Game Review: Project Sunburst

Crackdown 2: Project Sunburst is a truly innovative game title exclusive to Windows Phone 7! (Video Review)

Overall Score: 5/5

The game is packed full with incredible features, but unfortunately doesn’t always deliver those features. Despite the occasional hiccups, Project Sunburst takes its own spin on Tower Defense and sets the battle field in the real world in an engaging and addicting fashion that is sure to keep you coming back for more.

Gameplay: 5/5

There are so many elements to talk about. To start, the game is similar to Tower Defense: You start with a base and defend it with various turrets. However, Project Sunburst takes a drastic change from the start, since you place your base in the real world, on a satellite map from Bing! Then, your enemies charge down the actual streets in the real world. You can therefore choose to defend your home, your workplace, or anything else you like. Also, the game keeps on playing after you exit it. That means your bases will continue to kill enemies and make money, and your weapon upgrades will continue to process as you do other things in your life. And, if you play the game at nighttime instead of daylight, the gameplay inside the phone will shift accordingly! There were some minor issues, for example, there was the occasional connection to server error and we unfortunately could not get multiplayer working (this game has actual live online multiplayer), but these few problems are offset by the stellar qualities of gameplay Project Sunburst brings.

Presentation: 4/5

The visuals are quite neat. Watching familiar city streets or neighborhood suburbs fill with swarms of enemies (called “Freaks”) is really neat. Playing the game at nighttime features some nice lighting effects too. The enemies aren’t the best visual quality, but the rest of the visuals are pretty good. The sounds are okay, but the repetitive sound of your laser cannon firing or your machine gun blasting becomes slightly annoying. If they had some variation in the sound effects, that would definitely help. However, you can always listen to your own music instead.

Lasting Value: 5/5

Due to the way this game is developed, you could only play it for 30 minutes… but return to it every day, since it continues to play while you’re gone! And you most likely will want to keep on playing this. The weapon upgrade system gives you great motive to continue playing and earning money, and the real world immersion entices you to come back and create more bases at your favorite locations.

Subscribe and see reviews early

Title: Crackdown 2: Project Sunburst
Price: $2.99
Developer: Microsoft Game Studios