It’s raining on the compound. It’s always raining on the compound. The sound of tires churning through mud coats the nearby forest as men in yellow and black cheer on the drivers as they make large donuts in the grass. Fire crackles from a series of open metal drums a few of the men have gathered around and unsafely, nearby, another is refueling one of the cars. By my count, there are about 9 men here. Cultists, all of them, and they all deserve to pay for what they’ve done to me. I only have one bullet but lucky for me, I can send it wherever I want. One after the other they fall, they try to run, but the Children of the Sun will never be able to outrun my bullet.
Children of the Sun
Developer: René Rother
Price: $14.99
Platform: PC (reviewed)
MonsterVine was supplied with Steam code for review
Children of the Sun is both the name of the cult and this execution-based puzzler created by René Rother. In it, you’ll take on the role of a sniper named simply, ‘The Girl,’ with some limited control over her singular bullet. With only a single bullet The Girl will need to kill a considerable amount of enemies. Luckily there are a few tricks up her sleeve that will help her take on the cadre of enemies and their various attempts to stop her from murdering every last one of them.
The Girl operates on a single plane, navigating left and right with the ability to scope in and see targets from afar, tag them, and remove her mask if she feels the need. Tagging is a lifesaver in this type of game, and being able to tag enemies while on the move is an incredible boon. While killing the enemies is your primary objective, lining up a shot, as well as finding all of the enemies in an arena were challenges in their own right. Because tagging persists between attempts, sometimes the best option is to shoot a route you know might fail to get a better understanding of the arena in front of you.
The cultists have various methods to avoid getting shot and luckily, The Girl has an arsenal of her own that will assist her in making this a massacre. As I mentioned in the opening paragraph there are cultists in cars, which can pose an issue because time doesn’t stop when you fire the bullet. Some cultists aren’t bothered or perhaps don’t hear the shot ring out but most do and will begin to scatter either immediately or as soon as someone gets shot. Likewise, if they’re in a car, the bullet itself might be on a trajectory that doesn’t match the car’s, passing through harmlessly and ending the attempt. Right out of the gate, she impresses the player by being able to slightly alter the trajectory of the bullet while time slows down.
Some enemies have large shields that keep them stationary but protect them from the front, others wear helmets that require the bullet to be far enough away that it can build up speed to penetrate. This became interesting and fun narratively as it felt like the cultists were responding to my progress. As I continued my rampage the cultists went to various lengths to make sure that I wasn’t just cruising through their compound unabated. Children of the Sun keeps things interesting by making both the cultists and the arena a big puzzle. Having to navigate the arena with a ballistics mindset not only made for visually exciting fun, but forced a strategic mindset that felt both familiar and foreign at the same time. You can’t just go from head to head, each cultist has a specific weak point and some of your powers require you to hit weak spots in order to charge.
I’m a fan of the design methodology here, Children of the Sun tells a lot without saying much of anything. Even the tutorials they showed for new mechanics offered minimal words of advice. Opting to show rather than tell, I felt Children of the Sun had a design philosophy that matched its style and narrative and shined through brilliantly. Despite the low-poly, low-fidelity visual style, the psychedelic aesthetic matches the chaotic nature of the gameplay and the narrative. Though Children of the Sun takes a minimalist approach to the narrative, it pairs well with the gameplay and visuals. Truthfully, I just wish I felt more compelled to be killing the cultists from the get go, rather than just having the default be, cultist bad. By the time you start to realize what the cult has done to The Girl, presumably, you’re already pretty invested in the game.
Though I was unimpressed with the strength of the narrative initially, Children of the Sun really won me over. While a bit short, a leaderboard and a set of challenges offer some replayability and post-game enjoyment. Children of the Sun scores you based on a few factors once you fire your bullet. Primarily, you’re being scored on how far the bullet travels, the type of kill you make, and how long you’ve spent in the level. I don’t think I’m particularly good at this game but was pretty satisfied with a few of my scores. Something else that really adds that extra juice to the gameplay is the ability to use the environment to navigate and even take out your enemies. There were several times that I was able to get out of a bind because a bird happened to be flying over my trajectory. It’s a bummer, the birds didn’t try to take advantage of The Girl, but from a gameplay perspective it was really cool to use the environment in that way.
The Final Word
A stunning visual feast for the eyes that managed to create a fun and challenging set of gameplay rules that carried me through to the end in a few days. Children of the Sun is a bit of a mindbender with some arcadey fun and truly compelling gameplay.
– MonsterVine Rating: 4 out of 5 – Good
