Sanctum Review

Trends in gaming are frequently influenced by other areas of the media - it could be argued that the success of the original Medal of Honor and Call of Duty titles was partly down to being released shortly after Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers respectively; allowing the games to ride the wave of popularity, as well as being inspired by their unofficial source material. Unfortunately, as with all media, trends fall out of favour - either due to changes in fashions and tastes, or as is more often the case, due to over-saturation - as anyone who lived through the great WWII-shooter binge of the early 21st century will readily testify.

During the later stages of any trend, it becomes increasingly important to bring original ideas to the table in order to stand out, rather than simply doing the same thing as the competitors are doing (but better). The tower defence genre is reaching the height of its popularity; so much so that it can currently be considered a genre of its own, as opposed to be merely a sub-genre of the broader real-time strategy genre.

With its roots in custom maps for RTS games such as Warcraft III, tower defence burst into the mainstream during the surge in popularity of Flash game websites and the wider notion of "casual gaming". Subsequent developers have set out to reclaim the genre for the more traditional gaming community that spawned it in the first place, releasing fully-fledged, stand-alone titles; a number of them, such as Defense Grid: The Awakening and Plants vs. Zombies, receiving a significant positive response from critics and gamers alike.

Such rambling introductions brings us to Sanctum, the latest in a recent surge of tower defense titles. As is the staple of the genre, Sanctum sees the player facing increasingly powerful waves of enemies hell-bent on disrupting your all-important Core, by walking into it; requiring the player to construct an elaborate maze of block and turrets, in order to slow the enemy progress and ultimately eliminate them. Sanctum dons it's "I'm different" hat by putting the player amongst the action, gun in hand, resulting in an interesting first-person shooter hybrid.

Sanctum is by no means the first game to allow the player to provide additional firepower to complement their turrets - Iron Grip: Warlord and Toy Soldiers, for example, have previously given the player first- and third-person control respectively over their defences. Sanctum seeks to emphasise this extra tool in the player's arsenal by giving them one key advantage over the regular turrets - weak points. Each enemy has a weak point, which won't necessarily be targeted by turrets, and would otherwise only be hit as a result of weapon spread. The player's interaction is even more important when faced with enemies such as the Bobble Head, which is immune to all damage unless focused on it's humorously buttock-shaped head.

Turrets available to the player fit into the all the customary categories - high rate of fire but low damage, high damage but low rate of fire, anti-air, etc., and are upgradable as additional funds are earned from defeating enemy waves. Each turret must be placed on top of separately purchased blocks, which are used to make up the maze; whilst televators (combinations of teleporters and elevators) allow the player to quickly travel around the map or gain access to the prime firing position on top of the walls.

Players themselves are limited to a choice of three weapons - a machine gun with grenade launcher, a sniper rifle and a freeze gun; a fourth minigun/shotgun hybrid is mentioned within the in-game encyclopedia, however is not currently obtainable. Each weapon has its own charge meter, which for the machine and freeze guns, is depleted at an increased rate when the secondary fire is used. Charge is replenished when not in use, however if completely depleted, the weapon must fully recharge before being usable again. The sniper rifle, on the other hand, doesn't replenish its energy and is limited to a certain number of shots before needing to recharge. Thankfully the game doesn't force players to sit through extended reload animations whilst enemies bear down upon them; the weapons continue to recharge even when not selected, meaning that when the going gets tough, it's almost always possible to switch to an alternative weapon.

As helpful as the weapons are, the key to victory remains in maze construction - ideally players will want to make the longest route possible, whilst maximising the length of time enemies are exposed to towers. Unlike most tower defence games, enemies waves aren't spawned according to a timer, giving the player limitless time to build and upgrade between the alien onslaught. This, combined with the fact that the basic blocks can be sold for the purchase price, means it's entirely possible to spend hours perfecting your maze design before any enemies make an appearance. As a result, whilst it may be easier to ensure your maze is up to scratch, it does eliminate the sense of urgency between waves present in many other games in the genre.

At launch, the game only contains three maps - one consists of a large open space, giving the most scope for maze building; the other two feature multiple routes through the maps, with the player relying on block positioning to send enemies back and forth between the different sections of the map. Developers Coffee Stain Studios have confirmed a fourth map will be released (scheduled for around the time this review is due to be published), and promised to continue creating additional maps. All three maps are available in both single- and multiplayer modes. Singleplayer pits the player against a fixed number of predetermined waves across multiple difficulties; whereas multiplayer sees two players facing unlimited numbers of randomised waves - the developers hope to expand this to four players in a future update, but no time-scale has been specified as yet.

Although the endless mode and increased difficulty levels provide plenty of scope for replay; the lack of levels significantly hampers the amount of variety and, for some, may detract from the desire to keep playing the same maps - once the "optimum" maze has been found, the only remaining challenge lies in ensuring the most suitable turrets are in place ready for the waves that require them.

The game's budget price tag, along with the developers promises of ongoing updates, goes some way towards making up for the fact that, in its present state, the game is a little light in terms of content. By no means should this put you off if the game has taken your fancy; it's just that we'd advise buying alongside a friend, as the majority of the replayability is contained within the endless multiplayer.