Everyone has that movie, album or game that despite how objectively flawed it is, you can’t help but love it. Sure, something like Tenacious D in The Pick Of Destiny isn’t by any means a masterpiece, but that didn’t stop us from watching it countless times. Bright Memory: Infinite fits into that guilty pleasure camp so well. We can’t give it a full recommendation, but we kind of loved it.
Bright Memory is a first-person shooter with a heavy focus on its melee elements. Made by a sole developer, Zeng "FYQD" Xiancheng, Bright Memory first released back in 2019 with ‘Episode One,’ but rather than opting to create a second episode, it was developed into Bright Memory: Infinite and released on PC in 2021, with console releases finally showing up this month.
Set in 2038, you assume the role of Shelia, a member of the Science Research Organisation (SRO) who is tasked with investigating an abnormal weather event. Once crash landing in the area, Shelia discovers a black hole has formed and that SAI, a rival military company, is in the area and that its leader, General Lin, is seeking an ancient artifact.
The plot is unintelligible at times. For example, at one point you’re knocked back by a blast, and when you wake up you’re suddenly fighting ancient warriors. The moment is given what is effectively a 'huh that’s weird' from the characters, and then for the rest of the game you fight a mixture of ancient warriors and SAI troopers with no more elaboration on their place. Honestly, it feels like you’ve been thrust into the plot of a game about five hours into the story, and considering how abruptly it ends it’s hard to get too invested.
Despite the Infinite in the title, Bright Memory is over in around two hours, and that isn’t two hours of pure gameplay; we’re including cutscenes in that tally. That being said, it's a wild two hours. Outside of the cutscenes, the game doesn’t slow down at all, and manages to hit you with some wild setpieces. From a random car chase mission to fighting enemies on the wings of a burning airplane straight into a scrap with some re-animated guardian lion statues. The game packs a Call Of Duty campaign's worth of setpieces into its short runtime. It also doesn’t really offer anything to do outside of the campaign aside from replaying at higher difficulties.
Where Bright Memory shines is in that core gameplay. Shelia is equipped with four guns, a sword, and ESP powers with her magic arm. The gunplay feels great; everything has a good weight to it aside from the shotgun feeling a bit underwhelming. Each weapon comes with an alternate fire, which are generally explosive and produce an obnoxious amount of screen shake in the shotgun and handgun's case. The melee combat is also surprisingly versatile with its own set of launchers, combos, and AoE attacks for both. You also have access to some good movement options like a seven-way air dash, rolls, slides, and even a grappling hook, which, sadly is completely underutilized due to it only being used on pre-determined grapple points.
While your combat mechanics and your kit feel great to use, it’s a shame that your adversaries aren't really worth it. Most enemies will go down without much of a fight, even on higher difficulties, meaning you don't need to use the majority of your kit as your AR and ESP suspension will suffice. Enemies can also be found running into walls, clipping into the environment, T-posing and aiming shots and grenades at the opposite end of the arena. The bosses fare better in the combat and AI departments, but there’s about four in the entire game.
Bright Memory can be a bit messy at times; we encountered several glitches such as you and enemies getting stuck in geometry, foes appearing out of thin air, and even a few crashes. The game runs fairly well on Switch, with handheld mode being a far smoother experience than docked mode. The game looks decent for the platform, too. However, some text elements like your gun's ammo counter, and even the credits, are extremely blurry, with the latter being near-illegible in handheld mode.
Conclusion
Bright Memory: Infinite is a short but could-be-much-sweeter shooter, and a hard one to recommend. It's glitchy, it has an incoherent story that ends abruptly, the AI is inconsistent, and the whole thing is over in just about two hours. And yet, in spite of all of that, we still had fun due to its strong core gameplay and frankly, ridiculous story and setpiece moments. For a game made by just one person, it has a really solid foundation and some impressive production values despite the glitches. However, it desperately needs further iteration to be worthy of recommendation for anyone outside of a select few.
Comments 40
Bright Memory: Infinitesimal might have been a more accurate title.
Totally forgot about this, but I'm totally interested (will probably play on PC though).
So I guess it runs pretty well, too bad it's middling.
Yeah I will have to pick this up.
Normally I'm quite a fan of short games that do what they need to then bow out in a couple hours, but £15 is a stretch.
Surprised this has been released on Switch as a "full game". I have this on Steam and always thought it had been marketed as a tech demo / beta of sorts (i.e. a taster before a more complete game is released).
It is precisely the game I was warning people for.
Skip it unless it’s at least 90% off.
So many other games where the money is better spend on.
@Buizel it is “the full game”
On paper, I and a lot of people that played the PC version concluded this is a tech demo at best.
The only reason this “game” makes sense is to mess around with Ray Tracing on PC, and only that.
That is why this doesn’t make any sense on consoles, it loses the only reason to exist on them.
As for the score 5 is extremely generous, and for people that wonder about the second game well it is precisely the same short mess, with the sole reason of it’s existence being Ray Tracing on PC.
That and nothing more, so if the dev does release that on consoles, don’t bother waiting but just do a full skip.
I will probably still get this on a deep sale.
Was interested not now!!
No Gyro aiming? Digital only? Only 2 hours long! It looked kinda interesting but I think I'll pass. Mabey if it comes to Game Pass I'll give it a shot...
Short games are always a pro for me not a con 😎
2 hours? Really? Whoa.
@veesonic In that case you may enjoy my new game, it's so short you won't even find any proof anywhere you ever downloaded it, let alone played it. For a mere 15 euro's, all of this can be yours (well, not YOURS, you'll be licensed to run the code, which is so short you won't even have to get up to run it, you'll go from energised to tired and skip all the annoying bits in between.
Obviously just kidding. You can have it for FREE!
No no, seriously, I too sometimes prefer a shorter game, with a good, focused story driven campaign. Just played through Endling: Extinction is Forever. At 4 - 5 hours length and double the price (physically), you could say it's the same "bang for buck", and 60 euro games that only take 8 hours to beat are pretty common...
Then again, I'd say it's all overpriced, and I usually buy games at giveaway prices, but Endlings just really spoke to me on a personal level.
@veesonic Seriously. At this age, I still play really long games, but it makes the overall gaming ... complicated.
I will pick it up on a 5 dollar or less sale.
Really want to play this. Guess I will wait for a 50% off sale.
@veesonic I appreciate short games too, but the price should be commensurate. I may still give this a look when it's on sale though - it sounds pretty cool. I also love me a really insane storyline!
@DTfeartheBEARD it has gyro, and for the amount of time it has (basic CoD campaign run time), the price is justified.
I'm going to pick it up eventually. CoD campaigns have the same lenght, and they charge you full price for them. Looks like good, silly fun.
@Rayquaza2510 this is useful to know. Tbh this is not far from my impression as someone who barely touched the PC version.
If it's 2 hours long, why does it cost more than 2 eur?
The price versus length factor has always baffled me as its simply not a factor in other mediums.
If its a fun 2 hours then where is the issue exactly? People pay way more to watch a film at the cinema or on a nice meal but a 2 hour fun, replayable experience is crossing the line?
Also tuned out of this review after the first paragraph since I loathe 'guilty pleasure' thinking.
This game lacks a decent story and I agree that it is very incoherent. That said it’s performance is really poor. It looks incredible on Xbox - and of course it will look better than on Switch - but the Switch is really starting to get beyond the point where these games are going to run well. If devs are not going to put the time in then I don’t see the point in even releasing certain titles on Switch. It’s too underpowered and now devs are just not taking time to make performance acceptable which is a shame because we all know it can be done.
It's about 3 bucks on the Argentina Eshop. I'll give it a go for that.
Anyone remember the cover to Capcom’s ‘Remember Me’? Looks like someone at FYQD Studio remembered.
If anyone wants a more in depth review check out the SwitchUp review on YouTube, the review here doesn’t go into any depth and the content of the review doesn’t justify a score of only 5.
It genuinely looks like a must buy to me.
Very suprising to see it's this short, "Bright Memory Infinite" was allegedly the long-awaited full version of the "Bright Memory" demo which was released on Steam some time ago. I hate to find out how short Bright Memory itself was
@BartoxTharglod I see, its still cool that one person made this entire game from the ground up
@BeautyandtheBeer it’s a dire review to be fair, no idea how they came up with a 5….I question wether they played it for any length of time. There’s no justification for the low score in the text. I’ll still be getting it as SwitchUp reviewed it really well, I think they’re pretty much the go to guys for Switch reviews these days.
This review is really inaccurate and doesn't explain the cons at all. Check the review of SwitchUp, which gave the game a score of 77%.
@alexwolf sounds like the reviewer played it for about 10 minutes and didn’t like it. It’s a terribly written review.
One for the bargain. Cheers for the review. Still a fair few satisfying things I can get out of the game at the right price I think
This looks great and I do want to get it but only at a big discount, over in 2 hours + mimimun to no replay value really puts me off buying it. Don't get me wrong no game should outlive it's welcome, for example Abzu took me 4 hours to complete but it felt perfectly paced and ended without getting boring, it's about the experience, but 2 hours including cutscenes is a bit offputting
Definitely going to get this!
I said screw it and bought it. Looks great. Runs great. Having a lot of fun with it. Gonna play through on every difficulty so I get my $20 worth.
The way I read this foggy review is- YOU NEED to buy 5 copies. One for your best friend, another for your father or mom, a copy for your uncle, a fresh one for your lover or fiance and at least one for your siblings. This game ROCKS!!! I know FPS is not everyones cup of tea but we gamers need a bridge to society.
yesteday just bough it ,quite fun to play
@BartoxTharglod "Shredder's Revenge" has a ton more replayability with both local and online multiplayer as well as several different playable characters.
@BeautyAndTheBeer You need to find a better theater if you're spending that much on a movie ticket. I can buy a ticket for half the price of this game (while smuggling in a snack bought much cheaper elsewhere).
Wow what a ***** game, maybe i would have scored 3/10. This game was a real mess, i dont get it how some people can enjoy this crap.
@Hthegamer Lol you dont fool anyone.
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