In a way, it is of little consequence whether The Conduit is a good game, a great game, or something in between. Before it even released it helped to wake up many other third-party developers to the capabilities of the Wii, both on a graphical level and in regards to gameplay. That push forward of other developers and publishers is the game’s legacy of sorts, as, in between the time it took for The Conduit to be announced and the game to be released, Wii saw next-gen efforts like Call of Duty: World at War given a legitimate shot at succeeding on the system, rather than less successful and less refined ports like its predecessor and launch title, Call of Duty 3.

We have seen the tech demos, the gameplay videos, the sharp looking screens with graphical effects rarely seen on the Wii “" it’s clear that High Voltage Software knows how to develop for the little white console and squeeze some power out of it. Did they do enough with the gameplay to warrant a purchase of their first retail Wii title though? The answer will take some time, but that’s why we review these things.

In The Conduit, you play as Michael Ford, an agent that has been betrayed by the organization that hired him. Your goal is to get to the bottom of the conspiracy that surrounds you and the city of Washington D.C., and exact revenge on the man that put you in this tough spot before his army of drones and alien Drudge soldiers can take you out. It’s pretty standard conspiracy fare with a few twists and turns, but it’s not a bad story, and the voice acting of Kevin Sorbo and Mark Sheppard helps to move it along, even if occasionally it sounds a little over the top and campy. The story doesn’t overstay its welcome, but you could also say that it leaves abruptly, setting the game up for an obvious sequel, a la Gears of War 2.

The Conduit looks great on Wii, most of the time. It’s a little inconsistent graphically, which is a disappointment given how good it looks sometimes. As you can see in the screens, the insides of buildings, guns, aliens, and the lighting effects all look well detailed and smooth. Objects and places off in the distance do not look anywhere near as good though “" they don’t look blurry or representative of something off in the distance, they just look a little muddy. Some of the backgrounds ruin a lot of what’s going on in the foreground too. If you’re running through a corridor, do yourself a favor and don’t look out the windows, as everything looks choppy and box-like in that strange, outdoor world. Occasionally the sky also looks terrible, particularly when the clouds have an orange hue to them. Hopefully these details are polished in the sequel “" a background that stretches all around you is not exactly a minor detail “" as they take away from a lot of what was accomplished graphically in The Conduit.

Another problem for The Conduit is that the technical achievements outshine the art. Sure, the inside of the Pentagon and White House look good, but the design is somewhat boring. For the most part you’re just running through hallways and offices that could be from any building; I would have liked to see a bit more detail here, in regards to the invasion at hand, just to keep things looking interesting. There’s only one real “wow” moment in the game in regards to level design, when you first realize you have been tricked and that alien forces are invading Washington D.C. Enemies are designed well, but there are not enough different types, and you start to wish there were different challenges as you play for six to nine hours through single player.

All in all, the campaign is very standard run-and-gun, and doesn’t do anything innovative. It’s not bad, but it is bland, despite solid presentation and the graphics. There are two things that stand out from single-player that bear mentioning though, and that’s the All Seeing Eye (ASE) and the alien guns.The ASE lets you see hidden messages, unlock underground rooms with advanced weaponry in them, collect the Trust’s secret data discs, disable mines, hack into computers, and lower the shields on a specific, invisible member of the Drudge’s alien forces. It’s a shame it wasn’t used more often, but as a start of something and as an innovation, it’s welcome. High Voltage Software obviously had fun making the guns, and you will have fun using them. There are plenty of different enemy weapons, from alien assault rifles with charged beam shots, pistols with charged explosive rounds, a heat-seeking grenade launcher of sorts, de-atomizing weapons that, when charged, do exactly what their name implies to the enemies they strike, and even grenades that use radiation to take out opponents. They look good, they play well, and Ford reloading them with balls of bio mass is something you need to see in action.

LOS ANGELES — We’re very hopeful about The Conduit, a Wii exclusive shooter that will boast 12-player online multiplayer.

Blast got to talk to Rob Nicholls, game designer for High Voltage Software, which is developing The Conduit.

The the buzz growing around this game, and we’re happy to show this interview in its full form:

BLAST: Tell us a little about The Conduit and a little bit about the challenges of developing a formative shooter for the Wii and the Wii only.

ROB NICHOLLS: Well, The conduit is a fps action styled on the Wii. It has single player components: nine missions, 8-10 hours of gameplay, standard difficulty settings settings. It also has a multiplayer component where you can have up to 12 people competing online where you have your standard deathmach type modes to team-based gameplay with a variety of modes. We have team modes, 13 different rule sets interspersed around those modes, nine different weapons sets and seven different maps that you can mix and match to those.

Plus the maps very in size from 2-6 people all the way up through really big ones that are meant for 12 people, but if you want to put 12 into the smaller maps you’re more than willing to do so.

The storyline for the single player is you play as Michael Ford a Secret Service agent in Washington D.C., and all these strange events have been occurring. There’s been this freak weather system that’s rained and flooded certain parts, and then people got this illness called “The Bug” where they were either not going to work or not showing up to school. A lot of people got reported missing but then showed up later. And then you have these strange terrorist attacks, like the Washington Monumen gets bombed. A senator and presidential hopeful gets assassinated by a member of her own staff. It kind of culminates with you being assigned to the president’s Secret Service detail, and you save him from the other members who suddenly turned on him and tried to kill the president.

This has put you in contact with a mysterious individual known as John Adams who runs this sort of M.I.B.-esque organization called The Trust. Your saving the president has proven you to be “Trustworthy” and loyal and he’s kind of tapped you for this assignment.

What you find out is that it’s the prelude to an alien invasion of Washington D.C.

BLAST: Was it a challenge to make an action shooter just for the Wii under those standards without all the blood and gore and hacked off limbs? Was that easier or harder for you?

RN: It wasn’t really more difficult. It’s just if you’re skirting that line between teen and mature a lot of that depends on who the ESRB has brought in for your session. But I think we’ve got one (game) that still has some hardcore elements. We got a teen rating, but it’s still enjoyable. You can still shoot heads off guys and so forth.

For us I think it was really more important to get that teen rating. As you say this is kind of a new realm — rather, ground that’s been gone over before and nobody’s succeeded. So what we want to do is do everything possible to make this game succeed so it will encourage developers to do more of these in the future.

BLAST: We’re seeing a lot of games in either the post apocalyptic or the “impending doom” genre. Either the world has ended like has in Fallout 3 or the 10 games like it that are coming out or something very, very bad is about to happen. Do you believe that there’s a mimicking of society component in video games?

RN: I think there’s some mimicking. That’s why you’re seeing all these disaster movies. It’s kind of the mindset that society is in. You’re in bad times, you’re going to get stories about bad times or enduring those bad times.

In bad times where like you have a recession, people are worried about losing their homes, losing their jobs, things of that nature, their anxiety is hyped. So that’s the sort of movies that kind of resonate with them and that’s why they’re so popular.

BLAST: Is that Gold for someone like you?

RN: Gold? Well, what story do you want to do? What is going to resonate with people and what are they going to identify with at the time that the game comes out?

We are definitely trying to tell a story with The Conduit, and the 10 second blurb I just gave you is just barely scratching the surface of what is going on behind the scenes.

High Voltage revealed two games this week via IGN but until today they were all talk and no motion. Well, today that all changes with this first look at the gore-fest of a title that is Gladiator A.D.

In the trailer you’ll hear an emotionally heavy introduction to the Roman gladiatorial circuit and then some glorious depictions of just how violent the “sport,” which often ends in death, can be.

As promised, IGN unveiled High Voltage Software‘s second project in as many days, revealing an even more horrific and ambitious title by the name The Grinder.‚  In case you fell off the face of the planet this morning, the studio announced Gladiator A.D. earlier today.

Most importantly The Grinder is an over-the-top and gore ridden FPS experience that is heavily-weighted on four player co-op play, a la Left 4 Dead.‚  As an unexpected bonus, The Grinder fully supports the Wii’s online capabilities and allows for Wii owners across the world to take part in ubiquitous scenes of hell-bent violence.

Zombies are so Left 4 Dead, in The Grinder you’ll be slaying werewolves, vampires (take that Edward Cullen!), as well as the undead (okay so it will have zombies).

Eric Nofsinger of High Voltage describes the story as such: “Our group of heroes is a sort of the cryptobiological A-Team of going into areas with infestations and killing everything that moves.”

Killing everything that moves? I’m down for that, but whom, specifically, will I be slaying these beasts as?‚  How about the likes of Hector, Doc, A.J., and Miko, each with varying personalities. We’re not quite sure just yet if any are of the female contingent; A.J. is a likely possibility however.

damn werewolves

Finally, as a functionality note, The Grinder will support Wii Speak, Wii MotionPlus, four-player co-op online and 2 player split screen co-op.‚  High Voltage was mum on the notion of achievements and leader-boards for The Grinder but promised forthcoming details on what the studio calls “certainly big factors when it comes to replayability.”

Head on over to IGN to catch the full interview.