When it was first announced by IGN in April 2008, High Voltage Software's The Conduit set the Internet ablaze. The Chicago-based developer, whose previous development history had been mostly made up of console ports and licensed games, had put together a game that promised to make use of the Wii Remote and Wii controls in ways that FarCry and Red Steel had failed to do. The buzz continued through this year's E3, when IGN and GameTrailers both awarded it their Best Wii Game of E3 '08 awards.
The next stop for The Conduit "hype train" was at PAX 2008, where it was playable at Nintendo's booth. The build shown off at PAX was about 80 percent done. Clearly, this wasn't going to be the final build of the game, as the graphics and textures still needed a bit more polish, but from what I saw and played, I was very impressed. I don't throw around comparisons to my favorite FPS title, Rare's Nintendo 64 classic Perfect Dark, very regularly, but this is the Wii's own Perfect Dark.
The Conduit is set in a future Washington D.C. being invaded by aliens. A shadowy organization called the Trust sends new agent Mr. Ford into the city to put an end to the alien menace and find out how the whole event started. The demo at E3 placed players in the middle of a half-destroyed city street, where they are immediately beset upon by alien troops. After a couple of quick firefights, Ford ends up going toe to toe with a giant alien monster on a bridge, then descends into the sewers where his puzzle-solving skills are put to the test.
While the game is filled with aliens to kill, there are plenty of little tweaks that add to the overall feel. Each weapon has a regular fire mode and a chargeable blast. What this charged blast does depends on the gun. For example, the alien's assault rifle will unleash a huge blast, while the deatomizer will fire two shots simultaneously. One of those shots will hit a target and the second will wrap around the target, letting you do things like shoot around corners.
The Wii Remote and nunchuk are used well, with the Wii Remote being used by default to fire the weapon and do melee attacks. The nunchuk, on the other hand, is used to toss grenades at the place the reticule is pointing. Pointing it higher in the air allows you to throw the grenade further in an arc. The face buttons and directional pad handle actions like switching weapons, crouching and jumping, while the nunchuk's control stick moves Ford around. High Voltage said that while this was the default set-up, players would be able to further adjust and refine the controls in the final version of the game.
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