Conduit 2 is the sequel to High Voltage Software's Nintendo WiiFirst-Person ShooterThe Conduit. Once again, the player is Michael Ford, a former Secret Service agent caught in the middle of an Alien Invasion set in the near future. Taking place immediately after the first game, Ford must travel around the world, engage in firefights against dueling alien factions, and try to wrest the fate of the Earth away from Mr. Adams and his supporters.New gameplay features include a nonlinear single-player campaign, a larger selection of weapons, individual character classes and attribute enhancements, and split-screen local cooperative and competitive play.This game is developer High Voltage's attempt at fixing the shortcomings from The Conduit. Instead of making the engine and actual game simultaneously, they focused entirely on the game. Instead of making levels with no planning, they made actual concept art. The respawning egg sacs, static cutscenes and exploding Drudge mines were removed. They toned down the hype, perhaps a bit too much - Sega chose April 19th as the date for the game's release, the same day as Portal 2, Mortal Kombat 9 and SOCOM 4, and Conduit 2 was released with next to no fanfare. The sites that did review it criticized the game for a short, disjointed single-player campaign and perceived deficiencies in the voice acting, level design and story but praised the multiplayer, which improved upon the original despite it already being the game's strongest point.
Conduit 2 provides examples of the following tropes:
Played with. The climax of the first game reveals that the Drudge were grown here on Earth from a captive Prometheus. Adams, however, is also revealed to be an alien.
America Saves the Day: The ending has George Washington and Abraham Lincoln in futuristic armor arrive as reinforcements.
Animal Mecha: One of the new enemies is a robotic puma/leopard/tiger.
Area of Effect: Played straight with the Radiation Grenades.
Played doubly straight with the Reverse Damage Upgrade, which heals you and your allies.
Armor Is Useless: Whatever armor you buy for your character model is purely for aesthetics, with the exception of the Heavy Armor, Light Armor, and Helmet upgrades.
Michael's new armor doesn't seem to actually DO much, really.
Bullet Catch: One of the game's new weapons is the Aegis gun, which has the ability to suspend incoming bullets in a force-field, then fire them back at opponents.
Cleavage Window: Andromeda's full-body armor covers everything except her face... and the tops of her breasts.
Color-Coded for Your Convenience: In the single player campaign, friendly aliens appear a different color than enemy aliens and some enemies (notably the mites) are distinguishable by their differing colors. Online, team matches have a Red Team and a Blue Team, and some maps have an indicated Red Side and Blue Side. Even in free-for-all.
Concealment Equals Cover: Hiding behind that knocked over table, halved bookcase, or knocked over soda machine will totally protect you from bullets, plasma, radiation and explosions.
Concept Art Gallery: Comes with the Gamestop-exclusive Limited Edition of the game.
Cosmetic Award: Subverted, as achievements and medals always award you with either experience points, credits, or both.
The Washington D.C level seems to be an excuse to recycle assets from the first game. Overall though, it's greately reduced compared to the first game.
There's also three levels that are clearly repurposed multiplayer maps. Thankfully, two are optional and one just serves as an arena for a boss battle.
Gun Accessories: Averted. Weapons can't be customized at all.
Although they do have plenty of preloaded Secondary Fire functions.
Heroic BSOD: When Prometheus sacrifices himself in order to give Michael's Destroyer armor the power to stop Adams.
Also, Take Up My Sword, which is basically the reason for Michael wearing the Destroyer armor in the first place.
Hey, It's That Voice!: While none of the original actors from The Conduit are returning for the sequel due to scheduling conflicts, Michael Ford is now being played by Jon St. John.
Insectoid Aliens: The Drudge, who now come in even more exotic and bizarre varieties.
Lizard Folk: John Adams and the other members of his faction.
Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels: Like the prequel, difficulty levels are named after the five levels of the Homeland Security Advisory System: Low, Guarded, Elevated, High, and Severe.
In Game TV: Subverted. There are radio shows, but no TVs.
IKEA Weaponry: The Phase Rifle and Carbonizer Mk16 (though only in animation), definitely the Widowmaker turret.
I'll Kill You!: Said straight from Michael, after Adams tells him that his family and everyone else in D.C. is dead.
Indecisive Parody: High Voltage claimed that the game is supposed to be "tongue-in-cheek", and portions the game are clearly taking the piss (Ford's Duke Nukem-esque dialogue for instance), but other parts of the game are done completely seriously (like the conspiracy objects), and still others are ambiguous (the ending). High Voltage later admiited that they had a much more serious story planned, but the huge amount of cutscenes required and the reaction people had towards the original heavy-handed storyline meant that they rewrote the entire script at the last minute.
Invisibility: Capable with the AR-C Eclipse's secondary.
La Résistance: The Free Drudge, who aid Mr. Ford against Adams' plans.
Large Ham: Ford's lines are delivered in the most over-the-top manner possible.
Lightning Gun: The Deatomizer Mk4, TPC Launcher, and Carbonizer Mk16.
Lightning Bruiser: The Trust Advancers and Drudge Scarabs can move pretty fast when they really want to. The latter of which can take you out in two smacks.
Locked Door: Played fairly straight in China, albeit with elemental symbols instead of keys.
Mythology Gag: Before the game came out, the developers promised abilities you could equip to your loadout like healing teammates in multiplayer with bullets. In the game, there is an upgrade that gives you an extra radiation grenade and makes it so those grenades heal you and your teammates while still damaging your enemies. The description for the upgrade includes the line "Because we couldn't teach the bullets to love".
No Sidepaths, No Exploration, No Freedom: Averted; the single-player campaign will include a central hub to allow the player to choose the order to play the levels, and multiple routes to each level's objective are available.
Oh Crap: Played straight right after Michael switches a primer on the Oil Rig, only to have the Leviathan devour that whole corner of the room and roar at him.
Outrun the Fireball: Inverted when Michael must jump out of the way of an oncoming train as soon as he gets out of the subway in D.C.
Michael: "For once, that's a train that I'm glad to miss!"
Prometheus: "Technically, the train missed you.
Michael: "...you really know to ruin a good quip, don't you?"
Pivotal Boss: The Leviathan from the first level of the campaign, a gigantic sea serpent who turns to attack the deep-ocean platform you're on.
Play Along Prisoner: In D.C., Michael Ford walks in on a Trust Soldier interrogating a Free Drudge by the name of Thex. As soon as the soldier notices Michael's presence, he gets his ass kicked by Thex.
Powered Armor: Ford gets fitted for a set of Destroyer armor, and his ally Andromeda wears a full-body suit.
Protection Mission: Michael must protect the Free Drudge a number of times throughout the campaign.
Rage Quit: Unavoidable, but thank goodness the developers had the foresight to install host migration.
Roboteching: The Shrieker. Also, the Hive Cannon, but only if the target is tagged with sticky bait first.
Scenery Porn: The Oil Rig level. High Voltage Software's Quantum3 engine really struts its stuff here.
Schedule Slip: Hoo boy...November to February to March, then finally released on April 19th.
Shamgri-La: One of the levels is set in Shangri-La.
Short Range Shotgun: Apparent in online multiplayer and splitscreen. Curiously averted in the campaign.
Shoutout: After beating the game, Andromeda reveals that the conduits are powered by blast processing, a reference to Sega's old Sonic the Hedgehog commercials.
Sickly Green Glow: Subverted, as radiation always glows orange in the game.
Unflinching Faith In The Brakes: Subverted. Prometheus insists that the Leviathan is Michael's way off of the oil rig, though he doesn't seem too concerned that it's tearing the rig apart in a murderous fit of rage.
Unflinching Walk: Subverted when Adams walks calmly into a conduit right before the Leviathan destroys the platform he and his men are on.
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