Sanctum 2 Review

By – Thomas Faust

When the original Sanctum was released in 2011, the marriage of tactical tower placement and fast-paced FPS gameplay seemed like a breath of fresh air. Wave-based TD games always had problems with making the downtime between placing your towers exciting, so putting yourself on the battlefield seemed like the natural thing to do. This made the game more engaging indeed, but it also felt a bit gimmicky. You and your little guns couldn’t really turn the tide of battle; it was all about those huge, powerful towers reducing the enemy waves to ashes. But still, shooting hundreds of aliens in long, tense 4-player co-op sessions felt incredibly good, so there was a lot of anticipation built up amongst the fan base.

Fast forward two years and Coffee Stain Studios released Sanctum 2 with promises stating, “more of everything”. They certainly kept their word.  With 16 levels, 8 weapons, and 4 different character classes to choose from, there is a lot more to do right out of the box. Additional DLC has already been announced and there’s a Season Pass available that gets you all future expansion packs at a reduced price. The multiplayer experience has been overhauled as well. It is now even easier to drop in or out of multiplayer games, and you can specify who exactly is allowed to join your ongoing game. It also scales rather nicely, with each additional player adding more resources to the pool but also increasing the overall challenge. This way, the game’s difficulty is well-balanced. There is an easy mode, but it skews the game balance a little too much in your favor and is not really recommended.

The gameplay has remained the same for the most part. With up to four human players, you’re tasked to defend each level’s core from waves of different alien species. In each building phase you gain a small number of tower bases that can be used to alter the invaders’ path. You also get a very limited amount of towers which can be placed on those bases and turned into veritable killing machines by way of upgrades. Constructing new towers as well as upgrading existing ones costs resources, so you’ll have to carefully balance quantity against quality.

Unlike the first Sanctum, the amount of towers you’ll be able to place is severely limited. The stages can be quite big, and 15 towers is not much especially when there are enemies coming from more than one direction. Thus, tower placement is even more important than in your average TD game. Those guns that felt like an afterthought in the first game become so much more important here. Prepare to do most of the work yourself with your towers merely helping out when the enemy hordes become too overwhelming.

This change in focus actually led to a small outcry from disappointed fans, who expected the sequel to be more akin to the first game. Coffee Stain Studios promptly responded and released a couple of patches that raised the tower limit and made a couple of small, but very effective improvements. In fact, most of my initial criticisms (tower limit, player griefing, UI lacking important information) have been fixed only a few days after release. It is good to see developers keeping a close eye on the wishes and concerns of their player base, and while this won’t change the general shift towards a more action-oriented experience, it sure helped to appease the skeptics.

Another new feature is character customization. Completing stages gives you experience and lets you level up, which in turn unlocks new things for you to use such as towers, guns, and perks. Those upgrades allow you to further strengthen your play style. Do you like to get up close and personal with the shotgun? Choose a perk that slows and automatically damages all nearby enemies every few seconds.  Are you worried about your core being overrun? Pick a perk that heals the core after every wave and another that stuns all enemies attacking the core. Experimenting with different loadouts and perks is basically a meta-game in itself and offers quite a bit of extra depth. All in all, there’s a strong sense of progression through these gameplay mechanics alone. This is a good thing, since the lackluster story that is told during loading screens didn’t really manage to keep me interested.

This is neatly tied to the way Sanctum 2 handles difficulty. Apart from easy mode there is only normal difficulty. However, you can enable so-called Feats of Strength which change certain aspects of the game such as enemy health, enemy speed, and so forth. Not only do these feats make the levels harder; they also force you to rethink strategy and adapt to these new conditions. In exchange for making your life miserable, enabling Feats of Strength nets you more experience, thus letting you level up faster. It’s an elegant system that allows you to modify the challenge to your liking.

Conclusion – Is It Worth The Money?

I had a great time with Sanctum 2 – it’s the perfect antidote for players burnt out on the standard tower defense formula. I like the fact that, instead of spamming towers, you actually have to think a lot more carefully where to place them. Add to that the noticeable impact the shooting has, and you’ve got yourself an engaging and challenging action game with tactical elements. Just don’t go in expecting a “pure” tower defense game with some additional shooting. I consider the $14.99 spent on Sanctum 2 to be such a good investment that I’m thinking of getting the Season Pass for $11.99 as well. If Coffe Stain Studios’ support and track record of listening to their players so far is any indication, this will be a fine year for Sanctum 2.