Happy-go-lucky bundle of joy that I am, when I think ofDevolver Digital, the first games that come to mind are its joyously quirky titles like The Plucky Squire, Phantom Abyss, and Sludge Life. Don’t get me wrong, I love its more adult stuff too, likeHotline Miami,Cult of the Lamb, andInscryption, but I’m more interested in unique platforming and exploration than brutal murder.
So, when I found out that Devolver was revealing a new game, my mind raced with silly possibilities of happy worlds filled with puns and good vibes. Was it time forEnter the Gungeonto make a comeback, or wouldVolvy finally be getting over his earacheand stepping into the spotlight?
Then I played Children of the Sun, and any hope of me getting a good night’s sleep was killed like the cult member whose brain I just turned into mincemeat with a bullet controlled by my mind, before sending it zipping around and through his mate’s heads like a pinball. While Children of the Sun isn’t one of Devolver’s more light-hearted games, itisa bloody excellent puzzle shooter.
Children of the Sun isn’t just violent, it’s also one of the creepiest games I’ve played in a long time. Its dark, sketchy visuals combined with a booming “environmental experimental soundtrack” gets under your skin; it gives me the heebie-jeebies just thinking about it. Those discordant noises, grotesque violence, and revenge-fuelled protagonist made sure Children of the Sun stuck with me.
I can thank Berlin-based solo developer René Rother for the nightmares, as he’s the man behind Children of the Sun.
You control an unnamed character simply called The Girl, who wears a terrifying mask and has a vendetta against The Children of the Sun cult, which it’s revealed she was once an important part of thanks to her ability to control things with her mind. Although most would use that to grab drinks from the fridge without getting up, she uses it to whizz bullets around like Yondu in Guardians of the Galaxy.
As you start each level, you’ll move The Girl left and right to scope out the area, mark your targets, and determine the best position to fire from. Although most sniper-focused games would have you waiting for a thunderclap or something to drown out the sound of gunfire for a more stealthy approach, the twist with Children of the Sun is that you have one bullet that needs to hit a whole bunch of cult members.
That might sound impossible, but thanks to The Girl’s psychic abilities, once the bullet hits one target, everything goes slow, and it can be aimed and re-fired to hit another, and then another, until everyone around you is dead. That means that each level is a puzzle shooting gallery where the player has to figure out the most efficient route without hitting anything other than their targets. It’s likeHitman: Sniper Challenge, but if Agent 47 had cheat codes on. You know, like Lee Harvey Oswald did.
The comparison to Hitman: Sniper Challenge isn’t just because I’m lazy either - one of the most interesting things about Children of the Sun is how replayable it is. There are many different paths for your bullet to take through each level and tons of ways to take out the cult members, with some methods, like firing a bullet through fire or blowing up cars, being tied to a level-specific challenge.
I’m not usually into leaderboards, but I can see the battle between friends here getting pretty competitive as you figure out the best murder path.
At first, getting through levels is simple enough and just requires a bit of trial and error, some repositioning, and then a steady aim. As a console player who shoots with a controller instead of a keyboard and mouse, I was surprised at how easily I found things and how quickly I got into the master assassin spirit.
It doesn’t take long for things to get more complicated, though. Each new stage has a different layout that’s a lot more complicated, with one stand-out example being when I had to shoot a bird in between killing cult members to get a birds-eye view of the area and direct the bullet back into another target. After a few levels, you’ll unlock the ability to bend the bullet slightly as it flies through the air, Wanted-style. Then, even later, you’ll unlock the ability to take a new shot in the middle of your current one by hitting several weak points in a row.
With so many mechanics and the difficulty level only increasing as I played, I feel like I barely scratched the surface of what Children of the Sun has to offer. What I did experience, though, was a thoughtful puzzle shooter with one of the most distinct and unnerving vibes I’ve ever seen in a game. I’m sure I won’t want to close my eyes much when the full game drops, but Children of the Sun is worth losing some sleep over.
