Bright Memory: Infinite: Specifications
Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch
price: $20
Release date: 20 July 2022
Type: First person shooter
You’ll be forgiven for assuming that Bright Memory: Infinite is a direct sequel to the action-packed game Bright Memory. Solo developer Zeng Xiancheng’s debut game was a graphically impressive shooter that clocked in under an hour, and it was more of a technical demo than a full experience. Instead of producing a direct sequel, Xiancheng and the team at Playism chose to reimagine the first game and expand its ideas with Bright Memory: Infinite. It’s nearly twice as long as Bright Memory, but improves the visibility of the original game in some major ways.
If you are looking for a massive and budget shooter with an unforgettable story and characters, then Bright Memory: Infinite is definitely not what you are looking for. However, if you’re willing to embrace the game’s brevity as a strength, you may find this compact replay to be surprisingly creative and fun. Read on for all the details in this bright note: infinite review.
Bright Memory: Infinite Review: A Story
For a game that you can easily beat in under two hours, you might not expect a detailed background story or extensive character arcs, but Bright Memory: Infinite seems not interested in trying to tell a story at all. Trying to understand what is happening, or how any of the characters relate to each other, is practically useless. The developers seem to have thrown the incoherent narrative together by picking random sci-fi nonsense out of a bowl.
The reboot of Xiancheng takes place on the first game’s completely forgettable heroine Shelia, an agent of a supernatural science research organization. This time, you’re trying to stop a sudden anomaly that could blend together different universes – a plan initiated by a sinister villain, who has only moments of screen time and no explainable motive. Although the cast utters a bunch of terms to each other during the short journey, the game ends without closing or justifying anything. The narrative is never unbearable, but being meaningless can be an even greater insult.
Bright Memory: Infinite Review: How to Play
Fortunately, Bright Memory: Infinite makes up for its narrative failings with a creative array of combat and action options, which you can combine to become a veritable whirlwind of death. Without a specific purpose for existence, the game’s collection of ordinary soldiers and mysterious supernatural beings is just fodder you can shoot at, and slaughtering them is a thrill. There’s a lot to enjoy here, and it all works better together than you might expect.
Borrowing liberally from popular games like Titanfall and Shadow Warrior, Bright Memory: Infinite’s Shelia has access to double jumps, grappling hooks, wall runs and more, which complement the game’s parkour level design. And while the paths you take in the game are pretty linear, having a great deal of maneuverability – especially during combat encounters – makes the experience feel much freer than it actually is.
There’s a lot of focus on melee combat, as Bright Memory: Infinite asks you to put together sword flips and movement skills to create some awesome combos. Some battles unfold at breakneck speeds, so knowing the timing of enemy attacks is pivotal to your success. Once you tap into the satisfying rhythm of sword style, taking on the enemy, shoving them skyward and delivering a devastating air range becomes second nature.
Shelia also has access to an arsenal of record-breaking weapons, including essential items like shotguns and assault rifles. Ammo is plentiful enough that I never had a problem using these guns frequently. There’s nothing special about any of them, but the shooting feels tight and responsive, and I’ve been constantly fascinated by the dance of mixing melee and range options. With just a few flashy basic skills to unlock and use along the way, there’s definitely no shortage of ways to dispatch opponents.
One-time set pieces are also scattered across levels to change speed. Although not as fun as the basic gameplay loop, it is mostly entertaining, and it rarely lasts long enough to be annoying. The exception is the forced stealth part that seems too primitive to bypass as long as it is. Otherwise, the game is so fast-paced and so filler-free that this single gaffe is easy to forgive.
Unfortunately, for a campaign that ends quickly, there’s not much to do after the credits are up. You can revisit levels to find collectible relics, which you can use to buy some extra skills, but that takes an extra half hour at most. Restarting the game on a higher difficulty level is all that’s left, so there’s very little incentive to keep the game going once you’ve finished a run or two.
Bright Memory: Infinite Review: Visuals and Audio
Despite the fact that Bright Memory: Infinite is a budget title from a small studio, it has a level of quality in its visuals that we rarely see outside of big budget titles. The game supports two graphics modes on consoles: one with ray tracing at 60 frames per second, and the other that can boost performance up to 120 frames per second. No matter which game you use, Bright Memory: Infinite is a surprisingly beautiful game. It features some great weather effects and well-designed environments, even if the character models and animations look a bit depressing in comparison.
Meanwhile, the voice acting ranges from decent to good – although it doesn’t matter, since the game’s plain script doesn’t do much to give any of the characters life. Shelia and the game’s supporting cast have virtually no harmony with each other, making them nothing more than a mind-numbing cliché that pushes the barren narrative forward. Likewise, the result is generic and repetitive, serving its purpose in the background without leaving any lasting impression.
Bright Memory: Infinite Review: The Verdict
Although the length of the game seems like a double on paper, Bright Memory: Infinite manages to turn its mansion into a strength by condensing the best parts of modern shooters into a two-hour thrilling event. By eliminating almost all of the filler that tends to slow down the average game, the experience stays engaged throughout, and finishes without any of its mechanics becoming obsolete. Admittedly, it’s hard to ignore the pointless narrative and low replayability. But the low asking price makes Bright Memory: Infinite worth taking for anyone who wants to spend an afternoon chipping and shooting.
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