In my preview for Sanctum 2 in late March, I was impressed with Sanctum 2's hybridization of first-person shooter and tower defense elements. Being a four-player cooperative title doesn't hurt, either. I was, however, a bit dubious as to the plot, as I am with the plot of any downloadable title, but the developers are out to change my mind. And they just might, indeed.
With their experience and limited budget on the first Sanctum, Coffee Stain Studios will be placing a deeper emphasis on the story for its upcoming sequel Sanctum 2. As revealed in this exclusive developer diary by Armin Ibrisagic, game designer and PR Manger for Coffee Stain Studios, they have reached out to game writer and concept artist Emmy Wahlbäck to fill the world and environments with small details and unlockables in the form of comic book pages:
Sanctum 2 will have a campaign mode where you progress through the game’s maps in a specific order. For every map completed, there will be unlocked comic book pages. After finishing all maps in the game, the complete graphic novel will be unlocked. The comic book pages will be presented in the loading-screens before every map — we always want to present the game’s story in a way that doesn’t interrupt the player’s gameplay.Apart from the in-game graphic novel, there will naturally be lots of clues hidden around the game world that explain more about the Sanctum universe. We’ve really put a ton of work in developing the graphic novel and the story for Sanctum 2, so we are extremely excited to finally show it to our fans when the game is released this summer.
The expansion of the story looks to belie the fact that it's a budget-priced downloadable title. Much from Sanctum 1 that was left to the player's imagination and head-stratching will be filled in:
The story follows Skye and her squad of Core Guardians. Not only does it explore more of the culture of the humans living on the planet LOEK III, but it explains why the enemies are so dead-set on destroying the Cores. Finally, without spoiling anything, players find out that the intrigue on the human colonies runs deeper than they might think.
Look out for Sanctum 2 when it launches next month on Xbox Live Arcade, PSN, and Steam for only $14.99.
