Stats:
No. of players: 2-4
Amount of time to play: 60-120 min
Age requirements: 12+
Set-up time: 5 min

Sanctum puts you in a competitive hack-n-slash game. You grab loot and level up in order to face the Demon Lord.

Sanctum Rules Description:

Sanctum takes place over a certain number of Acts depending on the number of players. You fight the Demon Lord in Acts V and VI and always play with them. In the earlier acts you move along a path and collect demons to fight.

For the first part of the game you may take one of three actions on your turn; move, fight, or rest. The move action moves your figure to the space furthest up the path and adds demons to the board. Then you take any set of demons on the board. The fight action initiates combat with any demons you have collected. When you rest, you restore your stamina and focus, equip items, and may buy potions.

There are a few steps to resolve combat. First you may use potions to restore your focus or stamina. Next you roll your dice. You need to match the dice shown on demons to kill them. You can manipulate the dice results using your equipment which often costs focus. For any demons that you cannot match all the dice they show, you can block damage. This tends to cost stamina. Any damage you cannot block is removed from your health.

Demons you are unable to kill remain with you waiting for the next fight. You will not have to match any dice on their cards you previously rolled, but you do need to finish them off. Defeated demons are flipped over, grant you some gems, and become equipment.

Gems are placed during set up on your player board and they cover your skills. Each adventurer has different skills and you unlock them by moving the gems off the skill cards. Gems move from the bottom toward the top and gems that reach the top are available to use to equip loot.

Anytime you fight or rest you check to see if you have reached any achievements. You need to get a certain number of skills, gems, or levels of equipment to reach claim an achievement tile. Achievement tiles are used when you fight the Demon Lord.

Upon reaching Act V things change. You encounter the Demon Lord. You get one last rest and the Demon Lord attacks the adventurers. In Act VI each player has their own set of nine Demon Lord cards they must attack and defeat. This combat runs similarly to earlier ones, but you must defeat each card in order, you may not rest, and you may use achievement tiles. It is also a lot more deadly as early on the Demon Lord attacks back.

Anyone that has survived the fight with the Demon Lord compares their remaining health, the player with the most health wins. If no one survives the final fight, the player that defeated the most cards wins. Ties are broken by having claimed the most achievement tiles.

Quick Review of Sanctum:

Sanctum is a board game of two halves. I really enjoy the first half but the second half is not great. That is to say I enjoy moving around killing demons, grabbing loot and gaining skills. It feels like Diablo which is very cool. But the fight with the Demon Lord is not as fun.

The components are very nice. The minis are cool, the art is great, and everything looks fantastic on the table. The rules are easy to read and follow but the Demon Lord sections are a bit sparse on examples. You might want to read them a few times through or find a play through video to make sure you understand them.

Like I said above the best part of Sanctum is killing, looting, and leveling up. The demon cards show you the type of item that is on the other side (like helmet, weapon, boot, etc). So you can be strategic about which demons you want to fight. The color of the demons match the color of the skills you will get to improve. Again pick the demons that let you increase the skills you want to unlock.

It is fun using focus and stamina on your equipment to change the dice and block damage. Gaining new skills and extra dice makes you adventurer stronger and able to take on more or stringer demons. You will want to try all the different adventurers as the all have unique skills and play slightly differently.

Unfortunately all the leveling up still might not prepare you to fight the Demon Lord. You just don’t have the resources to avoid damage forever. We have always had at least two or more players defeat him so seeing who is less beat up is not a fun way to see who wins. Maybe if it was a cooperative board game it would feel better at the end. As it plays now it feels too random and anti-climactic.

If you love Diablo give this a try, it is fun for a while, but the ending fell flat for me and those I played with.

Score and synopsis: (Click here for an explanation of these review categories.)
Strategy 4 out of 6
Luck 5 out of 6
Player Interaction 2 out of 6
Replay Value 4 out of 6
Complexity 3 out of 6
Fun 4 out of 6
Overall 3 out of 6