Last year at PAX, you readers may remember my disappointment in Sega’s alien invasion game. I got to play the demo today, and while there are some areas that could use improvement, The Conduit turned out to be pretty awesome. You take control of Michael Ford, an agent working for a secret government agency who is mankind’s last change to destroy the horrible extraterrestrial threat that has befallen the planet. Yeah, couldn’t be more generic, right? But hey, sometimes that’s not a bad thing. There’s definitely nothing like The Conduit on the Wii, and it fills a much-needed niche in the system’s library.

The demo put me in the middle of a desolated cityscape. Buildings torn down, rubble on fire, dark skies and crushed cars—you know the drill. Immediately my attacks were in hot pursuit. This alien infantry looked like something out of Turok 2’s “Hive of the Mantids” level (especially the drones) which I found refreshing. The game is not shy about enemy types. I fought drones, warriors, a mini-boss, flying critters that looked like Halo Drone knockoffs, and a heavily-armored warrior that looked like…okay, it looked like it was from Halo, too. But that’s okay! I swear I had fun killing them all.

Control is similar to Metroid Prime 3, although aiming is a little more restrictive, as the targeting reticule eagerly zips back to the center of the screen. This may seem irritating at first, but you quickly get used to it. Movement is, of course, designated to the analog stick. Lock-on with Z, shoot things with B, jump with A, do various other actions with the other buttons. Let your fists do the talking by shoving the Wii Remote forwards, or chuck a grenade by flicking the Nunchuck. It’s all very intuitive—the only actions I struggled with were using the All Seeing Eye (ASE) (for locating invisible stuff, like mines) and reloading, but that’s because I can’t tell the Plus Button from the Minus Button to save my life. The nice part is that the controls will be fully customizable, so theoretically you can map shooting to the One Button if you want. Just like Halo, you can only carry two guns at a time, and you’ll have to scour the battlefield for ammo and alternate weapons. The ASE proves a valuable asset, but you have to be careful about when you whip it out--you can't fire a gun and use the ASE at the same time.

The first mini-boss is a hulking beast with three weak points who tries to stomp you and tosses little mosquito things your way. I came to that battle with a pistol and a shotgun, so it took awhile. After killing it, the real trouble started—the Drones and the armored warrior enemies took me down. The demo was great fun, and I was very impressed with how the game has turned out. It looks amazing and I never experienced any slowdown. I’m hoping the aiming sensitivity can be adjusted, because I didn’t like how the reticule zipped back to the center of the screen. The guns I played with also seemed either totally underpowered (assault rifle) or overpowered (shotgun). The pistol was hard to aim, but seemed to get the job done alright.

The Sega rep at the booth said that The Conduit will have 12-player multiplayer, but you’ll still be tied to Conduit-specific friend codes. However, here’s something awesome: Let’s say that Metts and I are playing the game, and one of his friends is playing, too. The game will ask if I want to add Metts’ friend to my list, and the game will swap our Conduit-specific friend codes automatically. Now that’s pretty cool considering the existing friend code restriction. The Conduit launches in three weeks, so mark your calendars.