Bright Memory - Review

It becomes doubly sad when the highlight of the genre is not the release of a new major hit, but the release of a forty-minute game made by one person in his spare time.

Such an event in 2019 was the premiere of Bright Memory from a Chinese developer with the nickname FYQD for personal computers. With the arrival of a new generation of consoles, Microsoft announced the release of the sequel - Bright Memory: Infinite on Xbox Series X/S - and at the same time released on brand new consoles and the first part, which we will talk about today.

First of all, yes, you read the introduction correctly – the game is really played in one hour. This duration is due, of course, to limited resources and generally any funding for development. All this is important to understand and remember when evaluating Bright Memory.

So, we are immediately thrown into the gameplay without any introduction. Our heroine is Shelia, a mercenary attracted by a certain scientific organization in order to prevent another organization, already military, from taking over the ancient mystical forces. It is not necessary to go into the details of the plot, firstly, because of its general insignificance within the game, and secondly, given the extremely short duration, you will not be able to immerse yourself in it with all your desire. To be honest, when writing this paragraph, I had to go to Wikipedia for key details.

Much more important, how things are with the gameplay. The developer himself understood this, because if it is assumed that the passage of the shooter will take very little time, then all the elements of the gameplay should be clearly dosed and appropriate. And just with this, the game has no problems. Here we are surrounded by enemies in a closed arena, here is a stage with platforming, here is a simple puzzle that will not take much time to solve, and then a boss battle and an episode with an escape. At the same time, the developer did not forget to hang meat on the basic skeleton of the game mechanics, albeit a little.

At our disposal three types of firearms – pistol, rifle and shotgun, and a sword (which, however, has the ability to combat at medium ranges) and a few abilities that affect movement of the heroine, such as double jump and glide to the side. At the same time, the shooting is very pleasant. The closest analogue is the Titanfall series, the sensations from the shootings are very similar.

Bright Memory generally consists entirely of certain borrowings, which the developer, according to a long Chinese tradition, is not at all shy. In addition to the very similar Titanfall impact from skirmishes, you will see bonfires-checkpoints from the Dark Souls series (with the same sound and font of the text accompanying the activation), as well as many game assets, ponadergany from other games.

In the process of skirmishes, you will gain experience, the amount of which is determined by your style rating. However, " style” in this case is a rather loud definition, because the rating is affected only by the number of consecutive hits on the enemy. The experience gained is needed to unlock skills and improvements designed to diversify your first playthrough and subsequent ones – the game has a New Game+ mode.

Technically, the game, given the conditions of development, is made at a very high level. Stylish, though very similar to the Chinese grinders for smartphones interface, nice weather effects and lighting. The sound can not boast of something special – all this, and even given the author's love of borrowing, we have heard more than once. Except that the music was pleasantly pleased – very cheerful compositions are played in battles.

Bright Memory is an objectively average game, and given the meager time of passing and not a game at all, but rather a demo version of the upcoming Bright Memory: Infinite, and it is impossible to evaluate it outside the context of the development conditions. Yes, this is at best a walk-through shooter that you are unlikely to remember due to the plot or unique gameplay, but on the other hand, it is a vivid example for the entire industry of what just one person can do on naked enthusiasm. When the entire budget of Bright Memory is made up of one person's personal savings, and the game was created in his spare time, the excuses of large developers in defense of the meager content content of annual blockbusters look very ridiculous, because here we can even change the costumes of the heroine (the costume of a kawaii schoolgirl, by the way, is available). Therefore, the review of Bright Memory is not an assessment of a specific game, it is difficult to advise it to buy, even for the small amount that is asked for it, but rather an assessment of the author's determination and desire to bring the fading genre back to life. It remains to wish good luck to the now FYQD studio with the sequel, which we will evaluate as expected, with all attention to detail.