Bright Memory: Infinite (2021)

So you have wallrun, parry, sword attacks, telekinetic powers - stylish moves, that make this game almost feel like Devil May Cry in first person. And yet, there is no combo meter and it feels like every tool is equally effective against all enemies, so the only incentive to mix it up is to avoid boredom.

The graphics are very good, and technically all attacks feel and look nice, but gameplay just feels like dicing out damage into tanky enemies. Even bosses on difficulty 3/4 can be mostly poked to death at range, or stood next to and parry->meele'd to death.

Ultrakill got it better, because different enemy types required different handling.

The story cutscenes are very frantic, not in a good way. I feels like a compilation of typical Hollywood clichés.

The game is interesting. The graphics in Unreal turned out really beautiful. I don’t know how the experience is on other platforms, but I played it on the Switch Lite. Despite the beautiful graphics, I felt that the resolution looked weird. I used to have a hybrid Switch, but I sold it, and after years, I bought a Lite and got this game because it was praised as an FPS with great graphics. However, on the Lite, the icons, letters, and tutorial messages are very hard to read, meaning the developers failed to properly adjust this for those wanting a fully portable experience.

The performance was good, with rare frame drops—generally when there were a lot of explosions and lights—but it wasn’t really bothersome since it kind of looked like a slow-motion effect that the game intentionally creates at times.

I found the gameplay good but confusing. There's too much information, too many controls, etc. I’m more used to standard FPS games, and while it’s cool to have a high-tech sword and a cyber suit, I still felt like there was too much to memorize and not enough time to get used to the controls.

I played on easy difficulty, just wanting to test the game, but even so, it was challenging—mainly because of the overwhelming amount of information, playing on the Switch Lite (which has great controls, but they’re relatively delicate and complex for very fast-paced games like this), and the fact that you fight enemies that seem to be from another era, and bizarrely, they’re harder to kill than the present-day enemies in the game.

The story is crazy. You're thrown into the narrative, and everything happens very fast and frenetically. The worst moment is an area where you have to stealthily take down enemies with a cleaver. Honestly, horrible. It was interesting that they tried to bring this mechanic in, but it ended up breaking the game’s rhythm and wasn’t the best level.

Anyway, the game is cool, I’m happy it has Brazilian Portuguese text, and I’m glad to see a quality game from a Chinese studio, but I’m sure our Chinese brothers can do much better than this. At times, it felt like a tech demo rather than a finished game.

This is a very enjoyable FPS, and apart from its length, the occasional bug and a weird design choice I’ll bring up shortly, there really isn't much I can fault it for. The gameplay is really good and that’s clearly the main standout in the entire experience, especially since the story is pretty ludicrous and secondary to the whole thing. Shooting feels great across all weapons, there are a couple of pretty cool combat mechanics such as sword defend and EMP, it features a satisfying traversal system, most upgrades are fun and useful to invest in, and combat sequences are an adrenaline-infused, action-packed romp that keep you positively engaged from start to finish. To top it off, from weapon models to environments, the game looks stunning even with the occasional glitch, serving as a showcase for how far visual quality in games has come.

There is, however, a weird design choice in this game that I don’t quite understand. There are several moments that stand in direct contradiction to the rest of the game and actually took me out of it. On occasion, you have to endure segments centred around undeveloped stealth, clunky driving or pointless platforming, and to me, not only do these add nothing of consequence to your playthrough, they actively detract from it. The game is at its worst when it tries to shoehorn these segments in, because in doing so, it deviates from what it does best, which is gunplay and combat mechanics. I wish this had been done differently. I’m glad they’re few and far between, but in such a small game they are far more noticeable than I’d like them to be.

Still, if you have the chance, give Bright Memory: Infinite a go. I don't see this game mentioned often at all, but you can get it for dirt cheap, and there’s enough in it to be highly enjoyed throughout the couple hours you spend with it. This was developed by a one man-type studio, so I’m really looking forward to seeing what they can do with a slightly bigger team and budget. 7.5/10

I don't have much to say on this one as the game took me nearly 90 minutes to beat. I'll dabble this into pros and cons.

PROS:

• The game looks great for a small studio. As does the prologue for a lone developer. The weather effects really help make you feel like you are traveling across floating islands.
• The game is MOSTLY sound. Guns feel really nice to shoot. The game runs well on max settings (ray tracing included) at 1440p at 80-100 FPS on an RTX 3070. 200 FPS with RT off.
• Although there are some stinkers, the game knows when to change things up. I think the setpieces are well paced out enough. Some of which I liked.

CONS:

• It's a very short game for $20. Maybe the prologue could've been $5 and this could've been $10-$15. You can excuse the game by saying that it is replayable, but I don't see much replay value in this since rewards are nonexistent.
• Wall running is always a cool as fuck concept for FPS games (look at Titanfall 2 if you want the best example), but never has it been used for combat, which would've made arenas feel less flat. It's just a way to get from point A to point B.
• On this game's version of Hard difficulty. I felt like I used my guns a lot more than I did my skills. For a game that trying to be stylish, it doesn't really push you as much to be stylish. It wants you to keep parrying so that you can keep shooting since successful parrying leads to an instant reload of your guns. So what I did for beefy enemies was shoot with my semi auto shotgun until I have to parry and then keep shooting.
• BUTTON PROMPTS! WHY!?! THEY BREAK IMMERSION AND GAME DEVELOPERS SHOULD STOP PUTTING THEM IN! ESPECIALLY WHEN THEY CONTRADICT LIKE WITH WALLS AND TREES!
• The stealth section really blows. Rather than be something that stays in tact with the core gameplay. I like when stealth transitions into core combat because it provides a better flow. But you get punished for getting caught which feels so restrictive.
• A reason why I didn't use moves is because I was afraid I would keep glitching through barriers. I used the rocket punch a couple of times and it led me to getting stuck outside of the linear path and I can't get back in.

Had this have more time in the oven, I would've liked this game a lot. My recommendation would be to play ULTRAKILL. That game was also made mostly by one person, but has a wide variety of mechanics to play with, pushes you to be as stylish as you can be, is replayable, has a better game feel, and is a far less demanding game. That is one of the best games that I have ever played. I wouldn't call Bright Memory: Infinite good, it's always nice to see small studios gain a lot of traction. It's more worth it than Call of Duty #18(fuck Activision).

4.5/10