The Conduit (Hands-On) (Wii) Preview

The primary focus of this session was the online multiplayer aspect of The Conduit - something that you may recall recently failed to work during a demonstration in America as a result of Nintendo’s test servers going down before the event began. There were no such mishaps here, though; eight consoles were easily hooked up to the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection using the Regional setting (players from UK/Europe only, in this case), allowing us to get stuck in right away. A straightforward deathmatch kicked things off, and it was immediately obvious that The Conduit’s multiplayer is more Halo than Call of Duty - if the alien laser weapons didn’t seal it, the fast-paced, all-jumping gameplay certainly did. Gameplay was lag free and suffered no technical issues, though it must be taken into account that all machines were in the same room and matches were running through test servers rather than being open to anyone. Fingers crossed that the servers can keep the game running at full capacity when it’s released. Wii Speak support is present, but, of course, being in the same room as every other player removed the need to use it in this instance.

Before each match players are asked to vote for their preferred game type, Gears of War-style, as well as level and weapon set (if you select 'human' you'll get things like shotguns; 'alien' will produce laser rifles; and 'explosive' does what it says on the tin). There are several multiplayer modes in addition to the deathmatch, all of which can be customized in terms of points needed to win, number of respawns, time restraints, etc. The standard match types such as Team Deathmatch and Last Man Standing are included, but there are a few more interesting modes that could prove to be the game's real hooks when it's released.

Three Strikes gives you just two respawns, meaning you have to be much more careful with your actions - a particularly interesting mode to play when you've got the explosive weapons set on and everybody is armed with rocket launchers! Bounty Hunter assigns each player with a specific target to take down, providing an intense hunter-prey dynamic. While you're stalking your prey in this mode somebody else will be coming after you, too, so you've got to keep looking over your shoulder at every turn. Anybody who isn't your target or your attacker is considered an 'innocent' and slaying them will lose you points. To mix things up further, the target-to-hunter ratio isn't strictly 1:1; sometimes you'll be chased by more than one hunter, or you'll be competing with an opponent in a race to eliminate a shared target. Bounty Hunter is probably the pick of the bunch, but that's not to discount the excellent ASE Football mode, a worthy adversary for the top spot.

ASE should be familiar to fans of the Halo series' Oddball and Ninjaball modes. It works like so: the All-Seeing Eye device is plonked on the field like an American football, and the aim is to pick it up (by running over it) and hold on to it for as long as possible, with points being added for each second you have it in your possession. If you're lucky/unlucky enough to have the ball your options are limited to melee and grenade attacks while the other players run at you all-guns-blazing to get their hands on your 'ball'. This setup typically leads to complete mania as everybody charges for one point on the map. Situations where one player will kill the current ASE-holder, be shot down in the brief run to the unoccupied ball by a third player only to have the ASE taken by a fourth player who jumps out of a window and legs it until being gunned down by the collective might of the pack are not uncommon.

After around an hour on multiplayer I went through the first two levels of the single player mode (time limited me from going further). The opening stage essentially teaches you the controls - as detailed in my last hands-on report - in addition to explaining some of the core gameplay mechanics. It's here that I took the opportunity to test just how customizable this game really is. The answer: extremely; everything can be changed. The Conduit truly has to be the end of people complaining about controls being their downfall in the online multiplayer realm, because there is not one aspect of the experience that cannot be altered to suit your needs. You can change the cursor dead areas; how fast you run, turn or aim; the sensitivity of the motion controls; which buttons/motions do what. Heck, you can even drag the HUD wherever you feel like.

I personally found the motion-activated melee attack a tad unresponsive, so I upped it, found I still didn't like it and moved it onto a button. Simple. You can do all this on the fly through the options menu, whereby you'll be taken back into the game to mess about with settings while testing them in real time. It's probably not advisable to do this in rooms full of enemies or mid-online deathmatch, though. The last thing you could moan about in The Conduit is surely its controls, such is the level of... well, control you have over them. It might take a bit of messing about, and initially it's a bit overwhelming to have so much power put in your hands, but by the end of the session I'd reached a configuration I was happy with. This is something that all developers should be doing. I did have one complaint, however: when moving the sections of the HUD around the screen, it is possible to overlay them (they don't lock into place), so you might have your health meter obscuring the radar. Pay attention when moving things around, though, and this shouldn't be an issue.

Throughout the portion of the single player campaign I played there wasn't much in the way of groundbreaking content. The All-Seeing Eye is unique and used to solve puzzles such as the unlocking of alien doors by finding pods that are only visible with the ASE, or the uncovering of invisible scrawlings on the wall. There's also a neat pseudo-cover system which involves holding down the C button to crouch behind environmental obstacles as swarms of enemies (who also use this system) come charging at you. Otherwise, The Conduit will feel quite familiar to people who have played sci-fi shooters before, though that isn't meant to be taken as a slight against it; it's definitely feeling like one of the stronger shooters on Wii and there's certainly scope for things to change up later on, given that I was only made privy to the first two levels in full.