Bright Memory: Infinite PS5 Review: A Short, Sharp Action Shooter

Bright Memory: Infinite PS5 review

Bright Memory: Infinite is a short game, and the brevity is both its charm and its limit. Over a handful of hours it delivers heart-pulsing action in the form of fast sword work, telekinesis and gunfire, and that combat is where the game operates at its best. The surprise is how much weight the combat carries for a project designed by a single person, Zeng Xian Cheng. With a larger team, the game could have been a AAA prospect.

FYQD Studio developed the game and Playism published it. The PC version came first, launching on Steam and GOG on November 11, 2021, and the PlayStation 5 version followed on July 21, 2022, according to Playism’s announcement, priced at $19.99. The console release carries the full game and the cosmetic DLC released for PC. This review concerns the PS5 edition, which is where the ray tracing, the controls and the performance come into play.

It is a fusion genre: a first-person shooter and an action game that mixes weapons and skills into devastating combos. The player has a shotgun, a sniper rifle and a pistol later in the game, plus a sword and a set of telekinetic powers. Just who the enemy is, and why the player should care, may be the game’s biggest problem.

A fair way to judge it is by what a short action game owes the player. It owes pace, clarity of controls and a reason to go again. Bright Memory: Infinite pays all three, and the price of the story being thin is lower when the runtime is a few hours and not thirty. The game never overstays, and every chapter introduces a new toy or a new set piece before the old one wears out.

What Bright Memory: Infinite is about

The honest answer is that it is more about the gameplay than the story, and the story feels like a side mission to a larger game. Other critics who have written on it struggle to say what the plot really means, and that confusion is the first thing a new player should know.

A science-fiction world is set up in the style of Cyberpunk or a Resident Evil-type organization gone too far, one that has been messing with the nature of the environment. The result is a giant gravitational hole in the sky that is pulling everything in, and that is why Shelia is sent to investigate. She is a special agent of the Supernatural Science Research Organization with a mechanical hand, telekinesis and ESP. Her assignment is to stop the terrorist SAI organization, led by General Lin.

The weakness is the follow-through. The game hints at a mysterious disturbance and an evil corporate military-industrial complex but never executes on what any of it means. The player is also dropped back in time now and then to fight giant warriors from an old empire. Those sequences look cool and are tied into the story, but the reason is anyone’s guess.

Graphics and setting on PS5

Outside combat, the visuals are the second-best thing in the game, and they look gorgeous on the PS5. Ray tracing puts a shine on pooling blood and on reflections, giving the whole thing a polish usually expected from a AAA title. The techno-futuristic look blends well with the culturally Chinese environments. Locations are modeled on real places in China, and parts of the game take place along the Yongji Bridge of Chengyang, also known as the Chengyang Wind and Rain Bridge, and in the Xinjiang Qianhu Miao Village.

The environments feed the mechanics. Expect ambushes in the thick bamboo, and flashback battles against traditionally armored Chinese warriors. Later fights get more spectacular, with one atop an airliner and another that makes a car chase the main event.

The one visual complaint is skin. Many textures look pasty and last-generation, lacking the fine detail that is now customary on this console generation. The add-ons soften the issue, including gun and sword skins and a large number of ridiculously skimpy outfits for Shelia. In a first-person shooter most cosmetics barely show except in cutscenes, so they mostly serve as a distraction during the weakest part of the game, its story.

Combat, bosses and movement

The combat is easily the best thing about Shelia’s adventure. She can dodge, jump and juggle combos between melee abilities, or switch to shooter mode with a choice of four guns. Each gun has special ammunition for harder fights, including sticky bombs and incendiary explosives. Players who like to defend and counter get plenty of telekinesis combos that pull, push and hang enemies in the air.

Enemies come as standard types, bigger shielded types, ones that need to be countered, and ranged units that try to snipe from the back. None of them is much of a challenge, and the AI is poor. The four boss battles make up for it, and they are very challenging.

The technical side holds up. Across three runs on PS5 there was no clipping and no glitch, the controls felt flawless, and nothing broke. Gunfire and blade parries work wonderfully, as do Shelia’s metal-fist telekinetic moves. A less discussed feature is movement: she can wall run, double jump and dodge in any direction, which makes the pace very fast.

The combination matters more than any one tool. Parrying a blade, pulling a shielded enemy off balance with telekinesis and finishing with a special shotgun round feels like a single fluid move, and the game keeps handing the player reasons to chain them. That is the quality that makes the lack of challenge from regular enemies easier to forgive, since the fun is in how a fight is won, not whether it is.

Bright Memory: Infinite PS5 design at a glance

• Length. Seven chapters, mostly action, with a few stealth sections and car chases that change the pace.
• Armor and counters. Many enemies carry armor that needs repeated attacks, counters or powerful gun blasts to wear down.
• Voice and subtitles. Full voice acting in English, Japanese and Chinese, plus multiple subtitle languages.
• Progression. A kit and skill tree system drives the game, with relics that unlock upgrades fairly easily.
• Replay. Unlocked weapons and specials carry over to a second run, so old levels can be solved in new ways.
• Accessibility. The game lacks accessibility options, and most of the scenery is non-interactive backdrop.

Bright Memory: Infinite PS5 verdict

The kit and skill tree system is what keeps the game compelling on a first and a second playthrough. Unlocking abilities to see what they do is a small thrill, and the combat has the creativity to reward it. Replayability is tied to having everything unlocked, because the second run is basically the same game, but carrying weapons and specials over gives it new life.

Two limits are worth stating plainly. The environments, however pretty, are mostly non-interactive and serve as a backdrop and not as part of the fight, which keeps the combat arena feeling smaller than the locations suggest. And the missing accessibility options will rule the game out for some players, which is a real shortcoming in a console release.

Set against those flaws is the sheer polish of the core loop. Four tough bosses, a movement system that allows wall runs and dodges in any direction, and a clean performance record across three full runs make it a rare short game that feels finished. The comparison to a larger-budget action title is earned in the moment-to-moment play, and it only falls apart when the plot appears.

The weaknesses are length and story. A larger team and a firmer script could turn the series into a giant AAA-level hit. As it stands, it is a really great game that deserves kudos, and the fact that one person designed most of it is remarkable.

Recommendation: for players who want fast, polished combat and do not need a story, the PS5 version is easy to recommend, especially at its console price. Players who want a plot that makes sense, or accessibility settings, should look elsewhere.

A buyer deciding on the PS5 version should weigh price against length. At its console launch price of $19.99, a few hours of polished action with a second playthrough on top is a fair deal, especially for fans of fast first-person combat. Players who judge a game by its story will find less to love.

Sources

• Bright Memory, Wikipedia — game series, developer and release details