Multiplayer Details on The Conduit for the Wii
Most any fan of Wii shooters has heard of The Conduit; a first-person shooter in development by High Voltage. It was almost at the last minute that the company has really concentrated on the multiplayer component, which is online for up to 12 players. True, The Conduit will not support many features that shooters are so well known for these days, such as 32 players and large scale maps, but with any luck it will provide a fun, fast-paced experience that few other shooters deliver.
First of all, in order to play with friends online players will need to input their friend codes. Once you join an active server hosted by a friend you enter a lobby room that allows those inside to chat and vote on a map. Chat is possible through a Wii Speak peripheral, The Conduit being one of the first Wii games to support it. How this system comes into play in The Conduit is that when players talk into Wii Speak, only the nearest six or so players can hear, and only if they are your friends, or friends of your friends. It also depends on the multiplayer mode, of which there are reportedly three.
The first is, of course, Free For All, where every man is for himself for twenty minutes. This is the equivalent to what in most games is called Deathmatch. The person with the most kills at the end wins.
The second mode is Conduit’s version of Capture The Flag, where each side has what in the game is called an All Seeing Eye. The objective of each team is to obtain the enemy’s ASE and bring it back to base. The team with the most points at the end wins.
And finally, there’s Bounty Hunter. This is perhaps the most intriguing of all the modes. In it, every player is assigned a target, and every time you kill someone who is not your target you are penalized in points; unless you yourself are the target of the person you have killed. Every time your target is defeated you will be assigned a new one, and if you were the one to deliver the finishing blow you gain points. Whoever has the most points at the end wins.
Well, there you have it. The Conduit is scheduled for release this June 23rd, and it’s the opinion of many that in may be the best shooter on Wii yet.
