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.

The Conduit, High Voltage Software’s Wii exclusive sci-fi shooter, hits store shelves next week. While I’m still not sure how the game is going to be from a story or gameplay standpoint, I do know that High Voltage has poured their extensive technical prowess into turning out a high-quality visual experience mixed with some fantastic controls and weapons. An array of fun weapons usually keeps me going in a first-person shooter, and if the controls work–which they do, given their level of customization that makes them the closest thing to a keyboard and mouse ever seen on a console–then I’m bound to stick with it, even if the story is a letdown.

Let’s hope that isn’t the case with The Conduit, as it looks pretty promising. For now, I’ve assembled a bunch of screens and some videos for you to check out as you wait for its release next week. We’ll have a review for The Conduit up once we’ve tested and played through both the single player campaign and the multiplayer modes against live competition.

High Voltage Software, best known for the forthcoming first-person shooter Wii exclusive The Conduit, announced a brand new intellectual property, Gladiator A.D., today and plans for more pre-E3 2009 news coming later today.

In what can only be assumed to be an effort to distance themselves from the crowded E3 announcement environment next week, High Voltage smartly dropped details on their new project today.

In an exclusive interview with gaming site IGN, The Conduit developers explained their title, stating that Gladiator A.D. will be ultra-gory, inspired by the vicious “300″ motion picture.

In A.D. you’ll play as one of many gladiators, each with a distinct narrative, appearance, and range of abilities in a strategic fighting environment centered around the Roman Gladitorial Circuit in all of its bloody awesomeness.

"This is Sparta!" sorta

In another smooth call from High Voltage, A.D. will make total use of the Wii MotionPlus accessory due out next month, and is likely to become the standard for Wii games of this genre as we move forward.

If there was one general theme related to readers in the exquisite IGN interview, it was that of total brutality and heinous violence, but what would you expect, it’s a gladiator game, do you know what those dudes went through?

Head on over to IGN to read the entire interview and catch an early look at the art style for the title. Furthermore, High Voltage has promised a second game revelation coming sometime today. As always, when we know, you’ll know.

In a determined effort to capture the desired and elusive reservation, GameStop Corp. ups the ante for Wii FPS enthusiasts who haven’t yet given $5/sold their soul to the video game retail giant, with some exclusive goodies for The Conduit.

A $5 pledge to buy SEGA’s The Conduit at GameStop gets you a 24-page “making of” book, a “secret agent” skin to help waggle your enemies to death during online multiplayer, and a unique All Seeing Eye (A.S.E.) with custom detail and projected light.

If you’re picking up the title anyway, and can deal with GameStop employees, this looks like at least maybe possibly worth it.

The Conduit releases exclusively on Wii June 23 2009.

A.S.E.

The Conduit Website

The Conduit looks better and better and even better with each batch of screens development studio High Voltage releases.‚  This week is no different with five high-res screenshots showcasing weaponry and open combat environments.

High Voltage is pushing the boundaries of what has been seen on the Wii to date, and from my hands-on experience at Comic Con sans Wii Motion Plus, the execution is terrific.

Furthermore, The Conduit will feature 16 player online multiplayer but no specifics have been announced as of yet.

Wii owners thirsting for that PS3/Xbox 360 type first person shooter experience should be thoroughly excited for this ambitious project, I know I am.

The Conduit is set to release June 23^rd, but a delay seems very possible.‚  Keep your fingers crossed!

Glorious new screens in the gallery.

Via Sony Blog.