Bright Memory: Infinite (PC) Review

Okay, first things first. Many regard Bright Memory: Infinite to be a graphical marvel. It isn't. It definitely ain't bad, but visual appeal is not a matter of how many lighting and shader tricks one stuffs in one game, and FYQD's creation is exactly that - lots of flashy things, but an art direction that's mediocre, and thus never really leaves an impact. The design of it all is somewhat boring too. The protagonist, the woman named Shelia, is the stock female character that can be found in literally every Chinese or Korean smartphone game, and the soldiers are the generic semi-sci-fi goons of most shooters.

One hour in the game, and most will have no idea what's going on here. Names are thrown all over the place, and it really feels as if you stumbled upon issue #538 of an X-Men comic - even worse to be perfectly honest. Oh, and by the way, one hour means like 50% of the "campaign." This is way too short for the price-tag attached to it (or any price-tag, actually), with the only thing left to do afterwards is to try out different difficulty modes, or check out the skins that can be unlocked or bought as DLC.

The action part of Bright Memory: Infinite is probably the one where things get a bit more interesting. The heroine… [checks notes] Shelia, acts more line a Metal Gear-esque ninja than a typical shooter protagonist. Apart from her weapons, she can dash quickly out of harm, double-jump, wall-jump, slash enemies with her blade, or block and ricochet bullets back at them like a Star Wars Jedi. She also carries some fancy tech that enables grappling enemies from afar like a magnet and then tearing them apart with a nice EMP blast. The action is fast and crazy. Polished? Not exactly.

For starters, weapons slowly become less and less effective. Instead… [checks notes once more] Shelia must usually rely on her non-bullet-shooting abilities. Elite units, in particular, are all about blocking/parrying their attacks with the sword, and then exploiting an opening in order to slash them like crazy, with rifles and shotguns merely scratching bits from their health bar. There's a general feeling here that all the mechanics added have been tacked on for the sake of "coolness," if that makes any sense, without much thought whether these mix together very well, or work as intended. This is basically DOOM Eternal minus the extremely clever design behind this id Software gem.

Despite the extravagance on offer, Bright Memory: Infinite doesn't manage to transport you to the fun zone. More often than not, it is simply… 'ok.' Occasionally it's even annoying. There are plenty of instant death situations here, like electrocuted water, stealth sessions where you lose the moment you are spotted (so early '00s), and even QTEs that come literally out of the blue. These are a big no-no in such fast-paced games, especially when the controls are a bit unreliable, which can lead to a couple of unfair deaths. At the end of the day, all that matters is that this has the length of a demo, so even if some find it more enjoyable than yours truly, there's little reason to actually purchase such a product.