Electromagnets & solenoids

Released in November 2021 on PC, the first-person shooter Bright Memory: Infinite is preparing to move to the Xbox Series X|S console, PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch. We got acquainted with the PS5 version of the game and are ready to share our impressions with you in a short review.

My colleague AXXID spoke in detail about online game from the developer Friv2Online in his material. I have almost nothing to add to his words, except for a couple of aspects that my attention was drawn to during the passage.

First, Bright Memory: Infinite has a terrible storyline. The developers may have been raised on classic Doom and Quake games, but in 2022, it's considered bad form to put all the information about the world and characters on the game's pages in digital stores and assume that the player will be satisfied with this.

That is, we begin our adventure without understanding what kind of organization the main character works for and what the antagonist wants. The plot starts right off the bat and ends just as abruptly, without explaining anything at all. One gets the feeling that by switching TV channels, you get to an unfamiliar movie and watch it from the middle.

Want to know more? The information you need can be found on Steam, and you don't need a page for Bright Memory: Infinite, but for its predecessor called Bright Memory. Here, in the description of the game, we are told who Shelia is, what SRO is and what plans the villain is building. It's amazing how many movements you need to make to understand anything.

At the same time, Bright Memory: Infinite is very short - the friv game flashes before your eyes in some two hours. This is a very spectacular and dynamic adventure, and there are unforgettable scenes here, like a battle on the wing of a flying liner, however... only two hours? The journey ends too soon.

Gameplay is also a rather unbalanced shooter. For example, the abilities of the heroine can not be used, relying entirely on firearms. Special cartridges allow you to deal with any boss without any problems, and you don’t even have to adapt to the behavior of the enemy, invent some tactics and overcome. The effect of pumping is almost not felt, and some types of barrels are frankly useless - seriously, who gives a gun after the player has already received an assault rifle and a shotgun?

The leader of my anti-rating of game mechanics was the need to pick up ammo at the touch of a button. That is, we have a hurricane shooter in front of us, where the player rushes around the arena, shoots and shreds enemies, but the genius game designer decides not only to slow down, but completely kill all the dynamics by scattering boxes of ammo and removing the ability to collect them automatically. A very "good" idea.

At the same time, the title allows you to have a lot of fun using the entire arsenal of weapons and abilities. Combining ranged and close combat, you can turn every skirmish into a deadly dance: the heroine abruptly rushes at opponents, throws them into the air and soars after her, frantically cuts with her blade, generously pours lead and throws explosives. Beautiful - no doubt about it.

"Beautiful" can be said about the picture Bright Memory: Infinite. For nextgen consoles, the developers have prepared two graphics modes: with ray tracing priority and frame rate priority. In the first one, the friv game runs at 4K resolution, 60 frames per second and ray tracing is activated, and in the second, it squeezes out all 120 fps, but without ray tracing.

I can’t say that the picture is very different with and without ray tracing activated, but with advanced effects it becomes more pleasant. In particular, water is transformed, which is quite common in Bright Memory: Infinite. Reflections also appear on the heroine's equipment.

The game is stable on PlayStation 5, but in ray tracing priority mode, there is a brief stutter during the slow effect after killing the last enemy in the arena. My TV can't output 120 fps when running on the console, however, with frame rate priority turned on, the performance is simply amazing, eliminating any micro-stuttering.

For the Nintendo Switch console, the developers promise TAA smoothing and support for gyroscopic guidance. We have not tested the game on this platform, but we see no reason not to trust them, given the excellent performance on other platforms.

One of the key features of the PS5 version was the integration with the DualSense controller effects. The gamepad actively vibrates, responding to any situation, and the triggers resist pressing depending on the weapon used: if you pick up an assault rifle, the trigger will be squeezed easily, but give a noticeable return, and to fire a shotgun, you will have to make an effort. The controller layout is more comfortable than a mouse and keyboard, making it easier to perform acrobatics and switch between different types of weapons.

In a review of the PC version of Bright Memory: Infinite, a colleague of mine mentioned annoyingly long downloads. On the console, they take only a few seconds, but for me the surprise was the load when you call the settings menu - this has not been seen for a long time.

As for the content, here the console version of the friv2 game is completely identical to the computer version, with the only difference being that all DLC costumes are initially open here, giving the player the opportunity to immediately dress the main character in a miniskirt or bikini.

Bright Memory: Infinite is a “shooter for the evening”, and this is both an advantage and a disadvantage of the title. Short and action-packed, the game suffers from issues, but they aren't annoying enough to make you want to turn it off. If you are not embarrassed by the short duration and the almost complete absence of a plot - take it, do not be shy.