[h1]Sum-Up[/h1]
[h3]In-depth analysis further down.[/h3]
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[th]🟩 [b]Pros[/b][/th]
[th]🟥 [b]Cons[/b][/th]
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• Excellent variety of weapons, perks and towers, that allow creating builds to suit any playstyle.
• Compelling progression, that unlocks new, interesting things frequently to use in the next levels.
• All weapons, towers and most perks feel useful in their own way, with little redundancy.
• Masterfully-designed gameplay that perfectly balances strategy and player skill.
• Great art direction combined with a banger soundtrack, lead to epic moments and memorable battles.
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[td]
• Bad progression pacing, that will leave many perks and towers locked even after finishing the campaign and all DLCs, and entails a lot of grinding.
• Low replay value: the Feats of Strength modifiers aren’t a game changer, and there’s no incentive to replay levels with them beyond achievements.
• The pathfinding of a few enemies is arbitrary and doesn’t always correspond to the one shown by the UI, ruining your strategy in the process.
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[th]🟨 [b]Bugs & Issues[/b][/th]
[th]🔧 [b]Specs[/b][/th]
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[td]
• You may get stuck in some places, and have to suicide to get out.
• Rarely, enemies may get stuck doing nothing.
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[td]
• 3900X
• 2080Ti
• 32GB RAM
• SSD
• 1440p
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[td][b]Content & Replay Value:[/b][/td]
[td]It took me, alongside my partner, 16 hours to complete the main campaign, plus another 16 to clear the four additional DLCs. The replay value is low, unless you specifically hunt for achievements, as there are no features that warrant replaying levels multiple times. Endless mode is there for those interested.[/td]
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[td][b]Is it worth buying?[/b][/td]
[td]Yes. The base price of 15€ is fair for this content amount and good quality. The DLCs, especially if discounted, are as well worth buying for what they offer.[/td]
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[td][h3]Verdict: Very Good[/h3]
[url=https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2548409603]Rating Chart Here[/url][/td]
[td]An exciting tower defense that shines best in co-op with a friend or three. Despite some issues, it’s still one of the best examples for this subgenre to date.[/td]
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[quote]Follow our Curator page, [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/41449676/]Summit Reviews[/url], to see more high-quality reviews regularly.[/quote]
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3002765569
[h1]In-Depth[/h1]
[h3]Writing & Worldbuilding[/h3]
The story of Sanctum 2 sees humanity colonize a distant planet, Loek 3, much to the dismay of the local fauna, the Lumes. It just so happens that the energy signature of the Power Cores used in human settlements attract these creatures, an extremely hostile and dangerous spore-based lifeform. Skye Autumn is the leader of a ragtag team of conscripts tasked with defending critical assets and ensuring the colonization effort’s success; far from an easy task.
Skye & Co.’s exploits will be narrated through cutscenes and comic-style panels, excellently drawn and engaging to read while the next mission loads. It’s not a complex story nor a brilliant one, but it does the job and accurately depicts humanity’s struggle against the Lumes, and also the dark sides ever-present in men.
Set in an ensemble of half-ruined, under-attack colonies, settlements and, later on in DLCs, the huge city of Elysion 2, Sanctum’s levels convey the feelings of ongoing conflict, hopeless resistance and bleakness. Humanity is certainly going up against an entire planet of endlessly-spawning creatures, and that’s not going well. The design of locations is rich in detail, and the observant players will be enticed by the minute accuracy used by the devs in creating these locales.
[h3]Building Phase & Strategy[/h3]
Each level starts with a building phase that, barring exceptions, gives you all the time to plan your defense as you wish. You’ll have a certain amount of resources and tower bases to place: the former are used as currency to buy towers, while the latter are solid blocks that most enemies can’t destroy or pass, and will be used to build your own, custom path to delay the enemy as much as possible before reaching the Core. Strategizing about tower placements, ranges and so on is an important part of gameplay, as it should be in tower defense titles. You’ll also be able to set the towers’ target priority, so that they are focused on weaker, stronger, closer enemies based on your needs.
Reselling and moving your towers and blocks can be done during each building phase in-between waves, without losing any money in the process, unless you have a specific Feat of Strength (optional modifiers that grant slightly better XP) activated. You’ll have to often adapt your strategy to new oncoming threats, and it may very well happen that, for a specific wave, you’ll need to rethink your whole defense strategy. This flexibility is one of the factors that makes Sanctum 2 great.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3004901429
[h3]Combat Phase & Bosses[/h3]
Once a wave starts, enemies will start pouring from one or multiple spawns, trying to reach, attack and ultimately destroy the Core. You’ll be directly involved in the defense, as your character will have two weapons and three passive perks to employ against the enemy. What you’ll actually be doing is largely up to you: be a support, and give passive auras to nearby towers and debuff enemies, or make the Core more resilient to attacks. Or instead, be a ranged sniper with massive long-distance damage, or again a melee DPS with high-risk, high-reward playstyle - because of course, enemies will attack you and kill you, making you respawn after a delay (at no penalty, though).
Most enemies, especially bosses, will have glowing areas acting as Weakspots, sometimes the only way to damage them effectively. Your intervention will be often fundamental, as turrets aren’t always smart or accurate enough to counter all enemy types alone. The bosses, in many cases, have the ability to destroy your towers, but can be countered and kited in smart ways if you’re skilled enough.
[h3]Character Progression & Customization[/h3]
Levels, be them a victory or defeat, will award a certain amount of XP based on enemy kills, wave reached and eventual modifiers. That being said, you won’t unlock nearly all available perks, weapons and towers at the end of the base campaign, and not even after all DLCs: I can’t fathom why the devs left all this stuff locked past tedious grind, even after all the game’s content has been cleared already. If more XP was given, the variety could be even better, as there isn’t a point in keeping unlocking things after everything was cleared already.
In any case, your character can be equipped with two weapons (one locked to their default one, which sucks), three perks and four towers. Playing in co-op is recommended, as having only four towers without any friend to have another four is just not good enough - but that’s fine in the end, as this game was designed and intended for co-op. It does penalize single players, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to solo.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3001618840
[h3]Secrets & Other Game Modes[/h3]
Each map is fully explorable, with very few invisible walls or other obstacles. Some of these areas extend well beyond the combat zone, and can lead to secrets and Easter eggs sometimes tied to achievements. It’s a nice addition to unwind between waves.
Other game modes include Survival (Endless) which pits you against infinite enemies that become stronger with each wave, and also randomly activates feats of strength, modifiers that make the game harder, each five waves. Sandbox is a testing ground for you to experiment with towers and building, while Easy Mode is there for you if you find the normal difficulty too hard.
