The conundrum posed by The Conduit
It’s a little disarming to see a videogame that gets so much hype – not from the marketing department, but from the actual gaming press – result in a product anything less than stellar. Now that The Conduit is out, the reviews are coming in, and the game looks, well, average – not stellar.
A game that’s like Halo
The Conduit is a Wii-exclusive first-person shooter developed by a small midwestern studio that decided it was sick and tired of the fact no one makes the kinds of games they like to play on Nintendo’s little white box. The goal was to simply make a game that’s like other games they enjoy – and also to at least try pushing the Wii’s graphics hardware.
I believe they succeeded at that goal. The truth is, The Conduit is like Halo – as much as any other disingenuous imitation of one of the most popular first-person shooters of all time. However, I don’t think that’s a harsh criticism, and I’ll explain why later.
A mixed bag of success and failure
While the graphics shine in some places, they are also hindered in others. Character and weapon models are shiny and polished, plasma effects look just as they would on a PS3 or Xbox 360, and the depth of field blur when you zoom in on the action is a great way to make even the weak level design please the eye. I also admit I am that nerd who thinks it’s cool they show the character stylishly load his weapon at the beginning of each level.
However, to say the game has pedestrian level design is putting it lightly. Too many firefights take place in corridors and stairwells, and not enough of them happen in wider, open spaces. The visual effects that grace the character and weapon models are frequently absent from the environment. And what is up with the cars in this game? The texture work is atrocious!
Add horrendous voice acting, cut scenes that can’t be skipped until they’re almost over, and writing that should have been edited down to half its length, and you’ve got a recipe for bad reviews.
It’s more about the Wii than The Conduit
On any other console, The Conduit really would be a disingenuous imitation of Halo. On the Wii, however, with such a sparse selection of first-person shooters, the game becomes a labor of love – a rally cry for Wii owners who’ve been sorely neglected by an entire industry.
I believe The Conduit is the best first-person shooter on the Wii. As much as it has its faults, the rest of the entire industry is at fault for not even trying. As a consumer, I feel each bad review of The Conduit is, in fact, an indictment of how the game industry has handled the Wii.
Please buy this game
If you really like the Wii, and you really like first-person shooters, you really should buy The Conduit. Money talks. If this game succeeds, High Voltage Software will have a chance to learn from this game’s shortcomings and produce more games on their great engine, and maybe other companies will re-consider first-person shooters on the Wii as well.