Bright Memory Infinite Review: Over-The-Top Sci-Fi FPS Action

Infinite light memory is an ambitious first person shooter action game that merges the futuristic samurai combat of something like Warframe with epic adventure and platform games like Tomb Raider. But while FYQD-Studio’s game is an improvement over its 2020 version, Luminous memory, there’s still a lot to be desired from its underdeveloped history and loaded combat system.

The Bright Memory Infinite story is a bench warmer, sitting alongside the game’s much more compelling selling points of its lightning-fast combat and crisp ray tracing graphics. Rather than offering a gripping story to hook you on, the game lets the fantasy of raw power that emerges from its combat system stand out as its most memorable element. Unfortunately, this is not enough. You can set up a clinic while mowing down enemies, but if the game’s history doesn’t offer a compelling reason for you to increase your body count, the result is more fun than something you can savor. Heck, you get more narrative information from his Steam page than the game itself.

All you need to know about the story is that one minute the game’s protagonist Shelia Tan is fighting faceless militiamen, and the next one for some reason is fighting faceless armored warriors with flaming arrows and spears. Luckily, she has a wide array of tools and skills to take on her enemies, as she goes from gun to sword combat in no time. And for a while, being able to fight ancient warriors with electromagnetic pulse, rocket punch, and terrifyingly powerful pistols is almost an equal trade for the bland history of BMI. Your agility is also a fleeting thrill, as you navigate environments and perform extraordinary feats like grabbing hold of the wing of a flying plane as you shoot and slash baddies from the plane.

Bright Memory Infinite is actually the second version of a game released in 2020, then called simply Bright Memory. This first release was a mix of Dark Souls’ boss fight presentation, the fantastic and adventurous aroma of Tomb Raider, and the otherworldly abilities of Dishonored. While the basic concepts were the same, the previous version was much less concerned with creating a cohesive game, feeling more like an okra of action adventure game mechanics and FPS games. It wasn’t subtle, for example, about his Dark Souls bonfire-lit Easter egg and frenzied Devil May Cry-style report cards. BMI fixes a lot of things by presenting a second release with a more cohesive approach that thankfully doesn’t rely on distracting references to other games. While it relies more on hack-and-slash cyberpunk gameplay than the fantasy artifact hunting aspects of its 2020 predecessor, it still looks a bit like a generic neurablender from different action games.

Read more: Bright Memory is the perfect Dark Zero of 2020

Bright Memory Infinite really shines when it forces you to find a balance in how you take down enemies in style. The rudimentary bullets will do damage to the mythological creatures and ancient warriors in the game, who either ignore them or taunt you for trying to hit them without studying the blade, so you’ll have to get creative with the weapons Shelia attached to her. . One minute I’m dealing with enemies like a Call of Duty player, I’m hiding behind a waist-high blanket and bombarding them with headshots, and the next I’m fighting back with swords, deflecting bullets and forcibly shoots or juggles enemies. Once I got into Bright Memory Infinite’s combat groove, I found myself free between shooter and swordplay.

Image: Playism / FYQD-Studio

The highlights of the game are in its boss fights. These enemies take inspiration from Chinese mythological creatures like the foo dog or the six-armed asura demigod, and your fights with them are worth replaying to test your skills once you’ve unlocked more abilities. What’s satisfying about these encounters is that you get the same sense of empowerment as a character in Devil May Cry – you’re as much of a boss fight for them as you are for you. Being able to express yourself in a game with a plethora of combos is satisfying once you can determine the timing of your ability cooldowns – that is, if the game doesn’t crash under pressure from your abilities. ambitions.

While the in-game visuals and your own sleek abilities seem refined, the combat can be a bit awkward nonetheless. Enemies seem to appear out of nowhere, and the trajectory of their arrows doesn’t make sense based on their position. On the gamepad, the buttons are mapped in such a way that the face buttons have more of a role between combat and environment interactions, which is frustrating when you have to throw cutscenes that have fast-paced events. ‘state of failure. The game’s lightning-fast combat is elegant, but also so frantic that you’re just as likely to find yourself dying falling from a combat zone as being killed by an enemy.

One aspect of the previous Bright Memory that I didn’t particularly like was its main character’s eyeglass. At one point, her skirt flew away as if someone was unblocking the winds of Aeolus under her, and the Dead or Alive style skins that Shelia can wear in-game made the whole thing predatory. Bright Memory Infinite tones down Shelia’s sexualization a bit, and the more degenerate outfits are at least stuck behind ending the game on more difficult difficulties, or buying her DLC.

Uwu at your discretion.Screenshot: Playism / FYQD-Studio / Kotaku

Bright Memory Infinite sneaks into a fast paced story here and there to excuse its jaw-dropping settings and insane boss fights, but it would be so much better if there was a reinforced narrative backing it all up. Cutscenes suddenly appear out of nowhere after boss fights and battles. The end of the story, which comes after the best boss fight in the game, plays out like the Sopranos’ final scene. A dull cutscene, and then suddenly it’s over. This raises the question of whether there will be a follow-up game or expansion that improves its story as well as its combat, as the game’s final cutscene provides no definitive closure.

Bright Memory Infinite is a game to play for having a good time, but not for long. All the excitement it gets comes from seeing the cool game mechanics of other games reproduced well rather than being in awe of any original ideas the game presents, which would have been easier to accept if the story didn’t sound like an afterthought. While the individual elements of his fight don’t seem particularly original, there is something new about the way the game fuses them together. Yet the story does not provide the proper context for your elegant showdown. This, combined with the standard aspects of its gameplay, prevents the game from making enough of an impression to become a memory.