Join the dots (violently)

I’m beginning to think I have an unhealthy obsession with strange games.

Children of the Sun is a puzzle game where you have to kill each person on the map with only one bullet from a sniper. Each kill nets you the opportunity of stopped time to redirect and fire again, essentially creating the most deadly connect the dots puzzle ever. Mix that simple concept in with psychedelic visuals, a distortion-heavy soundtrack and a disturbing story, you have all the hallmarks of one strange game.

You play as an unnamed character armed with a sniper rifle and the ability to control the bullet, going up against the titular Children of the Sun cult, sequentially murdering your way up until you face off against the leader. Each level starts with you off in the distance, able to move around, aim down the scope and mark targets. After firing the bullet, you can slightly control it in midair but only up to a certain point in any direction. After taking out one member of the cult, you can redirect the bullet to the next one, and so on, creating one long chain. If you hit a wall, then you have to start all over again. This lends to a very trial and error style of puzzle solving, one I’m not quite sure I like.

Later on you get more abilities, such as being able to redirect the bullet at any point, or speeding the bullet up. You’ll need this to deal with the different cult members which appear; some that wear armour, others that cower behind shields. There are also environmental hazards, such as conveniently placed explosives, or conveniently placed cars which are convenient explosives. Hitting these isn’t just a good way to taking out multiple enemies, but also allows you to redirect the bullet again. So, of course, sometimes the game leads into the supernatural element a bit more and floats a few cars in the sky to help you out.

While the puzzle element isn’t that strong, the game’s best feature is its completely insane presentation and style. When you beat a level, the bullet path is shown, with stars showing where people died, creating a kind of morbid constellation. Between some levels, you have short story sequences which vary a lot. Sometimes it’s a cutscene like a flash of images or sometimes you play a minigame.

The most annoying thing about the game is the "last guy" in every single mission. You’ll have found everyone else and have made a new hole in their heads, but trying to find the last guy is where the game is at its worst. The person might be in a location you couldn’t see from outside so you have to stop at every enemy and make sure you take a good look around before moving to the next. It slows the game down in a way that feels like worthless padding, not because of the difficulty of the puzzle.

The game can certainly feel a tad "style over substance", especially with the visuals which can be overbearing if you don’t mesh well with them. Unless you want to spend hours optimising a level to get one more place up a leaderboard, then it’s not that replayable either. Sure, there are multiple ways of beating level, but what is the point of going back for an average player.

Children of the Sun is a short, strange game made by a person who wasn’t afraid of putting it out there and a company not afraid of publishing it, and for that I’m happy it exists. The puzzles are fine, but I do wish there was less trial and error and more thought overall, maybe being able to see through walls temporarily would alleviate the main gripe I have with it. If nothing else, the style and presentation are worth the price of admission alone, and anyone who is as interested in a strange game as much as I am will enjoy this one.