Conduit 2 Has An Introduction Now

The Conduit had exactly three things going for it: the controls, the voice acting and the tech it was built on. Everything else—story, level/character design, hacker-friendly multiplayer and no split-screen mode—made it a game that I played for exactly one week and then forgot about afterward. It seriously only took a week for the online multiplayer to become unplayable because of glitches and invincible hackers, and the single-player campaign was just barely worth completing.

This intro video for Conduit 2 shows that they have effectively destroyed one third of what made the first game playable. The trio of Mark Sheppard, Kevin Sorbo and William Morgan Sheppard as the voices of The Conduit's three main characters made those character likeable and are the sole reason why I sat through every line of dialogue in the game. The new guy playing Agent Ford sounds exactly like Cutter Slade from Outcast, and although Outcast is a good game, the comparison isn't a compliment. And hearing anybody but Kevin Sorbo give voice to Prometheus just makes me sad.

High Voltage has supposedly done a lot of work to fix the problems from the first game. More diverse settings, a reworked storyline and expanded multiplayer (including local 4-player and coop modes) are all supposed to make Conduit 2 more playable than their last game. But, so far, the game looks like shit anyway. The once apotheosized Quantum3 engine now looks dated compared to GoldenEye 007 and even Modern Warfare: Reflext Edition. And, despite efforts to the contrary, High Voltage's level and character designing skills don't seem to have improved any since The Conduit. They've also revealed very little of the story aside from that it will take place all over the globe with Atlantis serving as a hub.

I'm sure the controls will be as great as ever: The Conduit is the reason why first-person shooters on Wii finally have almost universally great controls. But without the original cast and because of High Voltage's now-ubiquitous bad level designs and the total lack of evidence that the writing has improved at all, Conduit 2 will probably be as much of a chore to play through as its predecessor.

Do yourselves a favour and just pick up GoldenEye now, play through it, enjoy it, get online and have fun while the servers are still active, and forget about Conduit 2. You don't need more disappointment in your lives.