Children of the Sun
Wipe out a cult with one bullet in CHILDREN OF THE SUN
There are 11 cultists in front of me, and only one round in my sniper rifle. I don’t need any more to near-instantly clear out entire compounds in this game of supernatural executions and flawlessly executed plans. My primary plan – 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 my telekinetic powers.
Planning is at the heart of Children of the Sun, as you scout out each stage and tag all the enemies, Far Cry style.
There’s no stealth element, however, as you’re not actually moving around the level but running rings around its perimeter, from a place of safety. You have the telekinetic ability to move the bullet after it’s been fired, and the main way you’ll be expressing this is by flinging it from one exploded head to another.
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. After you’ve initially fired the gun, you can only see what the bullet sees, and it’s very easy to get into a position – once you’ve inserted it into someone’s head – where there are no enemies in sight for the bullet to leap to. Miss at any point and you’ll have to restart, mercifully with the enemies remaining tagged.
The order in which you kill enemies is vitally important
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 make sure you’re hitting vital enemy weak spots.
The second ability, Re-Aim, essentially lets you do a U-turn in mid-air, while Power Shot lets you ramp up the bullet’s speed to kill armoured enemies. Later levels, once you’ve unlocked all three powers, make you feel a telekinetic god.
NEED TO KNOW
A sniping puzzle game in which you control a bullet with your mind
£12.80
René Rother
Devolver Digital
Intel Core i7-10750H, 16GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060
No
devolverdigital.com/games/children-of -the-sun
TAKE THE SHOT
That amazing feeling quickly crumbles when you look at the leaderboard and see your name at 557th place, but these are levels meant to be played multiple times. You can start a stage from anywhere – from anyone, I should say – and usually make it work, although more powerful enemies have
