Sanctum ReviewAuthor: jawapro
Date: Fri 11/11/2011 11:46 AM
It occurred to me last night that I haven’t posted for a while and my website still thinks it’s my sister’s birthday (which it isn’t anymore).
I was trying to work out where all the time had gone - and there’s a simple answer to that - Sanctum!
Sanctum is an odd sort of computer game. You play as a weird looking anime chick - but don’t worry about that - you can’t see yourself. Instead what you can see are waves and waves of aliens trying to attack the reactor or stargate or whatever the thing you’re trying to protect is called. Probably the ‘Sanctum’. As you can tell - story is not this game's strong suite.
Like most first person games, you run around with guns and shoot things. Unlike most games, the bad guys don’t attack you. They just walk in the most direct route to the reactor thing and damage it unless you kill them first. And apart from the first couple of waves, it isn’t possible for you to kill them before they do - not on your own.
As well as being a shooter, Sanctum is a Tower Defence game. For those who didn’t know, Plants Vs Zombies is also a Tower Defence game - in case you’ve played that.
In Sanctum you use large blocks to make a ‘maze’. The aliens will take the shortest route to the reactor, so you make that route as long as possible. This gives you more chances to attack them. You also place towers that will also attack them. Generally the towers do the bulk of the work for you - but it takes a lot of strategy to work out what towers to put where and whether it’s worth spending your winnings on more towers, upgrading existing towers, or upgrading your hand weapons.
A massive horde of weak aliens need lots of little guns, while a few tough big aliens need powerful guns - so it's always a trade-off. And then you get the flying aliens who need different tactics again!
It’s also co-op, so up to 4 people can work together, building the maze and defending the base.
It’s ridiculously fun - even if it looks completely daft on first glance.
Highly recommended...
(an example of a ‘maze’)
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