That’s why we have Conduit 2. From what I can tell, it fixes nearly every critical flaw with the original—at least, so far from what I’ve seen. While multiplayer was available on the show floor (I’ll be writing about it in a bit), we also received a behind-closed-doors demo of the first level (and a bit more) of the single-player campaign.
The first thing you will notice from the start is the beauty of the graphical presentation. Everything’s much more streamlined and the complexity of the environments is sometimes stunning. You’ll find detectable upgrades in terms of the textures, geometry, and shaders.
Following the events of the first game, Mr. Ford (our protagonist) awakens confused and disoriented on an oil derrick in the middle of the ocean, surrounded by the Trust. Here, he must battle his way through the usual waves of die-hard henchmen—though at least he’ll have a few new tools at his disposal this time.
Apart from the typical hyper-customizable controls, Mr. Ford can now sprint by holding down the C button. You’ll also find a toggle duck feature and more emphasis on environmental cover elements; for instance, you can flip tables over in front of you, sending papers flying to and fro, and duck behind them. On a related note, many items in the environments are also now destructible: boxes can be knocked over in front of enemies, and even partially-bulletproof glass can be broken (as was demonstrated in one portion of the first level) after enough rounds are pumped into it.
This is all amidst a beautiful downpour of rain and wind, complete with stormy rolling waves in the ocean. Head shots provoke flying helmets, and the character models are considerably improved as well. All of this will be running at 30+ fps when all’s said and done, at least, according to the devs. Coupled with the notably improved dynamic music, it’s honestly just amazingly beautiful, and once again another demonstration of the Wii’s power stretched to its farthest limits.
Of course, there are other improvements as well. For starters, Wii MotionPlus is now used to bring more consistency to the pointer controls; you can now leave the screen and return to it more fluidly without a constant IR search. Elsewhere, using the ASE is now much less of a chore. Rather than the previous trend of incessant beeping and constant searching for targets on the walls, you’re now treated to a much more sensible colored overlay which highlights those items around you that might be of interest (“Hackable Object”, it visually tells the developer running the demo). Oh, and there’s a lot less of the beeping.
New missions (objectives, in other words) are gradually introduced as you progress through the levels, and there are optional side missions as well. Other extra goodies include blueprints, which you can collect to improve your weapons in new (as yet unspecified) ways.
So after winding through the interior of the oil derrick (which, by the way, isn’t at all bland and repetitive if you’re concerned, but instead artistic and well-varied), you finally find yourself on a platform with a giant sea beast, Leviathan. This is the first boss battle in the game, and it’s a pretty cinematic experience. At first, you’ve got to blast at his raised fins on his backside via stationary turrets. Leviathan gradually breaks apart the structural integrity of the oil derrick platform where the battle takes place, so you must defeat him quickly enough (essentially it’s a timed boss battle).
Meanwhile, notches on the boss energy meter indicate different “stages” of the battle. In stage two of the battle, Leviathan rips the crane out of the center of the platform and breaks apart the floor; you must blast him in his mouth this time. Finally, in the last stage of the boss battle, you have to fire multiple harpoons at him, again fired from the aforementioned turrets.
And by the way, clearly, a third faction (and perhaps more) are involved this time, as Leviathan is not only working on killing you, but he’s also ripping apart the oil derrick that the Trust are operating.
But back to the numbers… there are now 21 weapons total (including seven new ones, such as the Shield Gun, which can catch enemy gunfire, suspend it in place, and fire it back at the initiator). The team is aiming for eight to ten hours of single-player gameplay, and a much greater variety in terms of the environments, featuring areas such as Siberia, South America, and even Atlantis. There are 15 levels in multiplayer (again, including seven new ones). The older returning levels have been remastered as well for good measure.
Multiplayer has seen a makeover in other areas, too. You’ll find a new Team Invasion mode, which sends swarms of enemies against players working co-op. In online play, a newly-revamped voting system offsets some of the issues with the repetitive selections (“Streets + Explosives”, anyone?), though you can now also play two- and four-player split-screen as well (though not online due to bandwidth restrictions). Weapon sets have been removed entirely to encourage more experimentation with the options. Yet again, online supports up to eight players.
Much more Conduit 2 to come very soon. In the meantime, watch for some footage if we can get it sliced up enough to make it work in spite of some camera-moving antics by nearby passersby (no kidding).
