The ambitious real-time strategy game Sanctuary: Shattered Sun has released a demo on Steam, allowing players to experience its grand scale combat and unique setting. Developed by Enhearten Media, the game draws heavy inspiration from classics like Supreme Commander and Total Annihilation, aiming to deliver a similar experience with a focus on massive armies and strategic depth.
Sanctuary: Shattered Sun is set on the exterior of a Dyson Sphere, a colossal megastructure built around a star for energy harvesting. The demo includes tutorials and early campaign levels, introducing players to the premise of three factions warring over this unique environment. The game boasts the ability to control up to 10,000 units simultaneously, with a zoom function that can transform the battlefield into a dizzying array of icons. This scale has earned it praise from Gas Powered co-founder Chris Taylor, who has called it a "spiritual successor" to his previous RTS titles.
The gameplay loop, as experienced in the demo, encourages both large-scale offensive maneuvers and tactical micromanagement. Players command a central commander unit, which serves as both a powerful combatant and a mobile construction hub, necessitating its protection at all costs. While the game rewards efficient resource management through its "flow-based economy," which emphasizes generator and alloy extraction sites, the immediate draw appears to be assembling enormous armies and pushing them across the map. The developers also highlight that "every projectile is simulated," allowing for nuanced tactical play such as dodging incoming fire.
Mechanically, the game offers features like tethering factories for increased production efficiency and carefully selecting military units without accidentally including non-combat engineers. The demo's early alpha build, despite a HUD that can be somewhat difficult to decipher, provides a solid feel for the controls.
Regarding performance, the demo ran without significant frame rate drops on an i7 12700F with an Nvidia RTX 3060. The development team has detailed their efforts to optimize performance by minimizing extraneous visual effects like excessive blast clouds and burning foliage. The full release of Sanctuary: Shattered Sun is slated for August 2027, but PC players can try the current demo on Steam.