The Conduit is a game that we have heard much about without the ability to ever play extensively. High Voltage Software, the developers of the title, showed the game on a random station in Nintendo's booth, and although its debut was low-key, the game seemed to be getting attention: the line to play was longer than almost any other title from Nintendo.
"You want to know about the publisher, don't you?" Rob Nicholls, the game's designer, asked when he saw my media badge. He had effectively read my mind and answered in turn. "We're not ready to officially announce anything, but things are in the works. Look for the word in the coming month."
Nicholls also hinted at a rough development timeline for the title, as well. "We've got about six months to go for tightening the title," said Nicholls, pointing out the release window of Q1 2009 in the press materials. "We're going to ship with a full single player campaign and both offline and online multiplayer. We're also working with Nintendo now on getting LAN play working [via system link]."
The Conduit is already easily the best looking Wii game, at least from a technical level. It's hard to ignore the stellar particle effects, real-time lighting, fluid animation, fast-paced action, and screen-filling boss. While some of the texture work is relatively low resolution, and the environments themselves were in need of more post-process lighting effects, the game could easily be confused with an Xbox 360 title. But the real question is, how does it play?
The Conduit exhibits many lessons learned from past Wii first-person shooter titles. The game gathers what companies like Retro Studios, Ubisoft, and EA have learned with regard to bounding boxes and IR aiming on the console, and offers the most competent FPS control on the platform yet. This is spearheaded by an unbelievably vast amount of customization options. Players can jump into the menu and then adjust a ton of sliders and settings to refine the control for themselves. This is all done within the actual game engine while playing, as opposed to static menus, so you can get a feel for the changes you make instantly.
"The Wii was made for first-person shooters," said Nicholls. "Some studios have had success with the formula, and High Voltage Software is taking it to the next level." It was hard not to agree with him as he showed off some of the more creative elements of the gun play, including some sweet weaponry. One weapon, called the De-Atomizer, shoots a two-plasma-ball sling. You tilt the remote to add spin before shooting, and the first ball attaches to the enemy while the second one wraps around it and explodes on contact with the first.
The Conduit pushes the technical boundaries of the Wii
Sadly, as tight and highly customizable as the aim control is, other uses of motion control doesn't fare quite as well. The floor demo didn't use very much motion control at all, and what few motions there were also had corresponding buttons for those not interested in waggling the controller. The melee attack required a forward-thrusting motion, for example, but it proved to be less than reliable while disrupting your aim. The ability to just press up on the d-pad to perform the same motion was welcome, but better motion control would go a long way towards making The Conduit a more complete, Wii-pushing package.
Nicholls admitted that there was much tweaking to be done. "We've been drilling normal [non-media] gamers to get a feel for what works and what doesn't," he said. "We're looking to make the controls not just functional but fun, too." And drill he did. I listened intently as he polled the gaming public about their experience with the game and listened carefully to the feedback, especially the negatives. Without dismissing a single criticism, Nicholls made note of the problems and rewarded gamers' honesty with buttons and shirts.
The Conduit is an exciting game, as it shows that there is so much untapped potential in the Wii. It's a little disappointing to see that the technical innovation with the title wasn't matched with control innovation, but it's clear that the team is now focusing on tightening up the final product before its release—which, judging by Nicholls' comments, could be sooner than we thought.
"You want to know about the publisher, don't you?" Rob Nicholls, the game's designer, asked when he saw my media badge. He had effectively read my mind and answered in turn. "We're not ready to officially announce anything, but things are in the works. Look for the word in the coming month."
Nicholls also hinted at a rough development timeline for the title, as well. "We've got about six months to go for tightening the title," said Nicholls, pointing out the release window of Q1 2009 in the press materials. "We're going to ship with a full single player campaign and both offline and online multiplayer. We're also working with Nintendo now on getting LAN play working [via system link]."
The Conduit is already easily the best looking Wii game, at least from a technical level. It's hard to ignore the stellar particle effects, real-time lighting, fluid animation, fast-paced action, and screen-filling boss. While some of the texture work is relatively low resolution, and the environments themselves were in need of more post-process lighting effects, the game could easily be confused with an Xbox 360 title. But the real question is, how does it play?
The Conduit exhibits many lessons learned from past Wii first-person shooter titles. The game gathers what companies like Retro Studios, Ubisoft, and EA have learned with regard to bounding boxes and IR aiming on the console, and offers the most competent FPS control on the platform yet. This is spearheaded by an unbelievably vast amount of customization options. Players can jump into the menu and then adjust a ton of sliders and settings to refine the control for themselves. This is all done within the actual game engine while playing, as opposed to static menus, so you can get a feel for the changes you make instantly.
"The Wii was made for first-person shooters," said Nicholls. "Some studios have had success with the formula, and High Voltage Software is taking it to the next level." It was hard not to agree with him as he showed off some of the more creative elements of the gun play, including some sweet weaponry. One weapon, called the De-Atomizer, shoots a two-plasma-ball sling. You tilt the remote to add spin before shooting, and the first ball attaches to the enemy while the second one wraps around it and explodes on contact with the first.
The Conduit pushes the technical boundaries of the Wii
Sadly, as tight and highly customizable as the aim control is, other uses of motion control doesn't fare quite as well. The floor demo didn't use very much motion control at all, and what few motions there were also had corresponding buttons for those not interested in waggling the controller. The melee attack required a forward-thrusting motion, for example, but it proved to be less than reliable while disrupting your aim. The ability to just press up on the d-pad to perform the same motion was welcome, but better motion control would go a long way towards making The Conduit a more complete, Wii-pushing package.
Nicholls admitted that there was much tweaking to be done. "We've been drilling normal [non-media] gamers to get a feel for what works and what doesn't," he said. "We're looking to make the controls not just functional but fun, too." And drill he did. I listened intently as he polled the gaming public about their experience with the game and listened carefully to the feedback, especially the negatives. Without dismissing a single criticism, Nicholls made note of the problems and rewarded gamers' honesty with buttons and shirts.
The Conduit is an exciting game, as it shows that there is so much untapped potential in the Wii. It's a little disappointing to see that the technical innovation with the title wasn't matched with control innovation, but it's clear that the team is now focusing on tightening up the final product before its release—which, judging by Nicholls' comments, could be sooner than we thought.