Game Review: Sanctum

Hello Ladies and Gents! Today I'll be writing about something a bit different.. Of course, it's another indie game, BUT, very different indie game indeed! And the name of this game is: Sanctum!

A bit about the game and developers.
Sanctum is a game which is published by Coffee Stain Studios. They are indie developing and publishing studio with currently only one game. Honestly, I don't think that they have any kind of plan for any future games, but I really think that they should make something more, because in my opinion, Sanctum is a great game and it is a great start for something bigger and more popular!

Now, Sanctum isn't game as we are used to. Yea, its a FPS. But It's a tower defense FPS. And I may be wrong, but in my opinion and with my knowledge, this is unique tower defense FPS. And as soon as you rode that you thought "oh that idiot, he never heard of Dungeon Defenders..." and here, you are wrong. I did hear about Dungeon Defenders and i still think that Sanctum is unique, because Sanctum is a Sci-fi game that is in future and you use guns, snipers, rocket launchers to kill creatures that kind of (not really) look like mechs... They look like aliens but if you think hard enough, they might look like mechs.
And Dungeon Defenders is based in fantasy theme with goblins, orcs, mages and swords. But that's a different game so nobody cares about it for now.

About Gameplay. 
As I told you a moment ago, Sanctum is a tower defense game. Which means that there are a lot of waves. Your main mission is to protect one big, round blue ball. The ball probably has a name, but since it wasn't mentioned anywhere (maybe it was in the tutorial) I have completely forgot it.You have to defend it from various creatures such as weird creatures with tentacles that fly, weird looking dragons, some kind of alien that looks like that alien from Falling Skies and so on and on. Those aliens will try to come to your ball and destroy it through the shortest route they can find. That's why your are here. You need to build blocks to make the way for Aliens as long as it can possibly be. After you are done with that, you need to build various weapons inside of those blocks (or on top of them.).

In Sanctum the maps aren't as easy as they are in other tower defense games. In Sanctum there could be some old objects on the path which means that you can't build any kind of barricade there, but Monsters might walk around it. Now that seems like a bad thing, but i like it. It means that you need to think even harder to be able to win. But don't worry, the game shows you where exactly will the monsters walk so it makes the game a lot easier and more fun!

Sanctum has various weapons and floor modifications starting from a small assault rifle that you use to kill creatures, all the way to anti-air creature weapons that are not controlled by players. Players can usually chose 3 weapons that they will use in game for themselves, and at least 5 more constructions that they will use to fight creatures with. The guns that you use by yourself are very good and powerful, but everybody needs a bit of help and that's why constructions are made. You can make a floor that will slow enemies down so you can shoot at them more accurately, or you can build a mortar that will shoot at enemies as soon as they get into range. Thought, of course, even constructed weapons might miss, so don't relay on them fully!

All constructed weapons and the weapons have weakness that you have to be aware of. For example, shotgun is very powerful but it can't hit anything after like 10 meters. And it has a long, long reloading. Aliens also have weaknesses. There are different types of aliens raging from tiny, fast but with very low hp, all the way to those big ones with very thick armor, very slow movement speed and a decent amount of hp. You need to take all that into your plan when you are constructing an area for the aliens to walk through while you slowly kill all of them.

Another, very surprising thing about Sanctum is that even thought it's an indie game, it always has few servers and games up and running! That's very rare to see lately with an indie game. And Multiplayer is very fun too! Only problem about it is lag issues due to hosters. So don't blame the game for it! Blame hosters!







Graphic and Audio

The graphic in this game is great! The sight, sky, nature.. Everything about it has passed under great in my opinion. Even the creatures look great! Only bad thing is that character's breasts are very small so nobody can blame breasts for being distracted and losing xD . At first sight I thought that music will get very boring in this game after some time, but I was very wrong! The music is always very calm, but yet awesome, so I never even thought about turning the sound off. I am even thinking of buying the game's soundtrack!

Pros, cons and final grade.
Pros:
- Unique gameplay.
- Cheap and yet very fun.
- Maps aren't as easy to beat as they are in all other tower defense games.
- Sounds and visuals are amazing!
- Great amount of different structures (constructed weapons) and user-owned weapons.
- Teleporting to any teleport on the map (you can build your own teleport anywhere you want.)

Cons:
- Too many DLC's. In my opinion, if all the DLC's were free and just inserted into the game, there would be a lot more players.
- There are no game-hosted servers. Everything is user-hosted so there may be lag.
- One game takes a lot of time to beat... This game is very time consuming.
- Game is very hard to learn for beginners. Thought, once you learn it you can beat any map on any difficulty!

Final grade: 8/10



Extra info: In case that you are looking for a relatively cheap and yet very fun game to play with your friends / mates / clan buds, this is the game for you! It's cheap, and yet it is good enough to be played over and over again until you starve to death! This game gets my full recommendation if you are low on budget and you are searching for something that will entertain you until you get those 120€ to buy BF3 and Skyrim!

Wolfie