Children of the Sun - Review

When you first look at the Children of the Sun, you think of a shooter type game. But as you get into the game itself, it’s very apparent that it’s actually a puzzle game with the visuals of a shooter.

First off, let’s get the narrative out of the way. Children of the Sun gives players a very broad and vague narrative that little snippets of animation are shown in between every few levels. It’s definitely a type of revenge story of the main protagonist slowly making her way to eliminate a cult. As to why or her motives for doing it is a little more difficult to decipher until you get towards the second half of the game.

Now, the great thing about Children of the Sun is the simplicity of the story and levels that you can easily pick it up, play a few rounds or levels, then put it back down to take a break from it. In fact, the replayability is fantastic if you’re wanting to try and beat your previous score on the leaderboard by taking a different approach in killing the cultists on each level. This also just solidifies the fact that the game has puzzle based mechanics and how fast you’re able to problem solve or get through each level gives you a higher score.

As for the gameplay itself, each level starts with you being able to scope out your surroundings, letting you mark enemies and objects that you could use to take out the cultists by explosion. However, the main reason for looking through the level is the fact that your character has a type of kinetic ability to move objects, and in this instance, the singular bullet she shoots. The aim of the game is to use the one shot, and connect a chain of kills from one enemy to the next in a non-stop domino deaths. As the bullet penetrates each kill, you’re able to completely pivot and change the trajectory of the bullet, which also enables you to use surrounding objects such as the petrol tank on a car or fuse box to make an explosion.

As you progress further into the later levels, you develop a few extra abilities in the likes of being able to slow down the bullet and being able to slightly curve the shot, and a sped up bullet for armour piercing capabilities (just to name a couple). There are obviously a few more mechanics added to make the game a little more interesting, but that’s something you’ll have to find out yourself. All that can be said is that it’s absolutely satisfying when you’re able to problem solve and work out the chain to get through each enemy, and seeing the line of trajectory from a birds eye view at the end of each round.

One thing that’s quite clear with Children of the Sun is that it feels as though it was made for mouse and keyboard. In fact, it would definitely be easier to pivot and change the trajectory to the next target with a flick of a mouse than to slowly move the screen by holding down a joystick in one direction. This would also be advantageous if you’re mainly trying to beat the speed of your previous round, pushing you up the leaderboard. So, for those playing on the Steam Deck, or potentially on consoles at a later date, will be disadvantaged, but nonetheless still very satisfying.

The animation and art style itself seems somewhat rough in a stylistic way. In fact, the textures and brushstrokes of the cutscene feel very reminiscent to a motion comic book. And though the actual gameplay graphics aren’t extremely detailed, it works really well for the type of puzzle-shooter it is. Being able to scope out enemies, then shoot through the 3D depth of each level definitely brings back memories to 2008’s Wanted film and to a lesser extent the game. 

Though Children of the Sun has somewhat limited themselves to keyboard and mouse players at an advantage (as previously stated), it’s still fun regardless of what you use to play the game. It’s one that’s easy to pick up, that's not so time consuming, and is definitely worth checking out for a bit of fun. As expected from Devolver Digital, this game is a little on the quirky side, but will be fun for most people.

The Score

8.0

Review code provided by Devolver Digital

The Pros

Relatively easy to pick up and put down

Satisfying problem-solving gameplay, and viewing trajectory at the end of each level

The Cons

Relatively short game that lasts between 3 - 5 hours

Game is clearly made to be played with a keyboard and mouse, and not joysticks