Sanctum - First Person Shooter + Tower Defense

Hey if anybody is interested in the genre of FPS & TD then you should stop reading and go buy this now on steam very quickly while its 75% off ($3.75 game) otherwise its $15 full price witch is still pretty good.

I got it just by noticing it on the daily deals page and when I saw what it was I was like wow cool! But didn't give it full credit till I bought it and played it.

My first impressions are good, it plays smooth, the gameplay mechanics are top notch, graphics are good, uses U3 engine so it runs well and scales well on older hardware.

I'd have to image its weakest points are the fact that its only got 5 levels right now so you can "beat" the game probably in 4 or 5 hours on normal difficulty. However 2 things to off set this

1.) Its TD and you always replay the same levels, replay value is generated by the fact you can try tons of new strategies as far as placement of towers and type of towers trying to perfect your maze of death. The new layer of FPS means there is even more to do in this area as you have to upgrade your own weapons and learn the best places to be to shoot enemies and design you mazes around the fact you want to be able to navigate through them quickly.

2.) Online Co-Op for up to 4 players.

This second thing has me really interested. Most of my better steam friends from here on the forums like laid back games where we can just play together and have fun. So co-op games that are not competitive are prime targets. This game seems like it should be at the top of our list as its fun to play and really encourages teamwork and gives you time to chew the fat while building towers and stuff.

So I am trying to encourage you guys to buy it now on sale so you can be a part of this co-op experience. Join my friends list but most of all join the NBR Steam Gaming Group as well.

Steam Community :: Group :: Notebook Review

BTW I have already selected this game to be my next Let's Play series after I finish A.R.E.S Extinction Agenda (only one stage left for me on that game) so I will be recording videos and immortalizing them on youtube so if you have the game and are up for some VoIP on my Mumble server you can be a part of my videos.

 

I picked up Sanctum the other day, best $4 I've spent in awhile. Only beat the first 2 levels, a little stuck on the 3rd (was playing drunk, which makes it hard to snipe the bobbleheads), but it's tons of fun.

 

I picked it up when it was 75% too, its a fantastic game. Really like how they have balanced the use of guns and towers! Makes for a really different game and yet still familiar. And its sooo much fun when you play it 4 player co-op!

 

I picked it up yesterday and played it a little bit, it's fun so far. Co-op sounds like it would be fun in this game. I also joined the steam group, my steam id is the same as on here if anyone wants to play co-op sometime.

 

got it as a gift and it's a great game, but I feel it is a little too dependant on the FPS side, as in, my contribution to the fight. Not always, but at least in the third level i felt I would achieve nothing without my help.

 

the 3rd level is very fps dependent, besides they flier levels, mostly due to the bobbleheads who only you can kill. I suggest this level only when sober...super hard otherwise. Maxing the sniper rifle is a must.

 

Yeah... I HATED thos bobbleheads! and I wasn't even drunk! It's frustrating to not have a decent tower to help kill those. Specially when you have waves of mixed units with bobbleheads.

 

Just a tip for bobblehead haters: lightning and mortar towers when they are in slow fields or under freezing guns, combined with a sniper rifle takes care of them real quick

And like I told vic last night, gatling guns are probably best avoided... they're really only effective against those little runners, and you don't see those too often, especially later on.

 

I watched Totalbiscuit's 'hyper WTeff' is video of Sanctum and did not become too interested in it, so I missed the deal.

 

TB's video was not very good IMO I got my first LP video done today. Just need to encode and upload it.

 

I see.

The price is back to 100% though, so any potential purchase won't be possible until the next sale...black friday sales?

 

Not true, upgraded gatling + upgraded assault are the best for the later walker levels. lightning just attack too slow for the 50+ wave. a few slow grids inbetween a 12 gatling gun alley will soften them up quite a bit for you.

The only thing they're bad against are tanks, which are easilty taken out with an upped sniper rifle. You also need gatling guns for soakers, because nothing else attacks fast enough.

 

Is there a sale for this? Looks quite interesting to play in coop mode.

 

There was, it was on sale on steam yesterday and another day during the Summer Steam Sale.

 

not very fun. played it for an hour or so with 2 friends, not enough monsters or towers.

 

Worth $3 and change though isn't it?

 

It's pretty fun. I guess it can get repetitive but really fun if you can play with friends on voice chat, etc.

 

I know

They have new content coming, just look at how horrible the launch of Magicka was bugged to hell and it cost more and now its one of the more popular indie games just because they kept up on it and had a good concept.

They have polls running for voting on new content so there will be more stuff and its supposed to be FREE DLC not paid (yay I so support free DLC)

My look on these cheap games (sub $10) is that it cost about $10 for a movie ticket these days and that movie will hold me over for 2 hours.

So if a $5.00 game can hold me over for 1 hour I got the same value for my dollar.

Spoiler

Movies Cost $12 actually I think or even $14 without a discount, plus you have to account for gas cost, and then who goes to a movie without buying a drink and probably something to eat. Your lucky to get out of the movie for less than $20 and thats if your not buying more than one ticket, plus most movies are not even 2 hours long anymore, so my above scenario is really giving the movie to game time comparison the benefit of the doubt

 

Yeah. My general rule of thumb is usually $2/hr of gameplay. Aside from a few games with less gameplay (Portal 2 comes to mind), I try to stick to games that are < $25 now. $50 is just WAY too expensive except for that rare probably only once a year game that you MUST have. Battlefield 3 is one of those games. Haven't pre-ordered yet but I will be sure to. Otherwise most of these Indie games I always feel I get my monies worth.

 

my friend gifted to me so i got it for free. still not very fun, i would never buy a game like this. and i buy games like fear 3 to play coop for only 4 hours/50dollars

 

I have two copies of sanctum to give away since I bought the four pack, so will probably have a giveaway contest here soon. Just thinking of what to do!

 

My Let's Play is Live (First Episode of it)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47iQham0Q2k

Give the other 2 copies to people that plan to get on and play with us co-op.

I'll be producing 1 episode per day probably till I beat single player and squeeze in some co-op games when I can.

I need to log into mumble and make sure its working fine its been awhile since I used it. Some new issue where it wont auto load @ startup on my computer so I have to manually start the server.

 

I have a way you can start it as a service if that is not an inherent option in the program, so you don't even have to log on to your computer. I use it on my WHS for TeamSpeak 3 because my WHS likes to install updates on its own and reboot then my TS3 server is down until I log in.

 

I just put the .exe shortcut in my start folder and it used to work when the computer would reboot for updates.

Now though it seems like its trying to connect faster than my internet connection starts so it gets an error and instead of trying to reconnect properly I have to close it and open it again.

If I could just add a delay that would work and I am sure there is some way to do that.

 

I used a program a while ago that would let you delay programs at startup. I can't remember the name but a quick google search came up with a free program called Quick Startup which you could try.

I was going to mention that you couldn't hear the game audio in your Let's Play but it seems you already noticed that.

 

Yeah its uploading now. I made use of teamviewer and remuxed it on my desktop from work. Now YouTube just has to transcode it.

Having a bad day with video my final ARES Extinction Agenda video has 2 black out spots that Vegas is creating and after I rendered it again they are still there in the same spot :/

So that one I have to see if I can tackle when I get home.

P.S. Anybody know how to speed up teamviewer file transfer it seems to have an artificial cap of 160kb/s

Edit: not fully processed but its live.

Playlist: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL720BCD0C987A7CDB

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47iQham0Q2k

 

Not a fan of tower defense, so no go. Don't really get the whole point of it. I didn't like Warcraft III tower defense mode so probably won't like Sanctum either. Though I must say it does look very nice and can be a lot of fun.

 

seems really cool but missed the sale....liked your video vicious

 

I didn't know the TD genre until Plant vs. zombies... that was the first of the genre I played... until recently Defense Grid... right now I LOVE it. I want/need more TD games!!. Hope some of them get some deals soon... I'm looking at Anomaly: Warzone Earth, looks very good the "inverse TD". I regret not buying Sanctum

 

defense grid had all the extra maps for 3 tickets during the summer event. I have yet to beat defense grid actually.

 

Yep... I got those maps 2 days before buying the game xD

 

I played the original defense grid just never could finish the final level. I got ticked because I was so close but lost twice just before the end. So I just quit, couldn't get myself to go through it again.

I did get the expansion packs though, just haven't gone back in to play.

 

I just never got into Defense Grid too much. I guess i need to take the time to play through it one day.

Pacing just feels a bit bad for me I guess. I find myself using fast forward constantly just to keep my sanity and the towers just kinda dont feel awesome nor do the mobs.

Its a well designed game though.

Since its like SC2 with rather detailed models viewed from really far away it could be neat to say mod the game to look at the game from closer angles say a first person view of the aliens

 

Just got my first co-op game in me and HT!

It was pretty fun. We got on Mumble that was very important in both terms of communication and just in terms of making it fun.

Took us over an hour to do a 30 wave casual game, but we were both a bit on the slow side at first. We were just mowing through the game easy till near the end a few waves of air almost wiped us.

I hope more of you get on with us soon the more the merrier!

I tried to FRAPS it but I crashed fraps when I ran out of HDD space, like 300GB in a single recording :/

 

Yeah, I think if you play it more and on slightly harder difficulties it will be more interesting. I didn't have a clue what we were doing at first, but it ended up being pretty interesting and fun. I like the first person aspect added to it. Almost wish you could have that option with Defense Grid, except make it a little less dependent on the FPS aspect, and make it more of a last line of defense option. Although in Sanctum with more difficult levels even upgraded weapons aren't that effective against the monsters so you really have to plan your tower defense strategy appropriately and monitor the creatures coming through. I think a four player game would be hilariously fun but difficult.

(dang it's late, i went to bed but my kids kept waking up ... ok g'nite all)