Children of the Sun Review

ign.com:

Children of the Sun bills itself as a tactical third-person puzzle-shooter, but not all of those descriptors are equally relevant. Discard any attachment you have to the idea of it being a tactical third-person shooter in any traditional or meaningful way, and focus purely on the puzzle part. Children of the Sun, rather, is a supernatural sniper game where you control the path and speed of just one bullet per level – one part Hitman: Sniper Assassin, one part Seinfeld magic loogie. Essentially, you need to pause, pivot, and plot your single shot to kill every enemy on each level, all without losing said bullet beyond the boundaries of the map, or striking a part of the environment. It’s clever and compulsive, and I’ve found stitching together successful runs very satisfying. However, it definitely doesn’t elicit much sympathy for its mask-wearing main character, and I’m not sure it’s quite as replayable as it thinks it is.

The premise of Children of the Sun is simple, and it’s relayed in an equally simple fashion, with no voiceover – just quick sequences of sharp, hand-drawn artwork. That delivery is impressively effective, though. Whatever language you speak, I’d expect you’ll be able to easily follow the story.

There are occasional subtitles, but they don’t seem to contribute anything especially crucial. Our unnamed character – The Girl – is hell bent on killing her way through The Cult in order to snuff out its sadistic chief – The Leader – who murdered her parents. Also… she has paranormal powers that allow her to move things with her mind. That’s all you need to know, and that’s really all you’ll ever know. She’s upset, but her telekinetic killing spree is soothing her pain. Or making her horny. I think it’s one or the other.

It’s not that deep but, admittedly, it doesn’t need to be. It’s a revenge story, and I love revenge stories. You don’t exactly need a diving bell to get to the bottom of Death Wish, for instance. That said, it would’ve been nice for Children