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There's no denying the popularity of first person shooters during this current console cycle. They're as common as platformers were throughout the 90's. Yet even though there's been a veritable deluge of FPS' for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and PC, Nintendo's console has been suffering a bit of a drought. What's more, the large majority of PFS' that do find their way onto the Wii are simply ports, afterthoughts, or more generally, disappointments. So it's no understatement to say that a lot of people have been looking at High Voltage Software's ambitious project The Conduit to be the epic, must have shooter that Wii owners have been clamoring for. So now that the game is finally available, does it fill the vacant position of the Wii's flagship, must have FPS? Well, in order to answer that question I'm going to ask another question: at what point does poor artistic design impinge on one's experience of otherwise decent gameplay?

Utilizing the Wii's method of control in an effective and fun way, has proven to be exceptionally difficult for developers. Excluding Nintendo's Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (which admittedly was more of a first person adventure than a shooter), nobody has really made the nunchuk/Wiimote combo feel right, let alone superior to the dual analog method. To their credit, High Voltage has managed to raise the bar in this regard. The Conduit can boast the most customizable controls to ever grace a console shooter. Literally every aspect of the controls can be tailored to any specific player's personal preferences; everything from button layout to how far you need to point the reticle to the left or right of the screen before it turns. Honestly, the staggering amount of customization available can be a bit daunting, but rest assured, the default setting works just fine and the result is the best implementation of FPS motion controls available on the console. That said, I still found that the method lacks the comfort of dual analogs and the pinpoint accuracy of a mouse. Furthermore, no amount of customization will ever make it less frustrating when you accidently chuck a grenade while shifting your position, or unintentionally get turned upside down after the Wii's sensor bar loses track of your Wiimote.

Even though the control method isn't perfect, the novelty of pointing at the screen would be enough to warrant a play if there was even a decent presentation package around it. But here's where things begin to fall apart.

The Conduit is like opposite sides of a coin. On one side there is a functional and engaging multiplayer mode -- by far the most robust to appear on the Wii -- complete with all of the standard multiplayer match types that have come to be expected in the genre (deathmatch, capture the flag, etc.) as well as a few interesting and enjoyable additions. While on the other side is an artistic design and single player campaign that could only be described as one of the most derivative experiences that the genre has produced. In short, The Conduit is as bland an FPS as they come. In fact, virtually every aspect of the game that doesn't have to do with how it is actually controlled: the premise, the setting, the characters, the acting, the music, level design, artwork etc., are so utterly boring and uninspired that like a black hole, they swallow any ray of light that The Conduit may have had.

So I suppose the question to ask yourself is how much do you think you can put up with to experience a functional multiplayer experience on the Wii? If what I've said so far doesn't help, then perhaps a little background information is in order: