell you HOW HVS did this, but they did. Some of it may be software emulation, instead of the actual Ati chipset in the Wii,
But it's very impressive nevertheless. HDR, Bloom effects, reflections on surfaces. It's very well done.

But how about the game? For anyone who hasn't tried it yet, The controls in The Conduit really are worth the hype. They feel spot on. When I was playing through it
I didn't have any moments where I thought I was hampered by either unresponsive, or too responsive input. HVS also made this the most customizable controller configuration
of any game I've ever played that wasn't on a personal computer. You can change EVERYTHING.
When you're playing the game, you will stumble upon hand grenades. You throw these (Unless you change it to a button) with the left nunchuck underhand or overhand.
As if you are actually throwing something. It again, feels natural, and responds pretty accurately to your movement.
With the wiimote, stabbing it forward lets you pistol whip. Admittedly sometimes it gets iffy here because you get attacked from all sides, so you won't connect as often, as you'd like.
But it really doesn't get in the way.

The main game is a story based campaign. I'll try not to give any spoilers, but if you don't want this part ruined skip ahead a few paragraphs I suppose.
The story is actually pretty good. I didn't care for part of the ending, because it seemed like a cop out, but I digress. It's sort of [i]National Treasure[/i] meets [i]X-Files[/i] meets [i]24[/i]. In it you play this guy named Mr. Ford who stops this assassination attempt on the President. Upon doing this, you wake up in a D.C. Subway where you are greeted by this guy Mr. Adams. Adams, (as you fight through the Subway) tells you about these alien invaders, and says that some Terrorist named Prometheus (Played by Kevin "Hercules" Sorbo)
is the mastermind behind their invasion. He tells you that Prometheus is responsible for this mysterious disease called "The Bug" (Yeah I know, "How original"), and that the aliens are also turning Humans against their superior leaders. As you track down the bad guy, you also learn about [i]The Trust[/i]. It's a freemasonic secret shadow Government that Adams works for.
Apparently, it's been around since the creation of The United States, and has had it's hand in everything. But Adams maintains he's doing for the good of the nation, by sending you after Prometheus. At some point you'll also get this object called the All Seeing Eye. It's this ball that uses the Pyramid eye on our Dollar, as a kind of blacklight.
It becomes essential throughout the game because it finds a lot of hidden clues, hidden puzzles that open all sorts of Nicolas Cagey closets full of alien ammo, and hidden items.
In any event, shortly after you find this thing, Adams turns on you, he leaves you at the blown up Lincoln Memorial fighting hundreds of aliens. As you play through the rest of the game, you learn about a vast conspiracy to hand control of the Country to an insectoid alien race known as the Drudge. Prometheus was actually trying to stop it, so the Trust frames him.
Oh but that's not the whole thing, because when you meet him in the last stage you get to find out that he is an alien. Not only is he an alien, he's a Drudge! Not only is he a Drudge, Adams, and the Trust are taking his DNA, and using it to make Mutant insectoid monsters to help them take over the world!

 
So after you finally find out about this, Prometheus makes you kill him so that Adams can't keep playing God. Upon trying to escape however, Adams has done the typical action movie bad guy thing, and left you in a base, about to explode with no way out. That's when you'll hear a voice. It's Kevin Sorbo again! Yes, apparently his character transferred his insect soul into the All Seeing Eye. He helps you re open a Conduit to get out of the base. Upon doing so the credits roll, and at the end of the credits you get to hear Adams talking with the Drudge about how he's going to make up for his failures.

Overall not a bad storyarc for a game. the cop out ending is a little disappointing. But good.

As for the gameplay it's your typical shooter. If I had to compare it to another FPS I guess I would have to say Half-Life. Both games are story based, and pretty linear. The Conduit though is a bit more run, and gun. There is a lot less puzzle solving going on, and it doesn't have the Action/Puzzle/Action/Boss routine of Half-Life.
The level design is a bit of that mixed with Gauntlet. How could one mix GAUNTLET into HALF-LIFE? By making The Conduits the story refers to (Little teleporters) into enemy spawns like certain items did in Gauntlet. They were creative enough with the idea, although admittedly it does get to be a little over used at times. Which is why I actually like the length of the single player campaign. A lot of reviewers didn't think the Single player game was long enough, but honestly with the Conduit spawn mechanic it's just about right.
The levels themselves are comparable to Half-Life or Call Of Duty 1 in complexity. There are certain parts closed off so you have to go where the designers want you to.
Which I suppose is fine, but some people who like open world titles will feel it's a bit over done. I thought everything fit nicely enough. It's 9 stages of going through our Nations' Capitol, fighting enemies, and finding hidden areas, and items along the way. HVS also did a lot of nice touches. As you go through the war torn D.C. you find abandoned radios you can listen to, or in blown out stores, and homes sometimes a TV with a telecast. These moments advance the story without pausing the action. Again, I was reminded of Half-Life 2. Not a bad game to crib from if you're going to crib from something. Some of the levels are actually really inventive despite the linearity. For instance, in one stage you go through an off level apartment building. Floors become walls, the Camera works accordingly. Another level has you going through The Pentagon. It really fits the mood of the game, and the story that goes along with it is interesting enough to keep you playing enough to see the end. Another point that stuck out to me, was that they took a page from tactical shooters like Rainbow Six, and made it where you can only hold two guns at a time. While that might not seem to fit in a game like this, it really does, and keeps the game challenging.
Speaking of challenging, the game goes from fairly challenging to BRUTAL in the last two stages. Even on the easy setting.

But the best part of the game is the online multiplayer. Here you have the typical DM, and TDM stuff, but the levels, and the pacing of the game are amazing.
My personal favorite level is The Pentagon stage. Here you can walk through a block of skyscrapers. Each with several floors blowing the crap out of each other.
The MP seems to take inspiration from Perfect Dark, with the pace of Half-Life 2 DM. There's a lot of interesting weapons to use, there's a Goldeneye styled radar.
The game also has a ranking system, and even uses the Wii speak microphone if you have one. So that means you can do voice chat similar to PC, and 360 shooters.
They also let you send friend requests by Wii System number so that you can avoid typing in friend codes. Another big win

The game isn't perfect of course, and it's not the most original title I've played. But it is an awful lot of fun, and it has very solid play control. HVS really outdid themselves, and it'll be interesting to see where they go from here.