When Bright Memory Infinite it was shown with an explosive trailer, we knew that someday we would have to try it in one review. The publisher of the title, PLAYSM, had decided to show the world a title that seemed to make the graphics sector a real workhorse, as well as revealing an interesting gameplay after all. Our expectations of Bright Memory Infinite have always been quite discreetalthough it has been a bit lost in recent months, thanks to a marketing campaign that is not really effective.
In fact, not many will know – or remember – that the title was released in November 2021 exclusively on PC, via Steam. Today, however, the work developed by FYQD-Studio finally arrives on all current consoles, including Nintendo Switch. We have had the opportunity to intensively play the Xbox Series X | S version of Bright Memory Infinite, and we are finally ready to tell you about it in our review.
The story is about a simple mission of Shelia, the female protagonist of the work, who has the task of investigating strange weather events that are happening. Shelia will find herself forced not only to fight against soldiers, but also with enemies who come from a completely different reality and historical period. Although the narrative incipit may seem rather interesting, one of the biggest problems of the plot is its lack of contextualization.
Many events happen in a completely spontaneous and never in-depth way, and the same goes for the characters. In fact, the most important faces in the story are only four, including the protagonist, and none of them are illustrated as we would have expected. For this reason, Bright Memory Infinite is a jumble of rather random situations and quotestold by the development team as if every single player already knew the plot and didn’t need explanations about what’s going on.
There is also a burden on this result a surprising brevity of historywhich allows you to complete the title in just over an hour, even if you are starting it for the first time, unaware of the controls, commands and the various game dynamics. However, this allowed the team to keep the loading screens to a bare minimum, which we thankfully won’t see very often. Bright Memory Infinite is a work that really had the potential to tell an interesting world and characters that we could be curious about, but instead it gets lost in being hasty and without context.
Already finished?
However, what convinced us the most is the gameplay, which is rather blunt and well packaged, a sign of a higher level of care than the narrative system. First of all, the combat system relies heavily on the use of the discreet variety of Shelia’s attacks, ranging from classic rifles to a real katana, up to telekinetic powers. The rhythms are well balanced, thanks also to a good diversity of weapons available and to the different types of enemies that can appear in the field.
Less interesting are the boss fights, due to both their scarcity – a consequence of the shortness of the game – and the possibility of taking them down without too many problems if you use the special weapons bullets in the right way. They didn’t even convince us for variety, given that among the few that we will see during gameplay, one of them will repeat itself more than once.
However, the varied presence of always different moves opens up the possibility of use more complex combos and make the gameplay more hectic and fun. As we have already specified, the rhythms have been managed quite well, and especially the players who are waiting to spend a few more hours, perhaps trying to complete the title 100% and get a few more points for their own, will benefit from it. gamerscore on Xbox or trophies to add to your collection on PS4 and PS5, as they’re pretty easy to get (and we didn’t mind at all, quite the opposite).
One aspect that surprised us is instead the platform element, which creates a clear and pleasant detachment between the most intense fights and moments of quiet. Shelia is equipped with a grappling hook and the ability to double jump, but she can also run on walls and perform basic parkour actions. An interesting addition that enriches the gameplay in the right way and that has allowed us to take more time to enjoy the excellent graphics. The progression in the game maps is rather linearbut at the end of a battle and thanks to the level design – based on platforming – we can often find some relics that allow us to enhance the weapons and skills of the protagonist.
In fact, it is also present a skill tree that boasts of a good balance: the most attentive and exploratory will in fact collect many points in a single run of the title, thus reaching the most difficult final missions with an important advantage. The addition of the skill tree and the relics gives so an added value to the gameplayoffering the player a very valid reason to explore the map and making him feel less of the weight of a relatively limited level design.
The wonders of the graphic and artistic sector
So let’s open the big parenthesis of the graphic sector and the artistic direction. We will say it right away: Bright Memory Infinite can be proud of an extremely realistic visual rendering, but you don’t have to be fooled only by very good reflections and well-maintained lighting effects, although they are two of its great qualities. A closer eye will immediately notice that the models are not always the best of the current generation and often leave something to be desired. Luckily, the view is in first person and therefore we won’t see much of Shelia on screen, as we may often notice how unreal her body is.
In any case, if we do not dwell too much to find a nit, the graphics sector is very enjoyable and we approve it without too many problems. As we said, to have convinced us the most are the effects of light and reflections, which push the accelerator of ray tracing on consoles that support this technology. The high resolution and almost always stable frame rate, which they reach 4K and 60 fps on both Xbox Series X and Series Stherefore representing a rather interesting milestone and which gave an added value to the performance on the screen, often generating panoramas that we really appreciated during the review phase.
Review
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Bright Memory Infinite (Tested on XBX / S)
7.8Total Score
Bright Memory Infinite is a title that undoubtedly has the potential to have fun and make you spend a pleasant hour glued to the screen. In fact, its biggest flaw is precisely the haste with which the story is told and comes to an end, leaving the player with a dry mouth right on the most beautiful. At present it looks more like an extended tech demo than a game in itself, and undoubtedly needs some scattered technical improvements. We’ll tell you more, what would do PLAYISM and FYQD-Studio really good is an extra couple of hours to the campaign or some extra modes.
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