Sanctum 2 was on my wishlist for years. Like at least 2 years. Every time there was a steam sale I’d see it for $3 and try to convince my friends that we should play this one as our next multiplayer game. It looked right up our ally. 4 player co-op, perfect of our group size, FPS, and a tower defense game. And every time they’d say sounds great and proceed not to buy it. So this year, I decided to spend the big bucks and buy the 4 pack and gift them all the game. And you know what? They actually said, “why haven’t we played this sooner.”

Now I’m no stranger to tower defense games. I remember when Bloons was all the rage back in high school. Orcs Must Die 2 used to be Jay and I’s go-to game to just chill. We used to see how many waves on endless we could get to. But Orcs Must Die 2 is only 2 player and after a while, you’ve killed so many orcs on the same few maps it’s time for a change.

Sanctum 2 is exactly like Orcs Must Die 2 if you’d like to use that as a reference. However, instead of killing Orcs your tasked with killing weird bug creatures and stuff. It was developed by Coffee Stain Studios, and yes those are the same people who brought Goat Simulator into our lives.  And much like Orcs Must Die 2, I’ve never played Sactum1 and probably never will.

Each map starts with a character selection screen. There are 4 different characters to choose in the base game. Each one has a different primary weapon and special ability. I’ve taken a liking to Skye Autumn whos got an assault rifle and a double jump. Each player chooses their weapon towers for the match and is given a number of platforms and money. The general strategy for most maps is to create paths with the platforms that make the enemies run across your guns multiple times. It’s really a game of how long can you inconvenience the AI by blocking their path over and over again before they reach the core. The core has a health bar and when it’s dead it’s game over.  Each map has a set number of rounds that progressively get harder. We’ve had to do a few maps over and over until we worked out the correct way to path the enemies.

We’ve been working our way through the game for a couple of weeks now. Mostly it’s been Jay and me, the game is perfectly manageable with 2 people but it really shines with 4. The few times we’ve played it as a group it’s been incredible. I’m not sure if the enemies scale with the group size but there are definitely some maps that would be a lot easier with 4 people. Last night, we arrived on a map called The End. I can only assume we’re close to beating the game. Good thing we bought all the DLC too because I’m not ready for it to end.