Meeple on Board Rating
Be the first to review this product.Board Game Geek Reviews
Be the first to review “Sanctum”
You must be logged in to post a review.
You must be logged in to post a review.
Sanctum is a competitive strategy game inspired by hack-and-slash RPG video games. Each player controls one of four unique characters as they journey into the heart of the fallen city of Sanctum, building up their skills and arsenals along the way to prepare for the final fight against the Demon Lord.
Multiple players may survive the fight, but only one may claim the glory of purifying Sanctum.
Gameplay is brisk, with the possibility for overlapping turns. The four characters all have unique skill sets, and you’ll level up fast, giving you frequent opportunities to choose new skills. Every decision counts.
Though the game is competitive, the goal is to destroy the Demon Lord, not each other. So player interaction is a race rather than a fight: Who’s furthest along the board? Who will get to choose first when an equipment draft gets triggered? Who will gain the benefit of reaching the Demon Lord first? Who will get to that group of blue demons everyone wants? Who will unlock that achievement and claim the bonus?
On your turn, you choose one action:
1) Move: Advance along the path toward the Demon Lord, and engage some demon minions to fight later.
2) Fight: Fight all the demon minions you’ve engaged. If you kill any demons, upgrade Skills and acquire Items.
3) Rest: Equip some of the loot you’ve won, recharge the resources you use to fight, and buy potions with extra Items you don’t need.
The choices you’ll be balancing and weighing against each other as you go include:
– What demons should you fight? Demons come in three colors: Blue, red, and green. The color of the demon determines which of your character’s Skills you’ll be able to choose to upgrade if you win the fight. Plus, each Demon drops a specific piece of gear when you beat it. What kind of gear do you need — a chest plate? Footgear? A weapon? Finally, since killing demons requires you to roll dice to match the die face showing on the demon’s card, which demons can you kill based on your current gear and skill setup?
– Which Skills should you unlock? Each character has 9 skills. Which ones you choose to gain in a given game drastically changes how the character functions.
– What gear should you equip? Some gear helps you block damage. Some helps you modify dice rolls. The better the gear, the harder it is to equip.
– When should you Move, Fight, and Rest? You’ll want to Move and Fight as many times as possible between Rests, but wait too long to Rest and you may take more damage than you can afford. Rest too often, though, and you’ll fall behind the other players and miss out on some kills.
– Should you do what is most optimal for your character at any given moment, or should you sometimes put that aside in order to claim competitive achievements before other players can?
The final battle with the Demon Lord is tough. Even surviving can feel rewarding. But only the player with the most health at the end of the boss fight can truly claim the glory of his defeat!
Ages | 12+ |
---|---|
Players | 2 Players, 3 Players, 4 Players |
Play Time | 90m – 90m |
Designer | Filip Neduk |
Mechanics | Push Your Luck, Dice Rolling, Variable Player Powers |
Theme | Dice, Miniatures, Adventure, Fantasy |
Publisher | Cranio Creations, Czech Games Edition, Devir, HeidelBÄR Games, Rebel Sp. z o.o., IELLO |
ajewo
Fast paced, competitive action game with dice placement in the spirit of the PC game Diablo by the Filip Neduk (Adrenaline). [b]What makes it special?[/b] * Monster drafting: players choose the monsters to fight. Each monster determines the dice values to hit it, the items and gem upgrades you gain. * Euro game at heart with Ameritrash (Diablo) theme. [b]Pros:[/b] + Artwork (inspired by Diablo). + Good components (transparent colored gems and tokens, nice miniatures, a lot of game boards). + 4 different character that play differently (due to their different starting abilities). + Multi-used cards for monsters: hit values, item type, gem upgrade. + Picking the right monster cards is essential decision-making in this game. It determines what dice are required to hit the monster and what upgrades a player can make to unlock gems and abilities. Gained items are semi-random because players can see what item type the monster will drop. + Dice manipulating: items and unlocked abilities enable a player to manipulate the values of rolled dice. + Fun upgrading: moving gems up your board to unlock new abilities and to unlock gems that are needed to equip items. + Unused items can be sold for potions that recover stamina or focus + Resource management: each player manages stamina (red), and focus (blue). Both are used to activate abilities. Players decide when to rest in order to free their abilities and restore their stamina and focus (push your luck). * Life points represent victory points. Players try to avoid loosing them (you cannot not restore life points). + Race game: players try to move forward as fast as possible without loosing as little life points as possible. + Achievements: first come, first serve (race game). Gained achievements help a player in the final boss fight. + Exciting final boss fight with different difficulty levels. + Simple to teach and play (move, fight, or rest). + Little downtime due to mostly simultaneously play. + Good player aids. [b]Neutrals:[/b] # Language independent (good iconography). # Theme (story is okay, but does not matter in the game). Players should be cooperating to fight the demons but they are oddly competing which each other and each player fights the final boss in a solitaire style. # The game includes many game boards used to move your miniature in the world. The spatial movement is rather unnecessary because it is linear and quite abstract, but it creates a nice table presence due to the Diablo-inspired artwork. # Quite big game box due to the big game boards and player boards. # Requires some table space. # Rules book is good, there are a few parts that are hard to understand (especially when entering the cathedral in Act V). # Indirect player interaction only: race to reach the final boss and race for achievements. Monster drafting. # Some luck of the draw for the monster cards, but players can choose them. # Luck of the roll: players can be lucky when rolling dice. It should even out over the course of the game for all players. Dice manipulation with your abilities and resources is an integral part of the game. # Scales well with all player counts. # Unusual card size for sleeves? # No solo mode which should have been a no-brainer for this game. [b]Cons:[/b] - Game could have been a bit more streamlined / compact - Replayability is fine but the game screams for an expansion! There are 4 characters which is fine, but there is no set-up variability. Wanted: more abilities that change the characters during set-up. More characters would be nice as well. Furthermore, items and monsters that are more unique (with abilities) would be great! (-) Same artwork for the monster cards which is necessary because the other side of the card reveals a "random" item. [b]Related games:[/b] * Roll Player (fantasy theme, dice placement, more Euroish, more about creating combo chains). * Knight Tales (semi-cooperative tower defense, monster slaying, race game, dice-based combat, item and set collection)
brokasaphasia
Wow, this is fun! It has engine building, tech trees, variable player powers, treasure reveals, amazing dice driven puzzle solves, pristine graphic design, perfect art, all wrapped up in a very fun theme. I absolutely LOVE the build-up to the boss fight: after multiple rounds of demon slaughtering combat glory and sweet sweet gear / skill upgrades, the smug heroes breach the walls of Sanctum... and IMMEDIATELY GET THEIR BUTTS HANDED TO THEM. Feeling pretty good about that full health meter? Malhazar laughs at you: BWAHAHAHAHA! Wow this game is fun :-)
AztecTwoStep
It isn't Diablo, but what it is, is an interesting remix of dungeon crawling with a fun boss-rush at the end. I think the low scores really reflect the misdirection in how this is presented/marketed. Give it a go (especially if you can get it for a more reasonable price than RRP) and you'll be very pleasantly surprised! Also, considering that it came from the same designer as Adrenaline, which suffered the same problem of being completely different to how it was presented thematically, I think CGE need to rethink how they sell his games. Unlike Adrenaline, this is an easy recommendation, despite the disconnect.