Indie Hour - Children of the Sun
Table of Contents
Hey it's Tarrmu and welcome to another episode of Indie Hour where we talk about the latest independent video games that may have passed you by, and in today's video we're going to be talking about Children of the Sun a Third-person tactical puzzle shooter developed by solo-developer Rene Rother and published by Devolver Digital.
Children of the Sun, is a very interesting puzzle shooter where you take control of a girl out for vengeance on a mysterious cult, and ultimately eliminate their leader. The story is told through stylized, and psychedelic presentations that loosely depict and connect is narrative.
Children of the Sun's gameplay is a creative take on the whole sniper-based shooter, where it is less like something like Sniper Elite and more a supernatural puzzle piece. It marries the vantage point shooting of Sniper Elite with that movie Wanted from the late 2000's if anyone remembers that movie, but unlike that film, this game is actually pretty good. Children of the Sun is more a puzzle game than shooter, where you will run around to find the best position to fire your shot, and then once that initial bullet is fired, you'll take control of this bullet being able to control the direction that it heads towards, and when the bullet, collides with an enemy it serves as an opportunity to scope your surroundings for the next enemy to ping pong this bullet between, slowly, but surely clearing the room of every enemy around.
This is an important fact because you'll need to be aware of your surroundings and the best route to takedown each enemy in a level, because as the song goes, you only have "one shot, and one opportunity" and if you miss or don't plan accordingly than the level is failed causing you to start all over again. Each level is absolutely interesting and oozing with personality, and it fits to overall eerie atmosphere that underpins this games narrative and setting. There is also a wealth of freedom and player expression in the way that each of these levels allow you to tackle each of these environments, and enemies. It's really cool after finishing this game to see the creative ways that more skilled players than myself complete these levels.
But I think that this gameplay loop is refreshing, satisfying and doesn't get old throughout its six hour campaign. It starts off fairly simple getting you used to the core mechanics of how the bullet moves, the physics and taking down enemies, but on top of this it adds new features into the mix that elevate and keep you guessing and problem solving throughout your playthrough.
On top of all of this creative gameplay is level design that feels absolutely stylish in its art direction, but meticulous in its design. Another important point to add is that there is also a time component to this as well, with scoreboards and everything to match, making the time to complete, along with the style of the manner you accomplish this, become the long-term throughline that will keep you hooked and replaying these levels long after you complete its story. In a lot of ways, although they're completely different in gameplay, there is a speed-running time trial element to Children of the Sun that reminds me of Neon White, and even as someone who wasn't chasing the quickest time, there was this addictive loop of trying to complete each level as efficiently as possible, with a level of finesse that really did make the overall experience engaging from start to finish.
If you're someone who loves to play games with a time trial component or loves those cool bullet slow-down effects, than Children of the Sun is full of these types of moments, and it has a really bizarre and out there story, that lends itself to some really unique and vivid art direction that makes each level feel both eerie in its design and well-designed as a bullet curving playground. I recommend Children of the Sun.
Let me know your thoughts down below or if there are any games that you'd like to see me cover on the channel, as always I am Tarrmu and this has been Indie Hour, if you enjoyed the video consider giving us a like and if you really enjoyed the video consider subscribing. Thanks for watching.
