The Conduit is one of those games that some people are going to love while others point and laugh at them. It is distinctly old school feeling... meaning that it feels like it could have been one of the best shooters to come out 10 years ago. For me, a rabid fan of the Nintendo 64 masterpiece Goldeneye, The Conduit feels like a return to the classic 'corridor crawl' type shooters of yore... and I love it!
Have we moved forward from this type of shooter? For sure. Does this mean that there is no fun to be had from this time of game simply because it is very linear? Heck no!
The Conduit is one of those games that would never hold up when you try to compare it to its modern day competition, but what is does offer makes it the best FPS on the Wii next to Metroid Prime 3.
The set-up for the game is one of those generic 'government conspiracy mixes with an alien plan to take over the world' that has fueled more than a fair share of FPS games. Area 51- I am looking right at you. The enemy design is also completely ripped out of Metroid, Call of Duty and Halo. The voice acting is bad, and 100% driven by overacting.
One other weak point in the game is the ASE- the All Seeing Eye. In the end it is just a flashlight that can show you invisible things and lets you activate 'keys' rather than having to walk around and collect them like you did in old-school FPSs.
I know, I know- At this point you are asking why I seem to be bashing a game that I claim to love. Well, that is because despite the fact that this game is a generic corridor crawl, it also manages to be a complete blast to play.
The weapons in the game all look great and are fun to shoot and highly varied . Aiming and the standard HUD set-up work very well, and in the off chance that you do not feel like it is right after a few minutes developer High Voltage Software has included one of the most customizable interfaces next to World of Warcraft.
While many reviews tend to downplay the importance of location in The Conduit, I thought that the setting, Washington D.C., was used quite well. Sure, you spend most of your time in hallways killing fools, but that just serves to highlight how cool it is once you get to the larger set pieces like the Jefferson Memorial.
What should not be downplayed about the game is just how well and how much fun the online multiplayer is for this game. The levels feel a good bit like Goldeneye levels, and the controls hold up very well. Having grenades from the moment you spawn gives you a great chance of taking out any spawn-campers, and the action gets really crazy when you get into a room full of people who play the game well. One thing I love about the old-school design of these levels is that it greatly reduces the amount of times you get randomly killed by someone you had no chance of seeing.
The Conduit might not be the most original game on the market. While it feels very generic in many ways, that does not keep the game from being a very fun shooter. If you are a rabid Call of Duty fan that has prestiged a number of times or are addicted to today's larger levels in FPS's, then there is a good chance that you would hate this game. If you have an open mind and a love of old-school FPS games, then there is a good chance that The Conduit will be one of your favorite FPS's in a long time.
3/3 stars
