E3 10: Preview: Conduit 2

The first Conduit game gave Wii gamers exactly what they were waiting for with a solid, point-to-shoot FPS. High Voltage’s game fit the bill nicely, but both the developers and gamers knew that there was so much more that could be done with the franchise and technology.

This upcoming sequel, Conduit 2, seems to  work in many of the possibilities we saw in the first game, and also includes technical upgrades, like the incorporation of Wii Motion Plus capabilities.

Conduit 2 picks up right where the first game left off, story wise. I’m not sure how far our hands-on demo was into the game, but we started off by working our way through a heavily armed ship, blasting anyone that came around a corner all while taking cover behind tables and watching our backs.

While this is the only stage we saw, it did feel a bit more roomy in terms of environments, despite being in a ship. Hallways gave way to wide-open control rooms, and they were manned with well-placed enemies. It was easy to appreciate that they’ve worked on some smarter level design.

Later, in a separate demo section, we eventually made our way outside, and on deck where we fought an epic boss battle with a massive water beast. We were almost too busy manning turrets and to notice the lovely stormy water effects off the side of the ship.

While we expect that we’ll get a better sense of story later, the improved technology in Conduit 2 was immediately noticeable. Aiming is much more smooth, and the movement control is much more tight.  The feeling that this sequel is a better experience is apparent from the very first movements of your Wii Remote and Nunchuck. Some of this improvement is thanks to the included Wii Motion Plus support, which provides better tracking and pointer control.

Also improved are the visuals, which now come from a beefed up engine. We were told that this engine provides better geometry and higher quality texture maps. The combined result of all of this is a better looking, smoother-playing Conduit. 

There’s plenty of new weaponry to play with in this sequel. Several weapons that came from alien technology  were mentioned, including one called Shield Gun. This gun sucks up all fired projectiles into one little ball and then throws them back into an enemy. A larger gun lets you use a remote control to view and aim from it while being in another place, behind cover. There will be over 20 weapons in the final version, we’re told. 

As with any FPS, multiplayer is an important component, and High Voltage knows this. The previous game had some issues with security, but they assure us that the code has been tightened up. Of course, there’s going to be up to 12-player online modes, but you can also go at it GoldenEye style with four-player split screen!

High Voltage told us that a new multiplayer mode called Team Invasion will be featured in Conduit 2. Anywhere from two to four players can go at it together, online or locally, working through missions cooperatively. They’re also bringing back full Wii Speak support for online chat. 

So many people said that they enjoyed Conduit, but were hoping for a bit more. Judging from High Voltage’s work on the sequel, it seems like they knew that. It also seems like they listened to some of the concerns we had from the first game.

While we only played one stage, it already feels safe to say that if you liked Conduit, you’re going to find much more to like with Conduit 2. We expect to see even more polish added to the game between now and its release, which is scheduled for fall of this year.