Bright Memory Infinite Review: A beautiful playground of chaos

And only some of that chaos is intentional.

Bright Memory Infinite caught many an eye when its next-gen trailer was aired at an Xbox event heralding the release of the Xbox Series S & X late into 2020. While it didn’t make the launch of the Xbox Series in November, players could dip their toes into its prequel (of sorts), Bright Memory.

The result was a fairly enjoyable, beautiful looking title that ran about an hour at and a half from start to finish. While that might be a tad disappointing, it’s extremely important to remember that Bright Memory was primarily developed by a single solitary soul, a Chinese developer named Zeng Xiancheng who prefers the moniker FYQD-Studio.

Bright Memory Infinite, very soon to be released to Windows PC via Steam, is no different to its predecessor in many respects.

Not really a sequel to Bright Memory and more a remake (though with entirely new setpieces), Infinite stars protagonist Shiela Tan, an agent of the SRO. Shiela is akin to Devil May Cry‘s Dante, complete with guns, swords and supernatural telekinetic powers that (I think) are made possible through a special exosuit.

An opening cutscene feature Shiela as she’s called back into battle (though she was on leave!) to investigate a black hole seemingly created by the nefarious SAI. Wikipedia tells me that SRO stands for Science Research Organisation, though I have no idea what the antagonist’s acronym is supposed to signify.

While the opening cutscene is strikingly beautiful — especially with ray-tracing enabled on PC — it is the start of Bright Memory Infinite‘s issues. While I have no doubt that FYQD can create amazingly crafted titles with an admittedly solid combat loop, that doesn’t necessarily mean you can also create a decent narrative or dialogue.

While the already admittedly solid combat loop is just that, there’s a lot wrong with proceedings. There’s a mandatory stealth session. There’s a car segment that seems a shadow of its reveal trailer. Combat in that same trailer, in fact, was demonstrated with all of Shiela’s skills acquired, even though it’ll take you a playthrough (or more) to gain them all.

While Bright Memory itself featured a couple (clunky) puzzles, Infinite ignores them entirely. At once point, Shiela exclaims, “I’ll have to figure out a way to go up” as she’s standing in front of wall with blue paint splattered across it. That paint is pretty self-explainatory, showing a set of footprints and an arrow pointing upward. Wall run and jump; got it.

On that note, I found that Infinite at times forgot I was playing with an Xbox controller on PC, instead prompting me with failstate keyboard quicktime prompts that I obviously failed. At another time, I couldn’t actually wall run in a certain section until I unplugged my controller, despite using the correct prompts.

Despite all my problems with Infinite, it’s a game made by a single developer (for the most part) that was amazing looking enough that Xbox wanted to tie it to its then next-gen, now current-gen console. While Infinite isn’t available on Xbox Series yet, it will be, and on PC has some amazing visuals that are worthy of your attention. Free with the purchase of the original Bright Memory on PC — $15 AUD — it’s worth a look if you’re looking for a nice little diversion. There’s also a little bit of replayability in various difficulty levels if you’re so inclined, but after one playthrough, I’m about done… just like with Bright Memory a year or so ago.

Points off, though, for tits-out alternate costumes that are more creepy and pervy than anything else.

Bright Memory Infinite is now available on Windows PC via Steam and is also planned for Xbox Series S and X.

The good An amazing looking project largely by a single developer. A solid combat loop. Bargain priced.	The bad Woeful writing and dialog. Fairly buggy. Pretty short.

Bright Memory Infinite was reviewed using a promotional code on Windows PC via Steam, as provided by the publisher. Click here to learn more about Stevivor’s scoring scale.