Stalking through a dark forest, you play as “the girl”; a woman who loses her family to a cult which prompts you on a blood-soaked revenge mission against them and their leader in Children of the Sun.
Children of the Sun’s story is told through brief flashbacks to the girl’s time in the cult, slowly revealing the atrocities done to her and others, all at the whim of their leader. I didn’t know it was possible for a game to feel as grimy as Hotline Miami did, but Children of the Sun really nails how dirty the whole world feels, on top of having a surrealist/True Detective sorta vibe on top of it.
The game’s main gimmick is that each level tosses you onto a field with your rifle and one bullet; your goal is to use that one bullet to kill all the cultists in the area. To facilitate this, the girl is gifted with the ability to be able to redirect her bullet when it hits an enemy. This then turns the shooter into a puzzler as you attempt to find the best possible path of carnage to send your singular bullet on as you dome cultists. There’s a bit of trial and error in this approach however as the levels get bigger, and the cultists more numerous, there were a few times I was wasting level attempts just to try and find the one missing cultist. This only got somewhat annoying once or twice in the whole build, however, as I usually was able to find whoever was hiding in my first go.
As I progressed through my spree, I was able to unlock new powers for the girl that allowed me to redirect my bullet mid-air and even slow it down to finetune my aim a bit better which is super handy for moving cultistsThehe game kept things pretty fresh with the enemies as they eventually started wearing armor requiring shots from certain angles, were driving around in cars, or one particular level saw two trains helping cover cultists. These sorts of levels felt like proper skill checks, making sure you fully understand the new power upgrade you just got because you can’t just blind fire your way through some of the later levels in the build I played. Additionally, the game features a leaderboard system, scoring you on how well you did which is sure to scratch that itch of “oh I’m sure I can do that a bit faster/better”.
Children of the Sun looks to be a nifty puzzle shooter with its single-bullet feature. It doesn’t currently have a release date, but I’m eager to play more when it’s fully out.
