It is finally time to bury the term “for a Wii game.” The overused review qualifier that was imagined as a means to quell the fervent and insistent Nintendo fanbase has become a liability that has lead to the creation of a bias towards an underpowered system with ambitions far beyond its scope.

The Conduit 2 is not a horrible game by any means, nor is it a very good one. It is a game that has garnered the most “for a Wii game” utterances to date. Reviews seem to give the game a free pass for satiating the “core” gamer mass that is oft ignored by both first and third party developers on the Wii. Developer High Voltage Software is notable in this regard for taking notice of the hole in the Wii’s software lineup and attempting to bring a modern first-person shooting experience to the console, unfortunately with mixed results.

Game: Conduit 2
Publisher: Sega
Developer: High Voltage Software
Genre: First Person Shooter
Price: $49.99
Verdict: The epitome of generic

Publisher Provided

To describe Conduit 2’s story as anything but generic would be generous, but to that end it is a serviceable attempt with results echoing any 2^nd tier Canadian Sci-Fi project. A tad perplexing for players new to the series, Conduit 2 seems to continue right where the first game left off with little explanation as to what exactly is going on. It becomes clear that you are in pursuit of an archetypal “Man” type character, John Adams, whose agenda includes general exploitation and typical bad-guyery. The dynamic between the player character, Michael Ford, and his “magical floating ball” echoes lighter moments of television series like Stargate or Farscape, but lacks impact by removing any significant character development along the way.

Graphically there isn’t much to say about Conduit 2. It is a game with ambitions that are simply not attainable on the Wii. The frame rate dips when the action gets heated up, textures aren’t up to par with modern contemporaries, and environments–although broad in both scope and scale–ultimately fall flat without the necessary horsepower to bridge the chasm between concept and reality.

The controls take same getting used to, and by getting used to I actually mean sitting in configuration menus for a decent amount of time trying to tweak them into something that works, as opposed to the clunky mess that are the default settings. By allowing an almost debug level of customization to the controls, it is a challenge to get everything to feel exactly how you’d like it to. Classic controller support is included, but without the pro model it is hard to recommend as a valid alternative.

Conduit 2 does feature a character progression/perks system through a power suit upgrade mechanic that carries into the online multiplayer mode. In a pretty standard affair, the game’s multiplayer doesn’t add anything new or innovative to the genre, although it is arguable that no game has since Call of Duty 4.

Without using the qualifier “for a Wii game,” Conduit 2 is a graphically unimpressive and generic first-person shooter with motion controls. When compared to its shooter contemporaries, there is no category in which Conduit 2 excels in, or even manages to reach basic genre expectations.