Sanctum

I really really want to love sanctum, I really like the idea here and part of the execution, it just... Doesn't work?
I'd fully recommend picking up this game, both titles are cheap to pick up with a lot of content, although it is very much something to turn your brain off to which I think is not something anyone would want with a tower defense game.

Sanctums biggest problem is just how much the game drives itself, there aren't really variables to worry about, nothing interesting to try or experiment with. It throws out the concept of building the path from a set area, but in reality this does nothing but slow down the game and make it awkward to navigate since you don't need to think about the pathway beyond making it snake as long as possible so the enemies have to walk longer and you can put down more towers. It adds first person shooting mechanics, but this is just to make you not get bored while the enemies slowly trudge through your towers which is nice, but the problem with the mechanic in the first place is that you need to balance the guns to both be less important than the towers but still meaningful to use. Except how do you make the shooting engaging when it's just point and click? They're not directly attacking you, there aren't really any enemies that require skill to shoot save for 1 enemy.

Sanctum falls into not answering the later question and for the first question they didn't make the guns strong enough since you can literally just ignore your weapons and be fine.

I know there are answers to every single problem sanctum has, there are ways to make it interesting, but all the towers are simple, there's nothing engaging about the path building and the shooting is in nearly every aspect except for the description an afterthought. I am playing the game 13, nearly 14 years too late, but the reason I want to list all these issues is for the fact that there's nothing on the market that TRIES to do ALL of these aspects and succeeds. Sanctum is the closest and I respect it for that and I'll gladly recommend the mediocre td game here in all it's glory, but ultimately all this game has done is make me come up with a list of ideas for a third game to be amazing.


1: have a separate view for the building, make it simple and easy to navigate instead of doing it from the first person perspective, or justify the perspective in some way so it's at the very least immersive if not useful instead of an annoyance

2: no grid system, have some other path structure to make it more freeform, I like the idea of being able to slowly extend the length of the path as you make it multi-levelled, just limited by cost as you balance it with getting towers and upgrading your weapons, make the setting around the core base the obstacle to expansion, like giant stalactites making you need to build around it.

3: interesting towers, have towers that would encourage different ways of building, there's the hollow block to enhance damage, and the penetrator block turret, but those don't really change the methodology of building by a whole lot, ideally have the towers function differently depending on how you build the path, a straight hallway might be perfect for a turret to shoot wildly through all the enemies packed in a straight line, maybe a sniper tower could use it because now that the enemies are in a straight line it can punch through more than a few, maybe you want a roof to add a debuff to the enemies walking through but that will block any turrets that aren't built into the sides of blocks. etc... There's plenty of ways to make it interesting.

4: enemies, maybe have a jumping enemy that would require a roof built, maybe there's one that walks extra slow but it has an area of effect that strengthens enemies that might require repositioning to allow the turrets to target enemies when not in the buffs range. Maybe that's an opportunity to have a large cycling block in the environment that can rotate to allow certain turrets to be swapped out when necessary, (hell maybe an environment forces you to use a restricted amount of power so you can only have a limited amount of energy to run each turret). Maybe enemies will sabotage turrets forcing repairs that would encourage you to have a watchful eye with your weapon.

5: player, there are a lot of ways to make the player aspect much more engaging, unique enemies that might cause tower sabotage so you need to do repairs, but maybe you can have manual pilot aiming for towers that might benefit from the extra touch, you can play it safe by just introducing enemies that are only countered by players like that, but that just might make people feel like it was an excuse to help justify the perspective, in reality it's more a matter of justifying to the player why the world requires you to be there, making the gunplay on the players end feel necessary which can be done through enemies as described, but why not take it a step further? Borrow a bit from binary domain and have enemies react based on how they're hit? Shoot their legs and now they can't move as fast, maybe enough shots to the head makes them concussed, they'll occasionally stop or bump into walls, maybe have some perilous environments where you built a bridge with no rails over a void, maybe this particular path sacrifices some building opportunities, but now you have the perfect spot to confuse some enemies.

Bottom line there's a lot I've thought about, it probably all wouldn't work, it probably all is nonsense or overly ambitious and definitely a waste of time on my end, but my point is this

Sanctum has a cool idea that maybe had good execution for the time, but now it's a raggedy beggar on the street that you remember was pretty successful person at one point and you don't know why they're not trying anything to get their life back on track. Check out the game, solid time, I wish there was something to follow the second game up.

Some pretty weird decisions makes this a somewhat unique tower defense game, for better or for worse. In most cases, for worse.

For instance, there are levels with up to 30 waves. Although there are checkpoints every few waves, this is one of those FPS/TD hybrids, so you can't just build your maze and afk, because the game expects you to do the heavy lifting with your weapons; meaning, you'll have to babysit them by being the main source of DPS, even at higher upgrade levels. This is compounded by the fact that enemies have sweet spots on their bodies that you have to hit if you want to actually deal damage. It can get pretty tedious.

Also, kinda have to parkour in order to get around the map, lest you fall off the map, and die which is made worse by the fact that the movement is stiff. This only serves to annoy players with stupid deaths, such as when you're trying to backpedal away from enemies to kite them, only to fall into a pit that had no reason to be there, and having to waste time bringing up the map, and respawning yourself. It's made worse by the fact that, if enemies touch you, they can bounce you off the map, while also messing up your aim. This can lead into situations where you accidentally fall into your maze, only to get run over by a billion critters, get ragdolled around in the process, while your cursor bounces haphazardly around the screen, as if you had a severe case of Parkinson's.

I still recommend buying it (on sale), however. Some of your weapons/towers feel satisfying to use, enemy design is strangely charming, and most of the maps function well, while also being beautiful.

You had to be there.

Some pretty weird decisions makes this a somewhat unique tower defense game, for better or for worse. In most cases, for worse.

For instance, there are levels with up to 30 waves. Although there are checkpoints every few waves, this is one of those FPS/TD hybrids, so you can't just build your maze and afk, especially since player weapons are better than any of the towers; meaning, you'll have to babysit them by being the main source of DPS, even at higher upgrade levels. This is compounded by the fact that enemies have sweet spots on their bodies that you have to hit if you want to actually deal damage. It can get pretty tedious, and eventually strenuous.

Also, you more or less have to parkour in order to get around the map, but the movement is kinda stiff, to say the least. You can actually fall and die in this game too, and getting back into the level requires you to use a preexistent spawn point, or to use one you built yourself. To be honest, this adds nothing to the game, and only serves to annoy the players with stupid deaths, such as when you're trying to slowly backpedal away from enemies while kiting them, only to fall into a pit that had no reason to be there, and having to waste time bringing up the map, and respawning yourself. Last but not least, for whatever reason they made it so that, if the enemies touch you, they'll mess up your aim and ricochet you around, except it resets each time a different enemies touches you. This can lead into situations where you accidentally fall into your maze, only to get run over by a billion critters, get ragdolled around in the process, while your cursor bounces rapidly around the screen as if you had a severe case of Parkinson's. Nevermind the fact that they can actually push you often the map, which is probably one of the worst aspects about this game, even if you can avoid it by simply not colliding with enemies.

I still recommend buying it (on sale), but honestly you can easily die without ever playing this, even if you're a TD enthusiast.

One of the best tower defense games I've ever played- very disappointed it took me this long to play it. I love being able to fight alongside my towers instead of sitting there with my dick in my hands and watching them do all the work like most tower defense games.

This game is fun, and it adds exciting gameplay with the merge of FPS and TD. But the flaws are very clear. This game is very repetitive. You have 6 guns and a decent selection of towers... thats it. You dont unlock anything because the game has no level system like Sanctum 2. You start with EVERYTHING. The enemy variety is okay but gets stale kind of quick. You also have no sense of danger in this game as enemies cannot hurt you. If they run into you all that happens is you get knocked back and your screen shakes. If you fall off the map there is no penalty, just select a televator to respawn at and bam your back. The gun variety sucks. 6 guns? Thats it? It sucks. The towers themselves get stale as considering the options you have, the game limits you since the towers are not balanced very well. The Slowfield is also basically required if you want to go late game in survival because the enemy health scaling is terrible. Enemies get very strong very fast.

This game feels very punishing if you are playing solo, because playing solo on any mode that isnt easy difficulty is a chore. The DLC's are okay. It's just more Sanctum 1. No new guns or towers, just one new enemy that shoots a projectile at you every so often to deal 0 damage and knock you back. The secrets are actually pretty good, if you can get to them as they hide a neat bit of lore (as much lore as this game has which is almost none to begin with) and an achievement. You can actually find Haigen Hawkins, a playable character in Sanctum 2, on the Yogscave map and some bio or description about Sweet Autumn on Facility. The game for 2011 looks GORGEOUS, its not as good as Sanctum 2 but in fairness that game came out 2 years later. The maps look beautiful in this game.

This game lacks in many ways but that doesnt mean its fun. It's not pointless to get it like Super Sanctum is but you'd do yourself a favour by getting Sanctum 2 over this game. Sanctum 2 is better in almost every way. It's fun but if you play this game and like it, there is no reason to not play Sanctum 2.

bro play it

What's here looks more dated then it actually is. and after about an hour with with floaty combat, you begin to settle into a pretty relaxing and engaging tower defense game.

This game is better than 2....

Must have best TD ever

all the drama at the dnc

it's a fun game.

This is a great Turret defence game. They allow you to customize what turrets you going to battle with. If your dont want to let the turrets do all the work you can upgrade your guns. They also let you swap out your guns to fit your play style.

Fun and exciting game.

I hate this game so much, but it's fun. It's god damn fun, I go into it every time not wanting to play and it sucks me into a good time every time

Best Game , Must play