Sanctum Review

Sanctum PC Review

Truth be told though, this only becomes an issue once you’ve already sunk a good number of hours into Sanctum, as it can take a long time to figure out the ideal solutions to each level.

It’s this part of the game which is the most fun too, especially in singleplayer or when you’re playing with friends – dropping in to a new map and trying to plot where to build your maze and the optimum weapon upgrades is one of Sanctum’s main draws. We’re not afraid to admit that even we have pulled out the lined paper on the train home and scribbled down some quick ideas for how to improve existing mazes.

Even when you get it wrong, Sanctum still retains a unique form of gritted-teeth tension. More than once we saw a sudden increase in difficulty that resulted in extraordinarily tough monsters turned into our mazes, leading to desperate attempts to minimise damage, three of us on the ramparts firing frantically…


The range of monsters helps build this tension too, not just because each wave includes random enemies and is tougher than the next, but also because there’s a deceptively large number of different enemies, each of whom require different tactics to overcome. Predictable sorts such as Tanks and Walkers show up, distinguishable mainly by their endurance, but there are also more unique foes. Flying Dodgers, who jump around quickly so as to be hard to target by players, or Soakers, who absorb an increasing amount of damage with each hit, for example.

While the range of enemies is impressive, however, the number of levels is not. Sanctum only includes five levels – Mine, Arc, Facility, Bridge and Glade – all of which are interestingly designed, but none of which could ever be considered expansive.

That Sanctum suffers from how players have little to do once they’ve solved levels is best summed up in the state of the dedicated servers too – namely that they are few in number and fullness. It could be that Sanctum is best appreciated when played with friends in private servers, but it also feels like it stems from the fact that there’s no reason to revisit a level once you’ve figured out the ‘correct’ maze design.


Still, once you stop getting concerned with Sanctum’s limited shelf-life and remind yourself that it’s a game to be viewed as a whole, there’s no denying that it’s an incredibly worthy title.

The low price point only increases that impression, as do the plentiful little touches that elevate Sanctum above other similar genre fusions. Tiny additions, like having text chat that’s automatically translated into a Microsoft Sam-style voice or being able to switch to a top-down view at any point, show how much thought has gone into Sanctum’s development. Likewise, the striking palette and plethora of hidden content in each level gives Sanctum a sense of character that rivals lack.

Sanctum isn’t a truly great game – it needs more content and a few more customisation options to earn that recognition in our eyes. Still, even as it is at the moment, it comes pretty close and provides a brilliant, if short-term, gaming fix.