Difficulty:

Hard

Time Spent:

10 to 20 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Almost, but not quite"

Mini-Review:

While enhanced vs its predecessor in almost every way, Sanctum 2 is a brilliant FPS/Tower Defence hybrid that manages to merge the excitement of casual FPS action with the intensity of Tower Defence on ground zero. While the design of the towers, characters, enemies and the world itself have been enhanced to almost a AAA title, the rest of the game remains very much indie. Character designs are laughable while the plotline itself, which would've had been a high point for a game such as this, just felt wasted with uninteresting dialogue and generally confusing the player more than anything. The difficulty of the game has definitely been refined to cater for solo gamers but it's still definitely almost impossibly punishing in later levels to the point where it just feels like they're just giving solo players the same amount of enemies per wave for 4-player matches. Adding more cores to the mix doesn't help either. The additional classes in the game really do spice things up but ultimately, it doesn't invite repeated play considering how apart from the primary weapons and a minor perk, everything else is pretty much identical. For fans of the original, you will be disappointed by the restriction and simplification of the tower upgrades and weapons but all in all, it doesn't really detract from the experience too much. It does however possess a mountain of bugs which do in fact mar the overall experience, and my advice would be to wait another month or two before jumping in as at the moment, the game itself suffers from a barrage of persistent game-breaking bugs which can be anywhere from annoying niggles to infuriating computer-smacking anomalies. My character has been stuck to the ground, unable to move for three matches already since the game's release. The games has froze my entire PC twice in the past week alone with the random freezes here and there (this is a Private Match too). Ironically, there has been around 3 patches released already but all of which have not at all addressed these issues. At the end of the day, should you get Sanctum 2? All I have say is: wait. Wait for patches that would address these issues or if not, wait for a price drop. While it is worth the $15 price, it's not worth the mountain of bugginess that you're getting yourself into.

Pros:
+Better World/Tower/Enemy Design & Presentation
+More Accessible and less punishing vs original
+Classes & Plot introduce variety

Cons:
-So VERY Buggy
-Still Punishing in some levels
-More Restricted for primary weapons and towers vs original

Better Than: Sanctum
Worst Than: Orcs Must Die 2

VERDICT: 79% - An excellent FPS/Tower Defence Hybrid that falls short of greatness.