Sanctum

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Review: Sanctum

Sanctum is played on a map with two home bases (called sanctums) representing yourself and your antagonist. Each begins with a number of archers and swordsmen, plus unassigned recruits who can be trained for combat or mana production. There are also five neutral towns on the map. Control of these grant additional mana used to empower spells, so most games resolve very early into a tense battle for the town that lies at dead center.

There are six types of mana, grouped in pairs (primary and secondary) to form all of Sanctum's 12 "suits," called Houses. Your choice of House determines the 19 spells, represented by cards, which you can cast during a game. There are 228 cards available, and each side builds a deck of 30. (You can incorporate up to four of any given card in a playing deck, and you can create and store as many disparate decks offline as you want, using the Deckbuilder option in Sanctum's software.) Enclosing cards from other Houses means more spell diversity but requires different kinds of mana-which prove more difficult to supply.

House spells are nicely individualized, much as in M:TG. Lightning bolts are found in the Nature Deck, while fireballs are found in War; and each produces a different damage result. Each House furnishes its own advantages. Despair can deny your opponent his movement turn or access to recruits and towns, while Death summons skeletons, plague, and desert. Playing different decks assembled from the Houses requires a variety of winning strategies.

Unlike M:TG, Sanctum's card palace is somewhat asymmetrical. Most players going for a win know that Death, Justice, Despair, and War work far better than Hope, Life, or Mind-sure signs that some balancing is still needed.

There are map algorithm problems, too. While many maps generated on the fly are reasonably designed, mixing plains, forest, water, mountain, and swamp tiles, other arrangements appear from time to time that strongly favor one side. A seasoned player will submit to the fate of a bad card-draw because they built the deck themselves; not so with the maps, over which they have no control.

As it's currently structured, Sanctum provides two tournament areas: one that tracks wins and losses, and one that doesn't. A rating system for players exists, but you have to buy $20 worth of cards online to be considered registered. While you can download the Sanctum client and a starter pack for free (12MB, www.digitaladdiction.com), you'll have to fork over around $60 or more to be truly competitive in the rated area, but that's commensurate with most over-the-counter game prices.

Sanctum pleases. It offers armies and spells, multiple strategies, attractive if unspectacular graphics, and the chance to measure up against that most dangerous of opponents: Humans. It runs swiftly over the Internet without a hitch. The initial learning curve is rather high until you acquire familiarity with the cards, but you can always study these offline. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a challenge pending with a player from New Zealand.-- Barry Brenesal / GamePro