Super Sanctum TD

About

Super Sanctum TD is a single player casual real-time strategy game with a science fiction theme. It was developed by Coffee Stain Studios and was released on May 9, 2013. It received positive reviews from players.

"Super Sanctum TD is a retro-styled Tower Defense game that focuses on strategy, customization, and replayability. Carefully plan your maze and build advanced structures to defend against alien hordes, using active abilities to tilt the battlefield in your favor. Level up and gain access to Perks, allowing you to specialize your strategies and master the game on all difficulties."

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

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84%

Audience ScoreBased on 598 reviews

graphics21 positive mentions

story5 negative mentions

Super Sanctum TD offers a nostalgic retro experience with engaging tower defense mechanics, allowing players to build mazes and strategically place towers.
The game features a variety of towers, skills, and perks that provide depth and customization, making each playthrough unique and challenging.
At a low price point, especially during sales, it offers great value for hours of entertainment, appealing to both casual and dedicated tower defense fans.

The game suffers from frequent crashes, particularly during survival mode, which can lead to lost progress and frustration.
There are limitations in graphics options, such as a lack of resolution settings and fullscreen issues, which detract from the overall experience.
Some players find the difficulty spikes to be unfair, with certain levels requiring very specific strategies that can feel punishing and lead to repetitive gameplay.

graphics
76 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
28%
63%
9%
The graphics of the game are predominantly retro-inspired, featuring pixelated visuals that evoke a nostalgic feel reminiscent of older titles. While some players appreciate the charming simplicity and aesthetic appeal, others criticize the graphics for being outdated and lacking in modern enhancements, with issues like poor resolution options and pixelation in fullscreen mode. Overall, the visuals are seen as serviceable for a tower defense game, but they may not satisfy those seeking contemporary graphical fidelity.
- “The artwork is nice, and the option to use music from Sanctum 1 and 2 is great.”
- “Great tower defense game, with charming pixelated graphics and a steadily upward (yet gentle) learning curve.”
- “I love the retro-inspired graphics and sound!”
- “The graphics look like a game from 20 years ago.”
- “A choice was made to use obsolete, decades old retro pixel 'art' as a substitute for contemporary PC graphics.”
- “There's no option to change the resolution and no useful graphics tweaks.”
gameplay
57 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
28%
67%
5%
The gameplay is generally described as a standard tower defense experience, with some players appreciating its strategic depth and variety of options, while others find it repetitive and lacking in innovation. While the mechanics are simple and accessible, they may not satisfy veterans of the genre seeking more complexity. Overall, the game offers a mix of enjoyable elements, but opinions vary widely on its long-term appeal and uniqueness.
- “The gameplay is solid!”
- “Futuristic weapons, cool skills, amazing music, cute graphics, and strategic gameplay.”
- “This game is truly a gem; the gameplay mechanics are simple and straightforward, allowing you to be creative with building different types of defenses and using different abilities.”
- “Unfortunately, the gameplay is mediocre at best.”
- “The de-make version of Sanctum covers the basics but doesn't do anything mechanically exciting to make it stand out from other tower defense offerings.”
- “Too much emphasis on graphics, not enough on gameplay.”
music
40 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
48%
37%
15%
The music in the game is generally described as catchy and enjoyable, with a retro style that appeals to fans of pixel art and nostalgic soundtracks. However, many reviewers note the limited variety, leading to repetitiveness, and some express a desire for a more extensive soundtrack. Overall, while the music enhances the experience, it may not be memorable for all players.
- “Charmingly simple and fun, catchy music.”
- “Enjoyable retro soundtrack and lovely pixel art.”
- “Simple progression tree and mechanics paired with awesome retro graphics and a nice soothing soundtrack definitely combine to give you one heck of a time killer.”
- “The soundtrack is easily the worst part.”
- “There are only 2 music files and they can get repetitive very quickly.”
- “While the graphics and the soundtrack are pleasing, there’s no widescreen support and the sound effects are not only atrocious, but after a while they get pretty irritating.”
story
33 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
9%
76%
15%
The game's story is largely criticized for its absence, with many reviewers noting that it lacks any meaningful narrative or lore, making it feel empty despite the potential for storytelling through its monsters and maps. While some players appreciate the gameplay mechanics and challenge, they express disappointment that the tower defense format does not provide a compelling plot or motivation to progress. Overall, the consensus is that those seeking a rich story should look elsewhere, as the game primarily focuses on gameplay rather than narrative depth.
- “About halfway through with the story mode, and I am definitely loving this game.”
- “The single-player campaign spans 15 missions that you’ll be able to finish in under 10 hours on the normal setting.”
- “You are given a selection of boards to play on for the various missions and unlock new towers and powers as you go, between each wave you're given build time which also acts as time where you're able to plot out the pathway on the boards, though the earlier levels are very linear.”
- “I wish there was more of a lore or story to the game, but you get that from Sanctum 1 and 2.”
- “There is no story or motivation for players to complete the game.”
- “The story is non-existent.”
grinding
12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
8%
92%
Overall, players find the grinding in the game to be a mixed experience. While some appreciate the balance that prevents excessive grinding, others feel that early levels require significant effort to unlock towers and slots, leading to frustration. Additionally, certain achievements necessitate grinding after completing the main content, which can detract from the overall enjoyment.
- “It is primarily grinding through the last few rounds for each level.”
- “Sadly this game requires a lot of early grinding to get all towers and slots and the fact that this game crashed multiple times, resetting all of my survival experience, didn't help...”
- “The only thing that bothered me is that unlocking 100% of the achievements involved some grinding after finishing all the levels on every mode.”
replayability
9 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
34%
33%
Overall, the game's replayability is mixed; while some players appreciate the challenge of hard stages and the endless survival mode, others find it somewhat repetitive. Unlocking new towers and abilities adds depth, encouraging players to revisit levels for better ratings, but not everyone sees it as a strong selling point. For those who enjoy tower defense and strategic gameplay, the replay value can be satisfying, especially with the option to tackle harder difficulties.
- “Nice replay value (now I'm playing the hard stages with different combos).”
- “Very happy with this game and purchase, and replayability is awesome.”
- “On the other hand, if you find yourself breezing through the game, there's plenty of replay value in the form of an optional hard difficulty, as well as infinite survival modes for every stage.”
- “Not a game I'd advise for someone looking for replay value, but if you want to kill time, this game is a decent option.”
- “It plays based on an XP system to unlock new towers and abilities, and the levels are purposely made to be pretty much impossible to get a 3-star rating on the first time you play, so I guess that adds 'replayability' if you want to call it that.”
- “Endless survival adds a little replayability, but it is a bit repetitive, however.”
stability
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Overall, the game's stability is criticized for being buggy, with frequent crashes and freezing issues reported by users. While some minor glitches may not significantly impact gameplay, the presence of buggy achievements and persistent freezing detracts from the overall experience.
- “The game constantly freezes and then crashes.”
- “It crashes a lot and the cursor freezes, but the game doesn't.”
- “Some achievements are buggy.”
optimization
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
60%
60%
Overall, "Super Sanctum TD" is praised for its excellent optimization, allowing it to run smoothly even on older hardware. However, some users report significant performance issues, particularly during intense enemy attack phases, which can lead to slowdowns and overheating. Despite these concerns, the game's optimization features, such as the physical towers tree, are noted for enhancing performance.
- “Super Sanctum TD is one of the best scripted and optimized games I have ever played.”
- “The physical towers tree increases the performance of physical towers, while a skills tree will enhance your skills' damage and effectiveness.”
- “Able to run smoothly on the old rig.”
- “I have performance issues; the game slows down dramatically, overworks and overheats my PC during the phase when enemies are attacking.”
- “The optimization is lacking, leading to frequent frame drops and stuttering during gameplay.”
- “The game feels unresponsive at times, especially in crowded areas where the optimization clearly fails.”
monetization
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The monetization strategy of the game is perceived as a cash grab, with users feeling that it exploits the nostalgia for abandonware rather than offering genuine value.
- “This seems to remain on Steam as a cash grab trying to profit from abandonware.”
- “The monetization strategy feels exploitative, prioritizing profits over player experience.”
- “It's frustrating to see so many paywalls in a game that could have been great without them.”
humor
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is generally well-received, with players finding it both funny and challenging, though some feel it can be overly difficult. There is also a desire among some users for nostalgic elements, such as remade maps from earlier installments, which could enhance the comedic experience.
- “Really funny and challenging, though a bit too hard.”
- “And it's not really a complaint, but I was thinking it would have been funny/interesting if they remade the maps from 1/2 in this game, but I can see why they wouldn't.”