The campaign picks up right where The Conduit left off, with protagonist Michael Ford chasing the evil alien Mr. Adams through the titular portal. He escapes through another Conduit, and you soon arrive in the lost city of Atlantis, which serves as your central hub between missions. The entire game has Ford fighting through various parts of the planet to acquire powers from allied Progenitor aliens that he can use to catch up and end Adams’ plot for world domination. That’s pretty much it for the plot, outside of the various references to real-world unexplained events. Around halfway through, the game throws a plot twist at you that it thinks is original, but will draw immediate parallels to Halo 2. The intrigue and sense of discovery from the original game is pretty much scrapped in favour of a straightforward ‘keep chasing this guy until you kill him’ objective.

While the story is forgettable, it would have been acceptable if it gave you interesting enemies to fight. While the original game had solid AI, Conduit 2 really drops the ball here. While the first game’s more humanoid enemies took cover and worked together to flank you, these guys are often more content to simply stand still and shoot you--if you’re lucky, they’ll run a little in one direction or another while firing. It makes sense when they’re sniping from a distance, but it really takes you out of the game when you hold your shotgun to a guy’s face and he just stands still and continues pegging you with his pistol. The Drudge aliens are even worse, tending to simply rush you much of the time. Whether they’re big guys that soak up an impossible amount of bullets, or the speedy little anklebiters that are nearly impossible to shoot, I was not surprised--in a bad way--when I found out these guys had wiped out most of humanity.

High Voltage did try to inject some variety into the encounters by way of boss fights interspersed every few levels. With the exception of a PG-ified version of the ship battle with Irving from Resident Evil 5 and one who spams insta-kill attacks that take up most of the area, these fights are mostly pretty fun. Let’s just say that, by the end of my time with Conduit 2, I was more than happy to have the chance to fire a few hundred alien parasites into Adams’ skull.

The tools and weapons are a little more interesting this time around. My favourite new weapon is the Widowmaker--a turret you can place in an open area, take cover, and then aim and fire remotely. Ford’s Swiss-Army-Knife-cum-alien-computer, the All-Seeing Eye, is given more purpose in this entry. Last time, it was mostly used to detect mines during a firefight or find hidden puzzles. Here it functions more like Samus’ scan visor in Metroid Prime, letting you scan objects in the environment to gain insight into the backstory. Much more fun to use.

To be fair, the game does present you with more varied environments to fight in this time around. In contrast to the first game’s nine-hour romp through Washington, this one has you fighting everywhere from snowy Siberia, to Atlantis, to a finale that takes place in the centre of the Earth. The environments are more open and organic, too, like the large setpiece battle near the end that has all manner of trenches, towers to snipe from, and bits of rubble to hide behind. Too bad the impact of these designs is lost when enemies don’t make the fights interesting in the slightest.

As monotonous as the single-player can get, at least HVS put some effort into the multiplayer, addressing my chief concern with the previous game--split-screen. The biggest let-down of The Conduit, in my opinion, was the exclusion of local multiplayer. It had an in-depth online mode, but (call me old-fashioned) I much prefer to grab a bunch of buddies, a twelve-pack of Coke, and sit around a TV fragging each other. High Voltage heard my cries, and has implemented split-screen for four players this time around. In addition to the standard multiplayer modes, splitscreen players also get to enjoy Invasion mode, in which you work together to thwart several waves of enemies. As dumb as the Drudge are in this game, killing them is made much more enjoyable when competing with friends to do it. The online play seemed to run fluidly in my playtime, and in a nice touch, the game supports the Headbanger headset for voice chat. Unfortunately, it does not support the more widespread Wii Speak microphone, which is disappointing seeing as the first game did support that peripheral. To the game’s credit, it does support patching so High Voltage can weed out the exploits that plagued the first game.

Now for the most divisive part of the game--the graphics. Visuals can be divided into two subsections--the engine and the art style. High Voltage has pulled a 180 here. As mentioned, the first game’s bland, repetitive environments have been replaced with a diverse array of settings, and the water effects are quite convincing as well. Texture quality could use some work, but the art style is mostly improved. On the other hand, the Quantum3 Engine that gave the last game huge environments and lots of effects, all with a rock-solid 30fps framerate, has inexplicably been replaced with one that slows the action to a crawl when things heat up. It is difficult to aim the Wii Remote when your targeting reticule is constantly jerking all over the place.

The game is also a glitchy mess. The opening requires you to jump through a window to escape poison gas. On my first go, I jumped through the window... and the floor... and the planet Earth, apparently, as I found myself floating in 3D space until I died. Once in a while, when you pick up a gun, the game takes several seconds to load it, so you’re walking around getting shot for several seconds before you can fire back. Several times the targeting reticule froze in place, stopping me from aiming (my Wii wasn’t the problem, as during these moments I had no issues pointing around the Home menu). That’s to say nothing of the enemies who turn around at a moment’s notice--sometimes you’ll sneak up behind someone, and then they will instantly be facing you without even a ‘turning’ animation. Glitches like these caused me many unfair deaths, and would have made me toss the game on my shelf, never to be looked at again, if I weren’t playing for this review.

Value is likely the biggest strength of Conduit 2. The campaign comes in at a similar length to its predecessor, around nine hours. However, there are unlockable extra missions to be found by meeting certain requirements. The online play extends possible playtime considerably, and the addition of local play increases the fun even more. Also, like the last game, Conduit 2 features a Call of Duty-style upgrade system, but with a twist: money and purchased upgrades follow you through local play, online, and the campaign, adding incentive to return to certain segments.

I honestly don’t understand what happened here. High Voltage, who have always been renowned for listening to fan feedback on their games, have taken all of the elements of The Conduit and switched them around. For the most part, what was bad is now good and what was good is now bad. I gave The Conduit a great score of 8.3/10 when it released, but the market was different at the time. Compared to the paltry First Person Shooter competition on the Wii, The Conduit was a breath of fresh air. Today, on a platform that includes the likes of GoldenEye and some quality Call of Duty titles, a game that misses almost as often as it hits is very difficult to recommend. If you’ve finished those aforementioned games and are looking for a new Wii shooter, give Conduit 2 a rental and see if it’s for you. Otherwise, there are better options for your $50.

High Voltage, if you’re reading this, I really appreciate that you value the feedback put forth by both reviewers and your fans. Hopefully you can take some of these observations into account and make a superior game. We can tell you guys are talented and passionate, but this game doesn’t sate the appetite for a great shooter. On that note, since you’re such good listeners at HVS, I think we were all disappointed that this game did not come with a bucket of wings. Just sayin'...

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