When the Conduit was first revealed for the Wii, it didn’t even have a publisher, but managed to get a lot of attention, enough to get a publisher, finish and ship the game. And while the end product wasn’t all that revolutionary — the game suffered from lots of smaller issues — it still sold somewhat well, just around a million copies on the Wii, making it one of the few successful third party shooters on the console.
The sequel, aptly named Conduit 2, plays like many other Wii first person shooters. They really don’t have much in common with shooters on Xbox 360 and PS3, as the pace is significantly slower as you have to aim with the Wiimote. If you’re familiar with that, Conduit 2 won’t be hard to jump into. But even if this is your fist Wii FPS game, it doesn’t take long to learn the basics of the controls. The game starts where Conduit 1 left off, where you play as Michael Ford, who must stop the villain, John Adams (don’t ask us how they came up with these names), from getting hold of some powerful alien technology. There are no major plot twists, no reveals or reversals in this story — it’s as simple and straightforward as it can be. To the point of being boring and predictable.
And while most levels and missions are linear and alike throughout the game, the controls and gameplay is solid. You can tightly customize the Wiimote controls and sensitivity to perfectly suit you, which is a big plus in a game that relies on motion controls. But besides that, there isn’t anything innovating in the game that we didn’t see in the Conduit 1 or other Wii FPS shooters. There were a lot of opportunities to try something new here, but the gameplay in Conduit 2 simply feels like by-the-books remake of the old one.
Visually, Conduit 2 looks great easily one on of the best looking games on the Wii. Not only does it render worlds in beautiful fashion, it excels at showing all the different world on Conduit 2, from jungles, to open sea battles, to tight, interior locations. However, it’s still a Wii game, and even the best visuals on the Wii are ages behind the Xbox 360 and PS3. There are also a few hiccups and framerate issues that tend to kick in when there’s too much action on the screen.
There’s also multiplayer in Conduit 2, and while it’s fun, it doesn’t offer much in terms of longevity compared to other shooters. The split-screen mode is a welcomed addition, since many Wii owners have multiple Wiimotes and nun-chuck controllers. Overall, Conduit 2 follows in the footsteps of the previous game. But a bit too much.
The Good:
Decent gameplay
Great visuals
Good variety in levels
The Bad:
Short single player campaign
Boring story and characters
Uninspiring mission design
Framerate issues
Overall score: 5/10
With just over a day away from E3, Sega has finally revealed their entire lineup of games for showcase this year. Included in the lineup is The Conduit, one of the first titles to utilize Wii Speak, a microphone accessory. The list of games is quite diverse, with an FPS, RPG, and sports titles all in the same lot: