Published by Playism and developed by single developer over at FYQD Personal Studio, Bright Memory: Infinite is a fun little showcase of what this developer is capable of. Originally released on Steam back in November of 2021, it’s finally made its way onto the PlayStation. Gaming Cypher did a review of the Steam edition last year that you can check out HERE. Reviewer Matt Tran gave this title a glowing 9.5/10. While I also enjoyed my time with Bright Memory: Infinite quite a bit, I’m a little more critical of the shortcomings that both Matt and I noticed during our playthroughs.
You play as Shelia, an agent given the task by the Science Research Organization to prevent a bad military organization from using an ancient power for their malicious intents. The game takes place in the “Land of Sky,” which is somewhere in the arctic and it consists of ancient creatures that reside in this bundle of levitating masses. The plot itself is fairly nonsensical and like most games is used to just help justify the crazy gameplay you’re about to experience, which is all fine, but here it stood out more like a sore thumb.
This first-person shooter has a lot of different tricks up its sleeve. It’s often your standard FPS, fighting your way through cool designed creatures and undead things. But then it’ll be a 3D Platformer, jumping your way to get to the next area. It’s not that I don’t appreciate that it’s there, but it didn’t add much to the table. Later on, the game has areas where you need to be stealthy. Which is nice and keeps things from getting stale. A part of my brain can’t shake off that this entire game is some glorious resume the developer can show off to prove he has the skills to do pretty much anything. Frankly, I think it’s incredible that this entire game was made by a single person (Zeng Xiancheng) during their spare time. Having said that though, it often feels like great ideas are implemented and done to a decent degree, just not executed to the best extent they could be. I feel like we just get a variety of sample servings.
Gameplay really is king here, because playing as Shelia, is really fun. There are four different gun types available. Sheila also rocks a really cool and powerful sword for melee attacks, she even has a supernatural psychokinesis ability that unleashes strong energy blasts. While playing there are relics you can find to upgrade abilities and weapons. That’s pretty much it. Bright Memory: Infinite is a very short experience that can be completed within just a few hours or less. There are alternative costumes you can unlock to incentivize the player from playing the game more than once, which is cool, but again, doesn’t feel like enough.
The best way to enjoy Bright Memory: Infinite is to just shut your brain off and not worry about things making sense, admire the beautiful graphics and fun gameplay for what it is instead of everything that it isn’t. There are times I struggled with that sentiment, but that’s just me. All in all, this is an impressive little game here that is worth a few hours of your time, but you may struggle finding reason to go back to it after that. For a second opinion, and a bit more in-depth analysis of the gameplay, please check out Matt’s Steam review.
8/10
For more information, please visit the PLAYISM website.
Related: Nick Navarro Reviews
Gaming since I was given an original Nintendo as a kid. I love great storytelling and unique ingenuity. When both collide in a single game, I'm a happy gamer. Twitter/IG @NickNavarro87
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