Sanctum (Steam free weekend)

Sanctum (Hybrid Tower Defense FPS) is currently 50% off and having a Free Weekend.
I think it's the most fun in a co-op FPS I've ever had, which is weird because I usually don't like TD, and I spend more time in single-player than multi! If you've ever spent countless hours playing a TD game or UT Invasion RPG this will feel very familiar.

If you do decide to play, here's my advice:
-Gatling is shit. Never use them.
-Penetrator is almost always as bad a gatling.
-Either Slow or Amp should always be included in a Survival mode. Killing Floor is good for Normal play and early Survival waves.
-Freeze Gun and Sniper are a necessity; level Sniper up by at least one for the first wave of Survival if it's not runners or gliders.
-High-leveled Holo + Amp = insta-gib, and a good early choke point of just these can be better than a bunch of towers.
-Spore Pods are bitches, but high-level AA, Sniper-Rex-Holo is the best defense. Violators are good too, but slower than Sniper-Rex-Holo combo.
-Gliders can be bitches too. Best defense is Scatter Laser or Violator (or both!), they're tricky to snipe but they go down quickly.
-Lightning is most effective with Bounce (received at 3?). Try to level up your lightnings to at least level 3, preferably 5. Max is insanely powerful, but should only be done to the most effective ones or if you have an excess of cash.
-For early play, many low-level towers is better than a few high-level towers.
-Violators and Mortars are good but conditional. They pack a punch, but they're slow. Either use a lot of them or don't bring them. If you only placed a few to cover your entire map, level them up by a lot. However, many violators > many scatters. I usually bring both depending on the map, and usually end up using more violators, but it depends upon the waves.

It's a really, really great game. Hope to see you guys online!

Gatlings and Penetrators are awesome, you just have to put them in the right positions in your map.

AA shoots slowly and isn't accurate, you need precision to take out fliers, AA is a good supplement, but not a good main AA.

Violators rape from across the map, so place them towards the end, and they'll shoot things the whole time.

Mortars are great in the right positions, I'll post my maze theory later.

I'm ready to be proven wrong! I think that's why this game is so appealing to me; there are so many ways to play it, and it springs to life with every new layout.

I can see very good uses for Penetrator. Behind a holo in front of a long straight line could devastate (never tried it), however I think in a sinuous maze you'd definitely get more out of another tower. But how do you get good use out of Gatling?

I do agree that AA are only a piece of air defense, because I was in a with a game with an amazing frontal offense such that nothing got within a six-block radius of the core, so everything in that back area was level 3+ AA and a few Scatters. A double pod wave ended up killing us in the end. The guy hosting was really great but he didn't want any violators down :rollseyes:. They could have seriously helped out. I think violators and scatters are best for gliders, but even then I sometimes need to snipe them.

I usually place a violator in the front and middle, and then a handful in the back-half of the map for their raw power and range. You really do need a lot or they're kind of a waste, because they have zero AoE and fire slowly.

Lately I've been trying new stuff, but I usually rolled with Violator, Killing Floor, Lightning, Scatter, AA, and Mortar. I usually drop Mortar first, and then Scatter if I can't take that many. But Mortars are great, and work in pretty much every design I've made.