If there's one criticism we constantly hear about Wii games, it's their graphics. We get so many emails complaining how Wii games look like PS2 titles and how games need to look better. While we've always favoured gameplay over graphics, we can understand some people's concerns: a lot of Wii games could look better. The fact is that the Wii is capable of much better graphics than those in the vast majority of games currently available for it.
You only need to look at games such as Super Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3 and Super Smash Bros. Brawl to see that if a developer actually bothers to take the time to work on a game instead of simply treating it like a GameCube title, it can produce something pretty special. That's where The Conduit comes in.
The team at High Voltage Software has promised that the game - a first-person shooter involving a special agent and some alien invaders - will be one of the best-looking Wii games around and will look "like an Xbox 360 game". While that's a bold claim considering the Wii can't do HD graphics, we're assuming they mean a 360 game being played through a normal telly. Even so, it's a brash statement.
Proving Them Wrong
The company even released a press statement declaring their intentions. According to Eric Nofsinger, the developer's Chief Creative Officer: "Too many Wii owners have been told that the Wii is a casual platform with no room for serious games or top-tier graphics. With The Conduit, we intend to prove that theory wrong by providing gamers with the kind of title they imagined back when the platform was first announced."
Of course, the proof is in the viewing, and so far we've been impressed by what we've seen. There's no denying that graphically it's a step above most of the stuff on the Wii, and it's a jarring reminder of how lazy some other development teams are when it comes to making full use of the console's abilities. Lighting effects give an impressive sense of realism, surfaces are textured and water - a thorn in the side for many developers - looks extremely realistic, moving with just the right degree of fluidity. Obviously little details such as this might seem a bit over-the-top, but they all go together to create a sense of realism that many Wii developers don't bother trying to achieve, so fair play to High Voltage.
The game sees you in the role of the mysterious Mr Ford, a secret service agent who's been sent on a mission to investigate recent terrorist attacks in Washington. It turns out that these attacks have been perpetrated by aliens. Typical. It's up to you to put a stop to these aliens (known as 'the Drudge') and save the world.
We've played many a first-person shooter game involving aliens in the past and they generally tend to bore us because being face-to-face with a monster, while scary, isn't so much of a threat as another intelligent human enemy with a gun. Conveniently, the Drudge have taken over hundreds of humans by infecting them with a virus which turns them into zombie-like slaves known as 'puppet humans'. So while shooting monsters may be the main order of the day, expect to be involved in plenty of tense human versus human gunfights.
We reckon The Conduit is looking very impressive for a Wii game, and High Voltage has really pushed the boat out here in terms of ambition. Of course, graphics aren't everything, so we're not going to get too excited until we actually lay our hands on the game. Even so, the first signs are extremely positive
