GamingPickz
Game vs game · side by side

Call of Duty: Black Ops II vs Sanctum 2

Call of Duty: Black Ops II is an FPS horror game from Treyarch (2012) while Sanctum 2 is an FPS RPG game from Coffee Stain Studios (2013).

Call of Duty: Black Ops II

2012 · Treyarch

7.6GamingPickz Score

$39.99

Steam: Very Positive

Sanctum 2

2013 · Coffee Stain Studios

7.6GamingPickz Score

$14.99

Steam: Very Positive

What each one is

Steam files Call of Duty: Black Ops II under FPS and Horror. In contrast, it files Sanctum 2 under FPS and RPG.

Call of Duty: Black Ops II

Pushing the boundaries of what fans have come to expect from the record-setting entertainment franchise, Call of Duty®: Black Ops II propels players into a near future Cold War

Description from its Steam store page

Sanctum 2

Sanctum 2 is the sequel to the world’s first Tower Defense/FPS hybrid game. Pick from four unique character classes and embark on a mission to protect the oxygen-producing Cores from hordes of deadly aliens who are threatened by their existence.

Description from its Steam store page

At a glance

Call of Duty: Black Ops IISanctum 2
GamingPickz Score7.6/107.6/10
Steam ratingVery Positive (86%, 49,344)Very Positive (90%, 14,389)
Critic aggregate74/10077/100
Price$39.99$14.99
Install size
Steam Deckunsupportedverified
Released20122013
DeveloperTreyarchCoffee Stain Studios

Prices and Steam ratings are read live and move over time.

Call of Duty: Black Ops II vs Sanctum 2, point by point

Each facet side by side. A round is marked won only where a figure settles it; feel and "which is better" carry no mark, because no number we hold decides them.

  1. Genre and premise

    Call of Duty: Black Ops IIFPS horror game
    Sanctum 2FPS RPG game

    What each is filed as. Each game describes itself in full above; we do not judge a premise.

  2. How it plays

    Call of Duty: Black Ops IIAction, FPS, Shooter
    Sanctum 2Tower Defense, FPS, Co-op

    The tags players apply most, in order of votes. A read on feel, not a verdict.

  3. Reception

    Call of Duty: Black Ops IIScore 7.6 · 86% on Steam · 74 critic
    Sanctum 2Score 7.6 · 90% on Steam · 77 critic

    The GamingPickz Score is a composite of player sentiment, critics and popularity, computed the same way for every game.

  4. Content and scale

    Call of Duty: Black Ops II49,344 reviews · 5 add-ons
    Sanctum 214,389 reviews · 6 add-ons

    Reach and footprint, not quality: more reviews or a bigger install is not a better game.

  5. Price

    Call of Duty: Black Ops II$39.99
    Sanctum 2$14.99

    Read live from Steam and subject to change.

  6. On a Steam Deck

    Call of Duty: Black Ops IIUnsupported
    Sanctum 2Verified

    Valve's own Deck compatibility rating.

Sanctum 2 takes 2 of the marked rounds to 0. That is only what a number can decide, not which you will enjoy more.

The two on the grid

Compare the whole catalogue

Call of Duty: Black Ops II and Sanctum 2 on the axes the GamingPickz Score is built from, on the full 0 to 100 scale so each dot is its real position. Change either axis to compare them on any measure.

2 games have both

01000100PlayersPopularity

Players. The share of Steam reviews marked positive, pulled toward the catalogue average in proportion to how few reviews stand behind it. A game with 200 reviews moves a long way toward the average; one with 200,000 barely moves at all. Without this a title sitting at 100 percent on nine reviews outranks Half-Life 2 at 98 percent on 278,000.

Popularity. A blend of two things that are not the same. Audience is how many people wrote a Steam review, which is a floor on how many played it. Reach is how many language editions of Wikipedia document the game, which is cultural footprint rather than sales. A game can score high on one and low on the other: a huge free-to-play title has audience without reach, and a landmark console exclusive has reach without a Steam audience at all. Where both exist they are averaged; where only one does, that one carries it.

  • Multi-platform
  • PC

Every point links to that game's entry. The value map and the reception map are fixed views of the same data.

See the whole grid

How positions are decided

No paid placement, no favouritism, live third-party data
  • Placed by the published method, not by us. Every coordinate is computed from the axis definitions and weights printed on this site. Nobody moves a point. See the axes.
  • Nothing here is paid for. No sponsored placements, no promoted slots, no arrangement of any kind affects a position. If that ever changes it will be labelled and sit outside the ranking.
  • No favouritism, including our own. The 16 games we have written full reviews of are scored by exactly the same formula as the other 1,510, from the same third-party inputs, and they land where it puts them. Our own opinion of a game does not enter its coordinates.
  • A position is not an endorsement. It says how a game was received and what it costs, not that we recommend it. Where we do recommend something, it carries a written review with a name on it.
  • Fetched from live third-party data. Player sentiment from Steam, critic aggregates as published on store pages, prices checked hourly, attention from Wikipedia. Each figure carries its source and the date it was read, and we do not adjust any of them.

Which to pick, by what you want

  • The cheaper right now: Sanctum 2 ($14.99)
  • Better on a Steam Deck: Sanctum 2 (verified)
  • The safer bet by weight of reviews: Call of Duty: Black Ops II (49,344 reviews)

What they have in common

Both are tagged by Steam players with:

MultiplayerActionFPSShooterSingleplayerFirst-PersonCo-opOnline Co-Op

Where they differ

Call of Duty: Black Ops II is also

WarTeam-BasedControllerTacticalHorrorAdventure

Sanctum 2 is also

Tower DefenseStrategyIndieAliensFemale ProtagonistCombat

Tags players apply to one game and not the other.

Difficulty and who each is for

By the tags players apply, Call of Duty: Black Ops II is middle-of-the-road on difficulty. Sanctum 2 is middle-of-the-road on difficulty.

System requirements, side by side

Call of Duty: Black Ops IISanctum 2
Minimum GPUNvidia GeForce 8800GT 512 MB
Minimum CPUIntel Core2 Duo E8200 2.66 GHz
Minimum RAM2 GB
Install size

Can your PC run them? Check each against your own kit: Call of Duty: Black Ops II · Sanctum 2.

Accessibility features

Steam store pages declare 1 accessibility feature for Call of Duty: Black Ops II and 1 for Sanctum 2. A declaration is a floor, not a review.

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Common questions

How different are Call of Duty: Black Ops II and Sanctum 2 in scope?

Call of Duty: Black Ops II has drawn 49,344 Steam reviews and ships 5 add-ons. Sanctum 2 has drawn 14,389 Steam reviews and ships 6 add-ons.

Is Call of Duty: Black Ops II or Sanctum 2 better?

By the GamingPickz Score, Call of Duty: Black Ops II rates higher (7.6 to 7.6). That is a composite of player sentiment, the critic aggregate and popularity, not our taste. "Better" also depends on price, length and platform, which the table above lays out.

Which is cheaper, Call of Duty: Black Ops II or Sanctum 2?

Sanctum 2 is cheaper right now at $14.99, against $39.99. Prices move, so this is read live from Steam and can change.

Do you rank one above the other for a fee?

No. Neither game, nor anyone else, pays for placement or a verdict here. The order and every figure come out of the same public data the rest of the site uses.

How we compare, and what we will not do

The GamingPickz Score is a composite of player sentiment (adjusted for sample size), the critic aggregate and popularity, computed by the same code every ranked list on this site uses. The Steam rating label is Valve's own, reconstructed from the positive percentage and review count. Prices are read live. We do not write an opinion of which game is "better": we report the numbers and say which wins each measurable question above.

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