Quick Look: EX: Sanctum 2

Excited for this!

I liked the first one - in theory, but I did not enjoy playing it. Hopefully, they improve the shooty aspect of this one...

Can't wait to fuck over some more people in multiplayer!

I ended up buying Sanctum along with all of the DLC for a few bucks quite some time after it was released, had a ton of fun with friends that way. I'll probably do the same with this one.

Oh right, I forgot I've actually played the first Sanctum. Who hasn't?

oh good, another quick look EX. :|

I like Ask Me Anythings. I hate EX's.

EX's = cant say what you actually think about it... nicey nice nice.

The face that you cant zoom out properly is rubbish, even in Black ops 2 you can zoom out in missions to see what's going on.

Meh

@gareff: Exactly. Brad and Vinny are clearly going out of their way to not say anything bad about this game, which is kind of the entire point of a quick look. I understand that this gives them a chance to see the game early and learn a bit about the game, but it's just not fun to watch.

Man, the character designs looks ROUGH, as in completely unfinished and ugly

It's amazing how many people complain about Quick Look EXs, I personally like to hear from the devs about their game and what they were going for with it.

I liked the first game, and this looks like more of that.

I generally don't like being that guy, but a robot sniper character who has emoticons display on its face? That's pretty much a direct rip of Zer0, right?

Oh wow. I'd heard "this summer" when the devs talked about it at a recent trade show. Didn't expect it next week already! Good stuff.

Hearing someone start half of their sentences with "actually" is a good sign that they are selling a shaky product

Sanctum 2: Sanctimonious

Pretty damn excited!

I'm surprised that Sanctum got a sequel. This does look alright though, and 15 bones is a decent price.

looks a bit like orcs must die, with a bit less charm.

Yeah the addition of coop is huge to Sanctum.


Should be noted, the original game had coop.

This is a PC game, is it not? Why the flying fuck does the FOV appear to be about 50 degrees?

And I have to say, this looks like it has the same issue that kept me from getting into the original: Your shots seem to do jack shit to mobs.

@cikame: That's what I was thinking when he said the huge addition of coop, because I remember playing the first one with friends.

If Feats of Strength is a Seinfeld reference, this game scored a few points with me

Props to Brad for being so friendly and making the two demo-ers feel comfortable.

I only ever played the demo of the first one, If I could rope in a friend I can see myself getting this somewhere down the line.

Also good on Vinny for calling you out as the bad guys, this seems like Lost Planet all over again!

Dropchord looks pretty cool. This does not.

Brad: "I wanna see the core blow up."

Other guy: "...."

At the end: "DEFEAT!"

How anti-climactic. And awkward.

I really enjoyed the first Sanctum and I would imagine a majority of the people talking shit in these comments would never or already never liked the first one anyway. I agree that an EX is never quite as preferable to an original but I'll take it for a small team keepin' on.

the original game had co-op dude

Now I know.

FPS + Tower Defense is a guarantee I will NEVER buy this game, actually I won't even think about pirating it, that's how uninterested I am in this genre combo.

I liked the first one, but this looks more clunky, especially the whole "retrieve your turrets and crates" each round. And also bummed nobody bought up Orcs Must Die in the course of this QL, as it always felt like the perfect hybrid of tower defense and action.

I think he was trying to say that the new class system made a huge difference in the coop.

Played a few levels of the first Sanctum and uninstalled it after about 2 hours. Clunky and note really fun.

This would be a lot of fun with co-op teams. It's essentially Serious Sam with turrets and walls. Serious Sam is fun. Tower Defense is fun. Seems like a great mix!

Man, tower defense sucks.

Man, the devs of this game need to get better stateside PR reps. Literally using the stereotypical "bigger and better everything" cop-out (without a hint of irony), calling the storyline "anime-style"...

Weak ending to the wave.....core didn't even explode

Forcing low FOV is the biggest crime a shooter dev can make on PC. This works on TVs, not if your monitor is right in front of you, goddamit.

Where's the little white box with the giant red button. from the first game. :D

I can't tell if Simo's name is a reference to legendary sniper Simo Hayha.

I really enjoyed the first game so I am looking forward to this

I know, right?

I couldn't even get into Trenched/Iron Brigade, despite loving the visual design, building mechs, and Double Fine.

It seems like it's everywhere nowadays, too. Most shooters now have some version of GoW "Horde Mode" too, which is essentially just tower defense.

I just don't find defending against waves of enemies entertaining. Those (and escort missions) have always been my least favorite parts of otherwise good videogames.

Looooved the first game bought all the dlc and played for countless hours. Cannot wait for 2, all the changes seem cool.

@mnzy: I would argue it shouldn't happen ANYWHERE, because on consoles they just do it to squeeze performance. It still looks bad and hinders your experience.

Had to stop watching because of mouse clicking, that noise drives me up a wall. Couldn't enjoy the DOTA2 coverage because of it either. Guys I would humbly request that you do whatever you can to prevent that from coming through.

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I played Sanctum 1 about 3 times with a friend, we got fed up with the game because it's punishingly difficult - or at least it was at the time. Apparently there were a ton of patches and balances changes after the fact, but the damage was already done and we had no desire to go back to the game.

Loved the first one. But this just looks clunky as hell.

I want to like it, character designs and color scheme are right up my alley, but I'm going to have to agree. I actually did buy Sanctum but never got around to playing it for more than a few minutes. FPS titles can be fun, but Tower Defense just kind of killed it for me. Watching this video, a lack of real enemy AI just doesn't seem very exciting and nothing new was added that's going to make me like it if I didn't enjoy the first one.

That said, I'm glad they're making a game that isn't just another cookie-cutter title, even if it isn't my thing.

Oh look, it's an indie tower defense game, you don't see those every day. I just don't understand what the appeal of tower defense is, the games are so abysmally boring I don't know why anyone would play them. Lucky for devs the games are easy to make and popular for god only knows what reason. That isn't really fair to this game since it has a lot more going on than a typical tower defense game, but fuck tower defense. Tower defense games are the Call of Duty clones of indie gaming.

I really like them when the game actually looks good. The Mark of the Ninja one sold me on a game I never paid attention to before.

This one is not one of those.

No, there are reasons for lower FOV on consoles, it can make sense.

@mnzy: I understand the concepts behind FOV. It should be higher. Maybe not crazy high like I usually run, but higher than 60. Because as he said, 60 is nothing more than the focused field of vision. In reality, you see so much more, and 60 may look kind of natural at 10 feet, but honestly I don't know a lot of people a whole 10 feet from a TV. Hell, my 60-something" TV is about 7 feet away from me. At that point, games like Halo look zoomed in, claustrophobic, and it's just hard to know what is going on around your character. FOV shouldn't just be to keep things looking "natural." You can push that to 70/80 even on the "normal" setup. 90 is pushing it. Even moving to 70/75 is a huge difference, and looks plenty natural and shouldn't cause any discomfort. The bigger problem is games push 60 when it should be a bit higher, which means everyone is used to an exaggerated zoom, instead of the image pulling back somewhat to allow the player a better field of vision.

My point is this: try walking around only having access to a quarter (probably closer to a third depending on your full peripheral field of view) of your normal field of view. It's not pleasant. Now imagine that when you really need to know what's going on around you. Racing games are a great example of this because jesus is it hard to take a turn when you're staring straight ahead and can only see about 60 degrees, or 30 degrees in either direction.

There's a balance between "natural" and gameplay. And give it a bit of time, you'll adjust to slightly higher FOVs. Your brain will get used to it, just like 60 looks like a tiny window to me now even though it seemed okay for a while there (though even when I was primarily a console gamer, some games seemed severe).

I understand that FOV should differ between the two usage scenarios, but I also think that they should be higher on consoles, and that they would be if they weren't trying to squeeze more frames out of really terrible hardware.