Children of the Sun has one of the best levels of 2024 so far

In a year full of great games, Children of the Sun is something very special. Developed by René Rother, the psychedelic puzzle shooter plays like a spiritual mashup of Sniper elite And Super hot through Suda51’s anarchic noise-rock sensibility, which puts players in the role of a vengeful masked assassin on a one-woman warpath through a surreal version of the American South to kill the leader of an army of cultists.

The basic concept of the game is relatively simple: you have exactly one ball with which you have to eliminate each enemy per level. Luckily, your character is a powerful telekinesis, allowing the player to control the bullet mid-shot to ricochet between your targets, like Yondu’s pipe-controlled arrow Guardians of the Galaxyby treading a path of death and destruction in each of the 26 levels as you hunt your final target.

The result is a chaotic, immersive experience that becomes increasingly challenging as it introduces new and more inventive techniques to your psychic arsenal. You can slow bullet speed to change the trajectory of your shots in real time, or speed it up so you can penetrate heavily armored enemies at the expense of accuracy. You can target specific weak spots on your enemies’ bodies to unlock the ability to reorient your bullet mid-shot. You can even shoot pigeons in the air to get a better bird’s eye view of the battlefield.

To defeat the cultists, you’ll have to rely on all of these maneuvers and improvise a few others on the fly. While each level offers its own unique and surprising challenges, Children of the SunThe 18th level of Open Mic Night in Hell is one of the most satisfying levels I’ve played in a game so far this year.

Image: René Rother/Devolver Digital

The level places the player on the edge of an office building complex that has been taken over by the cultists. To complete your mission, you must find a way to eliminate every member on the upper exterior floors of the building, as well as a group of cultists who are holding an impromptu concert in the courtyard between two buildings. After I managed to take out the cultists in the courtyard, I didn’t know how I was going to make it back to the outside of the complex to wipe out my remaining targets.

I tried aiming the bullet at the building itself and then aiming it again to take out one of the outside guards. I attempted to wipe out the cultists outside the building before working my way inside, along with several other approaches from different angles; Each attempt was more frustrating than effective.

After racking my brain, I finally came up with a solution. I would have to redirect the bullet through an open corridor to the outside of the building, activate my ability to re-aim my shot in mid-air, make a full 180 degree turn to aim the bullet at one of the cultists, and speed up my attempt. to penetrate the body of an armored cultist before I do it again.

Image: René Rother/Devolver Digital

Stumbling across this technique was a real eye-opener moment and eventually became a staple in my personal arsenal of moves, helping me out in emergency situations throughout the second half of the game’s challenges. Children of the Sun is full of moments like this, but this one in particular felt like a breakthrough in my approach to the game, as it forced me to take stock of the forces at my disposal as well as the layout of the terrain.

The beauty of Children of the Sun is that this solution is completely optional. There are practically dozens of different options that the player can use to address this very problem. The only similarity, however, is that no matter how you complete your mission, the end result is going to be bad as hell.

Children of the Sun was released on Windows PC on April 9th. The game was reviewed using a pre-download code provided by Devolver Digital. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These have no influence on the editorial content, although Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased through affiliate links. You can find More information about Polygon’s ethics policy can be found here.