Ever since its conception, The Conduit has quite possibly been one of the most anticipated games for the Wii since its launch. A system with motion controls clearly begs for competent first person shooters & real time strategy games but unfortunately, the Wii has little to offer in either of these categories. Its FPS limitations have been strongly emphasized by the lack of precise control that the Wii’s motion sensing technology provides. The Conduit is one of the few original FPS titles for the system but gamers’ motion gaming had been somewhat soured due to some of the attempts at strong FPS gameplay, such as the highly clunky Red Steel.
However, with the creation of the Wii MotionPlus, Nintendo’s one-to-one coverup, has been a huge advance in controls and for a while, it was reported that The Conduit would follow suit and make this peripheral compatible with their game along with the WiiSpeak…only to announce that they were not going to be using the Wii MotionPlus only a few months after their initial adoption of the product. Thus, gamers began to reawaken their fears of the title becoming just another clunky shooter on the Wii.
E3 2009 has rewon everyone’s opinion of the game, it seems, as The Conduit is currently up for Game of the Show by many well known media outlets. And though Wii MotionPlus has been ditched, the controls in the game remain flawless due to the highly detailed movement options that are available within the game. As the developers continued to inform us of their allegiance to mouse based computer FPS’s over dual analog control, they also fully reassured us that The Conduit is probably the closest console game to PC controls to date. And I’ve got to say, I’m a believer after the time I spent with the game.
As you can see in one of our many HD videos to come, the game’s controls are customized in real time. This means that the enemies can shoot you while you’re adjusting your movement so you’d better be careful to clear the area or make changes quickly. This works perfectly, however, as you almost certainly need to be in game to be able to tweak the controls exactly to your liking. As for the things you can tweak, you’ll be able to change your six different options for movement as well as the dead zone box dimensions. I was really impressed with the level of resolution for each of the different control options and I quickly got used to the controls and began owning (as can be seen in the multiplayer video we’ll have up in the future).
The multiplayer match that I was in was a classic deathmatch that had both a time limit and score limit. As it took me some time to initially get used to the game, I wasn’t as effective for my entire playtime but I still managed to get the most kills before the time expired. The map we played on seemed a little small to be honest but I remember the developer mentioning that there were larger levels that were meant more for 4 player battle than the one we were battling on.
They also mentioned (and this can also be seen when comparing videos) that there is a strict change between aesthetics and frame rate when changing from 1-player mode to multiplayer. In 1-player mode, the game was absolutely gorgeous but the framerate was 30 frames per second (which was still fine for the type of game). However, in multiplayer, the game’s graphics dulled down a bit but the frame rate was noticeably faster than that of 1-player mode (he said it ranged from 30-60). As for the guns, there was an entire slew of weapons but no “true” sniper rifle (this is compensated by the fact that there is a gun that kills enemies in one hit when it is charged).
The Conduit looks like it actually will deliver what Wii fans have waited for for the last 3 years so be sure to wait for the release in literally less than three weeks.
