''Sanctum'' is a

first-person shooter A first-person shooter (FPS) is a video game genre, video game centered on gun fighting and other weapon-based combat seen from a First person (video games), first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action directly through t ...

tower defense Tower defense (TD) is a Video game genre, subgenre of Strategy video game, strategy games where the goal is to defend a player's territories or possessions by obstructing the enemy attackers or by stopping enemies from reaching the exits, usual ...

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

, developed by independent developer

Coffee Stain Studios Coffee Stain Studios AB is a Swedish video game developer based in Skövde. Founded in 2010 by nine University of Skövde students, the company is best known for ''Goat Simulator,'' which was released in April 2014, and ''Satisfactory'', releas ...

. It was released on

Steam Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...

for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

on 15 April 2011. The successor, ''

Sanctum 2 ''Sanctum 2'' is a first-person shooter tower defense video game, developed by independent developer Coffee Stain Studios for Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The successor to ''Sanctum (2011 video game), Sanctum'', '' ...

'', was announced in 2012 and released in May 2013.

Plot

In ''Sanctum'', players take on the role of Skye, an elite soldier sent out to protect her home town, Elysion One, from hordes of mysterious alien creatures. To be successful in the task, the player will have to defend a "core" on each level. To accomplish this, the player builds defensive structures, and assists their structures by fending off the enemies themselves.

Gameplay

The gameplay in ''Sanctum'' is divided into the building phase and the extermination phase. In the building phase, the player builds structures on a pre-defined grid, using the eight 'towers' chosen at the start of the level. These towers include stationary weapons, teleporters for the player's use, and pads that affect enemies moving over them. The player can also upgrade any of the three weapons equipped at the start. Building and upgrading both cost points, which are gained when enemies are killed. In the extermination phase, a wave of one or more enemy types moves across the level towards the core. With each enemy that reaches the core, the condition of the core degrades from 100%; when the condition reaches 0%, the game ends. Unlike most tower defense games, the player is allowed to move about the level during this phase and attack enemies with different weapon types, much like in a typical first-person shooter. Touching enemies will result in the player being knocked back, but no damage is done. There are ten types of enemies in the game, three of which are air-borne. Because certain towers are more effective against certain enemies, and only a select few towers affect flying enemies, the player must plan for all possibilities when building defenses. To aid the player in this, information about upcoming waves is shown in the pause menu, as well as descriptions of the various enemies, towers, and weapons. The different enemy types have varying travel speeds,

hit points Health is a video game or tabletop game quality that determines the maximum amount of damage or fatigue something takes before leaving the main game. In role-playing games, this typically takes the form of hit points (HP), a numerical attribute ...

, and resistances. For example, Runners are weak and fast while Soakers have large health pools and travel slowly. Some enemies have complete immunity against certain towers (such as flying enemies not taking any damage from gatling gun towers). Other enemies include the Walker, Bobble-Head, Hoverer, and Tank. This variation of enemy traits forces the player to construct different tower types in order to mount a successful defense.

Development

The beta was made available to all people who pre-purchased the game on

. The beta only allowed players to play one map in both singleplayer and multiplayer.

Reception

''Sanctum'' received mixed reviews from critics. The review aggregation website

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

currently estimates a score of 70 out of 100, based on 22 reviews.

Sales

Sanctum sold more than 180.000 copies via digital distribution by August 2011.

References

External links

* {{Official website, www.coffeestainstudios.com/games/sanctum/ 2011 video games Coffee Stain Studios games Embracer Group franchises First-person shooters Indie games MacOS games Tower defense video games Unreal Engine 3 games Video games developed in Sweden Video games featuring female protagonists Windows games Multiplayer and single-player video games First-person strategy video games