Quick Look: Sanctum

" @fisk0: I wasn't interested in TD games either until I played Defense Grid. It made me realize that it's just a different type of puzzle game and I like puzzle games. Also, the very first TD game I played was a WC3 map that wasn't that fun.

Of course, I still find the majority of TD games boring but I no longer ignore the genre like I used to do.

"

Televators? Like the Mars Volta song?

" this game makes me feel like puking for some reason.. "

actually did look pretty cool.

I was trying to remember where I heard the name. James Cameron is secretly involved.

Totally just sold me on this.

" Watching this has made me imagine how bloody brilliant a mode like this would be in a Borderlands game. "

Great another FPTD game.

The limited number of maps is my issue.  I hope they don't just reskn them and put them out in a perfunctory manner.

Oooh, what's that? What's that over there? Look at that! That thing has numbers on it!

I didn't know Ryan was secretly the GLaDOS Curiosity Core in disguse...

Edit: Game looks pretty cool! The first person and coop really bring a whole new dimension to the tower defense formula. I could see myself enjoying this with some friends!

Pinky fingers don't move that way! But I guess that's the advantage of having a robot arm.

This actually looks kind of interesting.

I just bought this game off Steam, and it's pretty fun to play.

This actually looks surprisingly interesting

well shit, there goes another $15, thanks steam, and thank you, brad, ryan, and giantbomb.

I read that opening caption of "faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace" and thought of nothing but PORTAL 2 SPOILERS:

I don't really like Tower Defense but this looks neat enough.

I love pleasant surprises.

Good quicklook.  I picked the game up because of this.

" Televators? Like the Mars Volta song? "

I bought 2 copies of this (1 for me, 1 for a friend) the day it came out...really great game.  Also lots of free content coming our way including 4 player co-op.

Looks like a lot of fun.  I'm a little worn on the TD genre, but this looks like more fun and reminds me of that toybox TD game that was on consoles. 

Looks like a good way to kill some time with friends. I'll have to keep it in mind.

I hate how Brad always does QLs on games that he doesn't fully understand. Come on Brad, spend more than just a half an hour on a game before you decide to do a video on you.

This actually looks fun. I hope the co-op works well.

Oh dear that look boring as hell.

I was gifted this game right around when portal 2 released.  I went through the tutorial but I played shitty in the mine(the first level, also the level brad's playing).  Monsters were making it to the dome easy and the guns are not enough alone, they're meant to be used in unison with the towers.  So I decided the game wasn't for me even though I love me some tower defense.  I tried it again after watching Brad's QL and I'm loving the game now.  I'm on the 3rd map, which I think is the last level.  I'm looking forward to replaying the earlier levels on a harder setting but I'd really like some new maps, I still gotta try co-op mode.  The developers sound like they want to follow up with lots of DLC(free I hope) and want the community to give some feedback so that could be cool.

" Oh dear that look boring as hell. "

Well this seems fun, nothing too exciting but mayb-
...
"WHAT IS UP DOG?"
...
GOTY.

its interesting but i wouldn't buy it.

bought it after watching this. looks pretty good. pretaaay pretaaay pretaaaaay good.

Could be fun, but might wait for a steam sale....

First person tower defence.

YES.

Good to see someone try something new with Tower Defense and mix it up. 

Looks a bit dull to me.

Great Quick Look. I wasn't sure about this game but seeing it played told me everything I needed to know. This game looks really fun and it moved to the top of my wishlist. Part of the reason is to prove to myself that I'm not crazy when I yelled at the computer screen trying to tell Brad what to do.

i don't really like tower defense but this game looks really good.

Yeah I bought the game just now because of this.  It looks pretty interesting.

might buy this

seems fun

I almost bought this when it was on sale last month. Glad they did a QL of it, I'll be picking it up soon.

They found a way to slow the pacing of tower defense even more by clunking things up with a perspective that actually makes things harder. Bravo.

This is the kind of game that looks great on first impression, but doesn't hold up under longer scrutiny.

The single player game is fairly entertaining, but with only 3 maps and with all the weapons and enemies only available the last map only, there really isn't enough content, even for $15.  Also even with 30 waves on the last map, there's never really a chance to see the high level content in single player.  All the turrets and weapons have 6 levels, but it's rare to upgrade more than 1 or 2 turrets past level 4 in single player.

Co-op, which currently only supports 2, not 4, players by the way, is punishingly difficult.  "Casual" MP difficulty exceeds "Hard" single player difficulty.  There are many, many posts on the Steam forum about this. The single player game in no way prepares you for MP because it's so much easier in comparison.  In the single player you can get a way with a lot:  Case in point, Vinny's maze design on the Mine level shown here is actually pretty bad, there are much more effective and longer mazes.  He would barely make it to wave 10 in MP.  MP, even on so called "Casual" difficulty demands that you pretty much play the game perfectly to get anywhere past wave 15.

I think the game has a lot of promise, the UI and overall quality of the art, as well as the technical proficiency is great.  MP balance needs some MAJOR work though, and the single player game ends up feeling very content light because of the small number of maps - even if they do take an hour or two to play through - because they end up feeling very repetitive anyway.

I really don't care for the tower defense genre, but I'll give props to anyone who tries to mix it up a bit.

I do like the music though.

First "Sanctum of Slime" and now this??  It's a good year for Sanctum games!

Another awesome Quick Look. GB is now in my daily lunch break routine. I should really find some time to work on Sanctum. High fives.

Bought this in the Steam Summer Sale. So good.

Loving this game so far. Got it during the Summer Sale at Steam as well.
 
Edit: it helps that quite a few of the issues noted below (such as 2-player only co-op and odd difficulty levels) have been fixed/improved upon over the previous months.