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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:

You are Michael Ford. Shooting your way through wave after wave of alien invaders you'll eventually uncover one of the most confusing and underdeveloped conspiracy stories ever written. Honestly, by the end of the game I still had no idea what exactly the villain, John Adams (twist!), was after -- or for that matter, why Mr. Ford is in any position to stop him. Nothing is said about him or his motivations. Is he a spy? A super soldier? A cop? Who knows. Frankly, when compared to the characters of The Conduit, Master Chief is a bona fide Hamlet.

The game's setting isn't much better. If we weren't explicitly told that the game takes place in Washington D.C., I'm not sure that anyone would notice. The player is constantly traveling through interchangeable corridors and office buildings that bear no real distinct markings by which to differentiate them. Even the White House, a locale that should at least be obvious let alone interesting, is only recognizable as a government building due to the bizarre amounts of Lincoln and Washington portraits that hang from the walls.

The same mundanity is applied to your arsenal. Most of the weapons you pick up along the way are standard FPS fare: shotgun, pistol, etc. and they of course, have their alien counterparts to accompany them. The problem is, with the exception of the weapons discovered in hidden caches, which are super powered versions of weapons you've already seen, there is no real sense of individuality among them; each one is as good as the next. In fact, the only novel addition that The Conduit has to offer (other than the aforementioned controls) is the addition of the 'All Seeing Eye,' or the ASE. The purpose of this item, a spherical, floating orb that must be equipped in lieu of a weapon, is to scan cryptic messages, unlock hidden weapon caches, and hack computer terminals. After playing around with it for a few minutes however, a question popped into my head that I couldn't sufficiently answer: why on earth does this item exist? From a gameplay perspective, there is frankly no reason why you should need a specific, separately equipped item to do any of these tasks. Not only does equipping it leave you vulnerable to enemy fire, searching around for these secrets is just...boring. At no point during the game did I ever use the ASE when I didn't have to.

If the previous rant has shown you anything its probably that the you know the answer to the question I asked immediately preceding it. That is, this list of grievances (taken from a much longer one) is clearly what my experience with The Conduit has left me with. The Conduit suffers so severely from a complete lack of personality that makes it pretty hard to recommend. If you're a fan of the genre and own multiple systems, I wouldn't bother; If however, you only own a Wii, give it a rent, you may have fun with the online mode, but when you're done you'll find yourself still clamoring for that epic, must have shooter that you've been waiting for.