Children of the Sun review

Our VerdictA killer puzzle game that tests your skill and your patience.

Our Verdict

A killer puzzle game that tests your skill and your patience.

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Need to KnowWhat is it?A sniping puzzle game where you telekinetically control your bullet.Release dateApril 9, 2024Expect to pay$15/£12.80DeveloperRené RotherPublisherDevolver DigitalReviewed onIntel Core i7-10750H, 16GB RAM, GeForce RTX 2060Steam DeckVerifiedLinkOfficial site

Need to Know

What is it?A sniping puzzle game where you telekinetically control your bullet.Release dateApril 9, 2024Expect to pay$15/£12.80DeveloperRené RotherPublisherDevolver DigitalReviewed onIntel Core i7-10750H, 16GB RAM, GeForce RTX 2060Steam DeckVerifiedLinkOfficial site

There are 11 cultists in front of me, and only one round in my sniper rifle. Not that I need any more to near-instantly clear out entire compounds in this game of supernatural executions and flawlessly executed plans. My primary goal—as an ex-cult-member out for revenge—is to kill scores of anonymous cultists across stark, grungy levels until I can finally take out their leader. All I need is my rifle, one bullet and—oh yes—my telekinetic powers.

But the order in which you kill enemies is vitally important. It’s the difference between failing the stage or clearing it—and getting your username out of the bowels of the leaderboards. So, who do you shoot first? And where are you going to ride the bullet from there? After you’ve initially fired the gun, you can only see what the bullet sees, so it’s very easy to get into a position where there are no enemies in sight for you to leap to. Miss at any point and you’ll have to restart the level, though mercifully enemies you’ve tagged stay tagged even when you fail.

(Image credit: René Rother)

Aiming down sights at a cultist in Children of the Sun.

As you may have guessed, there’s a heavy puzzle element to Children of the Sun, although certain abilities—and more resilient enemies—gradually dial up the amount of skill required to put your plans into action. The first power you acquire is to steer the bullet mid-flight—only a little, but enough to swerve around obstacles, or to make sure you’re hitting vital enemy weak spots. Thankfully, this power also slows down time, so you won’t need killer reflexes to execute these perfect shots.

It looks amazing, and it often feels amazing—the result of minutes of repeated practice—and it’s less than half the cool manoeuvres I need to perform to finish the level. This final try, after I had perfected the process, must have taken me under a minute—time being one of the factors that determines your score at the end of each stage.

Snipe dream

(Image credit: René Rother)

The sniper looking over a rainy landscape in Children of the Sun.

That god-like feeling quickly crumbles when you look at the leaderboard and see your name at 557th place, but this is a game meant to be played multiple times (you can replay completed levels in any order). You can also start a level from anywhere—from anyone, I should say—and usually make it work, although more powerful enemies have certain criteria that need to be met first.

It’s this inflexibility—the impossibility of thinking on your feet and recovering from fuck-ups—that makes it difficult to feel a sense of triumph when you do succeed. You’re following a plan, and you’ve finally achieved it through sometimes painful repetition. It’s not a sense of exhilaration so much as relief. Though that’s not to devalue the thrill of scouting out a level and testing your plans, before you set them in stone.

(Image credit: René Rother)

A target falling backwards in a spray of blood in Children of the Sun.

The final level in particular is like a heist, as you pop heads to lower magical barriers and gradually make your way towards the heavily guarded leader. Here, everything you’ve learned builds to a crescendo: a moment of transcendent mastery, even if I was screaming at my laptop a lot of the time.

But where do you go from there? Where can you go, after mastering a game? You can master itbetter, improving your scores on the previous stages, but when half those stages feel like training grounds, I don’t feel terribly compelled to look backwards. This is a game crying out for challenge levels, more stages that give you your full suite of powers. Finishing it makes you feel like you’re just getting started.

The Verdict71Read our review policyChildren of the SunA killer puzzle game that tests your skill and your patience.

The Verdict

71Read our review policyChildren of the SunA killer puzzle game that tests your skill and your patience.

71Read our review policy

Children of the SunA killer puzzle game that tests your skill and your patience.

Children of the Sun

A killer puzzle game that tests your skill and your patience.

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Our Verdict#

Snipe dream#

Our Verdict

Snipe dream