What Sniper Elite does best is slowing down the camera and following the trajectory of the bullet towards its destination. Children of the Sun eclipses that series by letting you become the bullet, altering its path, and getting many kills with only a single bullet. This is a tactical puzzle shooter that’s unlike anything else. It’s a game that’s quick to get in to, and doesn’t take too long to get great at. Children of the Sun is a revenge tale at its core, but a stylish one at that where the bullet is the star.
When the titular Children of the Sun cult ruins your life, there is simply only one path to take: set off on a murderous road trip of revenge. The woman known as “THE GIRL” who successfully escaped the cult, returns to kill the entire snake up to the header to finish of its leader. It’s a tale as old as time, but more than enough to drive the story forward here.
The game doesn’t waste too much time getting back at the cult that wronged you. After a short tutorial, you’ll be taught that you have a short range of movement that encircles your targets. In order to be most successful, you’ve got to take them out all at once. Initially, you take aim on a glowy target and then fire. Upon hitting one target, can select another target. Along the way you can make slight adjustments to ensure headshots. After several levels, the game lets you build up the ability to re-aim after two successive shots into enemy weak points. Re-aiming lets you do a complete 180° to get around armor or reacquire a target you missed. There will be enemies completely encased in armor, and once the powershot is introduced, so long as you’re far enough away you can charge up a shot that can penetrate their armor for the kill shot. The game builds upon previous concepts in clever ways, and by the end of things, you’re bending bullets harder than in “Wanted”.
Being able to control the bullet does mean that you can shoot yourself, but I was disappointing there’s not an achievement associated with doing that. The achievements in the game are all easy to attain, as each level has a secret objective that unlocks them. What’s not disappointing is learning how to do better, and utilizing explosives and other means to ensure multiple kills happen to reduce the number of shots you have to take.
Children of the Sun is pulpy grindhouse affair that evokes “Mandy” with its cult presence, and some of the cutscenes have a Rob Zombie-esque feel to them. Unfortunately the cutscenes have inconsistencies. Sometimes they are in-engine, others are the aforementioned pulp in a comic style. It’s definitely trying to use every art style that fits, but to a degree that you wish was more coherent. It’s still a fascinating way to take in the story as you progress.
There’s over 20 levels to play through, with all of them are replayable. The game will take about five hours start to finish, and is certainly dependant on how much you revisit and trying to do better.
There’s a global leaderboards system built into the game. It tracks your score which includes things like distance, headshots, explosions, moving targets, multi kills and more. What takes away from your total is how many shorts are fired and how many seconds you’re in a level. You’ll quickly learn that this is about getting in and out as quickly and efficiently as possible.
It’s a stylish game start to finish, and one that’s not taxing on systems. It looks great on an ultrawide monitor with full support. It’s a game that just performs great, I experienced no slowdowns, even when explosions were popping off. Children of the Sun is a performant game, and the fact that it’s verified for Steam Deck means it’ll run well there, too.
My PC Specs:
– Microsoft Windows 11 Pro
– Intel Core i9 13900K @ 5.8GHz
– ASUS ROG RYUJIN II 360 ARGB AIO Liquid CPU Cooler
– G.SKILL TRIDENT Z5 6000MHZ 64GB (32×2) DDR5 RAM
– ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4080 16GB GDDR6X
– WD_BLACK SN850X M.2 (4 TB)
– LG UltraGear 34GP950B-G (21:9 Ultrawide @ 3440×1440)
Children of the Sun doesn’t have barriers to progressing, as you can either brute force or cleverly solve any given level. Where it succeeds is giving you the power to find your own solution, as there are many. Being able to destroy a cult completely is a more than enough motivation. As you unlock new powers and begin to execute them with calculated precision is unmatched. The leaderboards are a great way to incentivize competition among friends and strangers. Children of the Sun is such a pleasure to play, whether you’ve got 10 minutes or several hours.
A Steam code was provided in advance by the publisher for review purposes
