Bright Memory – Review, Shooter, Xbox Series X

DMC x Doom

Devil May Cry meets Doom. And on FEAR And on Sekiro! When Bright Memory: Infinite opened the Inside Xbox Showcase in early May, many action fans’ jaws dropped a notch. Wow, this wild mix of shooting, sword fighting and grappling hook action looked really cool. The brand was actually not completely new, because since the beginning of 2019 interested Steam users have been able to get into the Early Access version of Bright memory crash. The approximately 45-minute long demo or first episode of the shooter slasher draft by FYQD Studio also tempted my colleague Ben to preview 4Players.

In addition to the fact that the project was largely managed by just one person – the Chinese Zeng Xian Cheng – what is astonishing is the further course of the project: In March 2020, Bright Memory left Early Access; because the real, big game Bright Memory: Infinite is still a long way off (date: 2021), the short title has now been released as a separate game on the Xbox Series S/X. By the way, the game doesn’t run on the old Xbox One (X) – and the porting to the new Xbox hardware can’t hide its PC origins: In the menu you steer awkwardly with a cursor, and all sorts of graphic settings can be made – shadow quality, texture details , VSync, etc. On the Xbox Series S, Bright Memory runs very uncleanly with all details set to high or switched on, especially in the first few minutes of the game, rough jerks cloud the action. The performance is better in the second half of the roughly 40-minute playing time; If you turn off computationally hungry options such as VSync, you increase the frame rate, but then you have to live with heavy tearing. We did not encounter such problems on the Xbox Series X, Bright Memory ran cleanly here, but shadow and texture layers visibly popping into the image were also noticeable here.

Shelia vs who?

In the still image, Bright Memory looks really cool in some shots – the technical performance of the one-man team is impressive.

You don’t have to hope for a polished story. Maybe that’s buzzing around in the back of the head of maker Xian Cheng, but the game creates a completely inadequate picture in its few, confused sequences. Even after the surprising finale, one has no idea who the heroine Shelia is, why she is fighting, what is the matter with Carterand his soldiers and which story capers Chinese mythical creatures, cyber soldiers and dark knights have flushed into a common scenario. Luckily, the unprofessional voice acting is pretty much lost, the mediocre character models reminded me stylistically of Dark Sector, if anyone else knows that. I couldn’t help but think of the flat Xbox 360 and PS3 slasher X-Blades: I don’t find the female main character Shelia, who is more or less provocatively dressed, depending on the outfit (which can be unlocked), not sexy but stupidly staged – I can see the action anyway only hands plus a gun and for the few sequences it would not have needed a sexual projection surface for typical male fantasies.

But of course I can put all that aside when it comes to the real action: the fast-paced combination of shooting, slow-motion features, sword slashes and EMP pulses while nasty enemies rush at me from all sides. The only three weapons already feel pretty fat – especially the MG rattles that it’s a pleasure, head hits are rewarded with short slow-motion interludes, while the red juice squirts. There are also katana attacks that either only deal damage or throw enemies back or catapult them into the air. Shelia can also pull herself towards or circle around enemies while briefly freezing time. You should have unlocked all upgrades by the second New Game+ run at the latest. Also a rating system la devil maycry offers bright memory, but this is only used in very few places; incomprehensibly, in many cases there is no grading.

Action only?

The optical mix of sci-fi, castles and Asian mythology is interesting, but currently still seems very random.

The arguments, which oscillate between the full attack concept of a Doom Eternal or Shadow Warrior and running back from Painkiller or Serious Sam, are joined by a few undemanding jumps using grappling hooks, one or two simple switch puzzles and just as many jump passages. Why my character once reaches a campfire that is then ignited in the manner of Dark Souls remains the developer’s secret. Or maybe I just didn’t get the gag. There are even a few collectible items – but they have no in-game relevance, nor can they be viewed in a gallery. That feels to me like a pinch of Uncharted that has no place in a title like Bright Memory.

Incidentally, Steam promises buyers of the title that they will have free access to Bright Memory: Infinite as soon as it is released. The promise doesn’t go that far on Xbox Series S/X: Rather, Bright Memory buyers should look forward to an unspecified discount when the big brother is released sometime in 2021.