Topic: PREVIEWS: The Conduit

[NWR_Neal]

High Voltage's much-hyped first person shooter will bring a science-fiction story, high quality graphics, and 16-player online multiplayer with WiiSpeak capabilities to the Wii early next year.
 http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/previewArt.cfm?artid=16928

 The Conduit, High Voltage Software's high concept science-fiction first person shooter, has had a lot of hype since its announcement in April. Still without a publisher, the game is rapidly nearing completion and with that comes concrete details.    

The game takes place in an alternate future where Washington D.C. is under attack by an alien race known as the Drudge. The player controls "Mr. Ford," a former Secret Service agent who is recruited to get to the bottom of the situation. With such characters as John Adams, the leader of a shady organization named the Trust, The Conduit is filled with twists and turns.    

Along with the story, the single player mode will also feature enemies with human-like behavior, meaning that they will use "cover and tactical thinking." To combat these enemies, players will have their pick amongst the variety of human and alien weaponry that will use the Wii Remote and Nunchuk for "unique firing modes." Players will also harness the Wii Remote to use the All Seeing Eye (ASE) to reveal hidden objects and enemies aiding in combat and puzzle-solving.    

The graphics are promised to be top-of-the-line as far as Wii is concerned with "dynamic environment mapping, interactive water with real time reflection, and four stage texture composition including gloss, diffuse, and bump mapping."    

Surprisingly, High Voltage has found a way to incorporate a 16-player online multiplayer mode. Featuring multiple gameplay options such as Deathmatch and Capture the Flag, The Conduit's multiplayer will also feature online voice chat thanks to Nintendo's latest peripheral, WiiSpeak.    

The Conduit is currently rated T for Teen and should arrive in stores in the first quarter of 2009.

[Jonnyboy117]

HVS should keep their ugly logo off the box art.  They seriously need a corporate makeover.  The website hasn't been updated in years -- there isn't a word about The Conduit on there.

[DAaaMan64]

No logo or website makeovers till they ad Split Screen to the Conduit!

[Stogi]

I'm sure they're banking on this to fund everything that might need, including webmasters for their site.

[Toruresu]

No publisher yet?

Isn't that suspicious?

[Ian Sane]

The lack of a publisher suggests two possibilities that freak me out a bit.

Either:

1. This game actually sucks.  That would be a bummer but not a huge deal.

or

2. Publishers don't think a game like this will sell on the Wii.  In other words it's too hardcore for the Wii userbase at least in the minds of publishers.  Judging by the lame third party support the Wii gets despite the Wii having the largest markershare I think it's obvious that publishers regard us Wii owners as different in someway.  This would really suck and pretty much doom the Wii to shovelware hell for good.

Why Nintendo doesn't step up I don't know.  They showed it at PAX so it doesn't seem like they have any problem with it.  Maybe NCL doesn't like it.

[Nick DiMola]

They already "have" a publisher, they just haven't announced or revealed it yet.

[ShyGuy]

The pre-alpha preview build I played did not suck. I'm actually thinking the game will be delayed by at least a few months.

[Ian Sane]

They already "have" a publisher, they just haven't announced or revealed it yet.

Well that's quite different then.  Everywhere I've looked it says they don't have one so that's what I assumed.  Hell it even says that in the preview itself.

Okay so WHY haven't they revealed it yet?  That's just weird.  A publisher isn't like some big reveal that blows fans away... unless it turned out to be Sony or Microsoft publishing a Wii game.

[Halbred]

What version we were playing at PAX blowed. Now, granted, I did not get an opportunity to actually play it firsthand, but I watched many people play it. The controls seem much jumpier than Metroid Prime 3, the graphics are...weaksauce...(in that build), the enemy models lack any texture mapping. It looked kind of like Turok 2.

Everything was brown and green.

My feeling is this: If The Conduit were on any other console (PS2 included), we would not be giving it a second look. Hopefully I'll be proven wrong, because an honest-to-goodness FPS on the Wii would kick arse.

[Ian Sane]

If The Conduit were on any other console (PS2 included), we would not be giving it a second look.

Well you could probably say the same for like 90% of the Wii library.  I mean someone on these forums once listed Nitrobike as one of their Wii purchases as if it was a perfectly acceptable game to consider purchasing.

At the same time sometimes a game wouldn't get a second look on one console but does on another due to the genre not being well represented.  Case in point Tales of Symphonia was a high profile Cube title but as a PS2 exclusive it would have been overshadowed by Square Enix's efforts.  Dead or Alive was a big steamy bowl of "who cares?" on the PS2 but then went to the Xbox and became a major franchise.

If Conduit does suck though I beg fellow NWR forumers to please not buy it.  If it gets 48% on Gamerankings it won't be because reviewers don't understand the Wii or are biased against it or whatever.  It will probably be because the game sucks and buying it will just result in more junk.  There's a real culture of mediocrity with the Wii and I get really tired of people promoting such-and-such game of questionable quality as a must-play Wii game.  I guarantee that if this game does suck there will be a sizeable amount of NWR forumers that will buy it, doublethink themselves into loving it and will praise it endlessly.

"I never trust reviews anymore.  The Conduit is the best game since Red Steel!"

[GoldenPhoenix]

Ian please shut up about your continuing insulting of people who may not like the same games you do. It is obnoxious, so please knock it off. I really doubt Conduit would get a "48%", and there are not many games people here would call must get that are in that range either. Most impressions of Conduit have been extremely positive so you are doing nothing but exaggerating and flat out lieing about people's tastes here.

[ShyGuy]

As some who saw the exact same build as Halbred and played it, I can say he is completely wrong.