Bright Memory: Infinite Review – Thrilling, Sexy, and Fun

My previous experience with Bright Memory was not a positive one. The game had issues found in its story, systems, and control. Developed by one man, Bright Memory: Infinite acts as an update and true representation of this developer’s advancements in his time working on this project. With tamed expectations, I believe this to be an enjoyable experience.

Bright Memory: Infinite introduces Shelia as reports of a strange anomaly affecting the balance of the world, and a black hole appears. Shelia happens to be a lone wolf agent sent in to stop those who may be causing the rift. However, from the beginning to the end, you will barely understand what you are doing or why you are doing it. I think it was around the time I was fighting enemies atop a plane getting sucked into a black hole that I stopped caring. Instead, I simply let loose and had fun.

Oh, an antagonist with a history with Shelia, but no context on their relationship is given, appears in the game’s final act? Don’t worry about that! Dog statues are attacking you, or you’re driving a car with a rocket launcher attached to it, so pay attention to that. It just feels like the developer is having fun with every set piece in this adventure and showing off what he can do.

However, similar to the previous game, this is a short experience; my first playthrough was 2 hours long. Still, there are alternate difficulties and unlockable costumes to make the campaign longer. Regardless of length, this game is very affordable and even a free update to those who purchased the original, so I’m not even worried about length at this point.

Shelia is a badass. She has access to 4 different gun types, a powerful sword, and some kind of psychosis energy attack. These abilities are meant to be combined together to create chains of attacks, but you’re free to do whatever you what to take down enemies. Guns in the game also have sub ammo that’s more powerful, but this isn’t really needed unless you play on more complex difficulties, which ups the challenge immensely.

Sword abilities allow Shelia to slash at enemies and can be followed up with the psychosis abilities to make enemies float in the air or grapple them towards her to be force pushed to pieces. With the added addition of a dodge and double-jump, I’d say the controller layout is pretty easy to navigate, but executing some of the abilities doesn’t always seem to work as they require you to be sliding or running to initiate which feels awkward in execution.

There are also platforming sections where Shelia must jump distances or wall climb. It’s pretty basic here, but it’s not always clear exactly how far she can jump. The distance just never seems right, and sometimes she’ll climb ledges and others she won’t.

Bright Memory: Infinite is a mixed bag in terms of mission types. The developer has pretty much thrown out the sampler here, offering a range of objectives, from stealth to sniper levels; it’s all here. However, it does a great job of keeping you invested in getting through each section just to see what will happen next. Throughout levels, Shelia can pick up Relics used to upgrade her abilities and weapons. It’s pretty surface level, but it does enough to keep your eyes open while exploring.

The game looks great while playing. I turned up all the settings with Ray Tracing and was surprised at how pretty the level designs are partical effects were. The weather seems to always be pouring rain, and a lot of action is going on at any moment, but the game ran great.

Nothing stands out about the soundtrack, but it’s there. Characters are also voiced with English dialogue, and it sounds decent for an indie effort. I’m sure the nonsensical story didn’t help sell the emotions of these characters, but they did their best.

Bright Memory: Infinite is the product of a developer who wasn’t satisfied putting out a game that he knew he could improve. So, instead of moving on, we get this over-the-top and insanely beautiful FPS adventure that is fun from beginning to end. Absolutely none of it makes sense, but who cares when I just launched an ancient sword-wielding statue dude in the air and cut him into pieces. Sign me up for the next adventure with Shelia.