Game Review: Sanctum 2

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#sanctum2 #gaming #steam #towerdefense #FPS #PCGaming

Sanctum2, just like the first sanctum, sanctum two is a mash up of two of the greatest casual gaming genre's out there.  A tower defense game, paired up with a first person shooter, makes for one heck of an entertaining example of modern gaming is capable of.  Not just for those who dig a nice story driven game, which this has a story, but for those who may just have 30 minutes to kill.  Though I may not have paid much attention to the story after about the third level, I was more focused on the strategy and challenge this game had to offer.

Lets first focus on the first person shooter part of this game.  As you'll be spending a lot more time being a first person shooter than a tower strategist.  There are five different characters to choose from Skye Autumn uses and assault rifle, Sweet Autumn uses a weapon called "Rex" aka a rocket launcher, Simo is a random robot with a sniper rifle, Haigen Hawkins with a shotgun, and Tsygan with a Ballista.


Skye Autumn


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Skye is that character we just kind of naturally gravitate to for our first run around.  She's got a wicked assault rifle, and who doesn't hate an assault rifle?  She has a slowly elevated attack damage which is pretty sweet, but bare in mind its for each attack she gets on a single enemy it builds, it drops once you shoot another enemy.  And that seems to be a bit problematic with an assault rifle, you're going to be constantly moving.  She's very single enemy focused and can't really run around and go for multiples.  If you plan on being a single minded player and go for one baddy at a time, this may be a good choice for you.

Sweet Autumn

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What else is there you can say about a rocket launcher?  I mean if you want to deal some good AOE and get DOT, this is one crazy sucka who rocks it hard core.  With a good amount of splash damage as well as added fire burning.  Sweet is a force to be recogned with.  But as with all games the rocket launcher has one serious flaw, small carry capacity mixed with long reload times, you better make your shots count.  One missed shot just throws off your whole deal.  Still a pretty low end difficulty if you just aim for the ground and giggle.

Simo
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Simo, the sniper rifle wielding robot, want to talk about a badass?  This guy is a badass, I mean if you're in the singled minded mentality and want to just rape a baddy, a sniper is and always be one of the best routes, but same as the rocket launcher it has to be on point.  But unlike the rocket launcher, if you miss and hit the ground, you get no fall back.  You need to make that shot stick, and make it worth it.  With the added bonus of dealing extra damage when shooting weakspots, SiMo can seriously own a game, but you have to be a pretty elite player to make that work.

Haigen Hawkins
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I won't lie, I played a little with Haigen, and I honestly just wasn't impressed, after playing games like Halo and Left 4 Dead, I was hoping a shotgun wielding smug face punk would've been a reckoning force, but turns out this guy just doesn't really do it for me.  Yeah his bonus is close range, no-one told you you had to be sniffing the enemies face with the shotgun to make it worth it.  When you have a swarm of spitting weird aliens coming at you, you can't exactly take 'em all on without getting a crap load of damage, or at least dying once.  Maybe someone else likes him, but I did two rounds and couldn't take it.  I might try again later and give him a second chance.

Tsygan
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Time to show my bias and who I think the best character is, Tsygan is equipped with a Ballista, or some form of 6 shot semi automatic crossbow, thing is wicked, its not the most powerful thing in the world, but each shot counts, doesn't need any special range to make it formidable, but 6 shots of pure and epic bliss.  The last shot deals massive damage, and that could be rather important.  But not just that, her secondary attack (right click) fires a pulsating electirc orb that sticks to the enemies chest or the ground and anyone near them gets damage including whatever its stuck to.  Aka you get that spitter in his little orgy of friends, load 'em up with a couple pulsating electric happy times, its awesome.  Unlocked a perk that awarded me a double mag size, and I don't think I've ever been 2nd place or lower on the DPS chart (for players).

Tower Defense Portion
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So these are our characters, I can't really fully explain the game without explaining this part.  The tower defense portion.  Each round you're awarded these little bumper looking things, your team is as well.  The objective is to make a maze that the enemy has to get through before they can get to your glowy orb base thingy.  I believe the first round you generally get 17 bumpers amongst the team, and you have to work together, or rage with one another to figure out the best possible solution.  This part here can potentially be the biggest challenge, some people, for lack of better words, are complete and utter idiots and shouldn't be allowed to play video games, where as others are completely intelligent and respectful.

no-respect-goblinbyte.jpgWhat I mean by this is you make a zig zag, enemies run down the zig zag, getting attacked multiple times by the same cannons, fully maximizing your attack power and your ground usage.  I may have played a game or two where the person made a straight line to the glowy orb and then said the reason we were losing is because I was a newb.  Yes that is my gamer alias "The President" and I'm level 14, the guy I was playing with was level 3.  We had an epic cursing match, and I rage quit.  People can suck.

On the other end of the spectrum there are some pretty awesome people who are willing to coordinate the best means of attack, usually everyone has unique towers, or hopefully they do, and you can mash up quite an arsenal of unique towers that'll benefit and compliment one another.  These games are some of the most fun when you have people actually working together for a common good.  Instead of just jackass trolls who have nothing better to do since their mom wouldn't give them a ride to the mall.

Tower Up Lets Go

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Alright solider, towers are up, you confirmed you're ready to go, time for the game to get fun.  Keep in mind you have to work together with a team to get this done, don't be all nimbly bimbly and say "I will only cover this one entrance point."  That's one way you get marked as a jackass.  Don't be a jackass.  Instead strategies with your team, you're going to have to maximize the strengths of each character.  Things such as having Haigen stand in the rows and draw fire since he's going to have to be up close, he can distract enemies and make them take longer to get to the end.

The game begins throwing hoards of enemies with different strengths and weaknesses in from different entry points.  Hopefully your towers are set up in a way that will hold back the hoard and giving you a chance to take out some as well.  Don't be discouraged but the towers are going to do more damage, just kind of the nature of the beast.  But keep in mind there can be 20 towers and 4 players, if 4 players can make 50% of the damage, then your participation is pretty important.  You can't afk through this game.

As far as the story goes, I really can't tell you what happens or why.  Despite there being a story I've done random game joins and haven't fully played through in a single shot to figure out who why or what.  I just want to knuckle down, set some towers up, say some curse words on my microphone, and rage on some pesky mutant alien things.  And of course level up to get more mighty towers and squash the opponents.  I have completed it, even did the final level, just not sure what happened, don't really care either, the game is just sheer fun.

Conclusion


This game is awesome, has a more sci-fi feel to it then games that are similar such as dungeon defender.  It takes actual skill as well as trial and error to be successful.  I think this has replaced TF2 for my "I'm bored and want to play something" game, highly recommend it to anyone.
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