Bright Memory is one of the only console exclusives that launched together with the Xbox Series S/X. For its low price, I’m pretty sure this one will be the first Series S/X game for many but be warned. This isn’t the impressive game that opened the Xbox showcase, this is a port of a Steam game that released last year, developed by FYQD Studio, which is in fact just one person. Bright Memory reminded me of those typical launch games that look pretty good but play extremely mediocre. Let me explain why.

Let’s set things straight

Remember that impressive trailer during the Xbox Series S/X gameplay showcase? The trailer where you roamed through an ancient oriental village while running over walls and slashing down enemies? Well, that’s Bright Memory: Infinite so don’t be mistaken when you buy Bright Memory in the virtual store today. What you’ll get now is something that resembles a tech demo more than a finished game. As said before, this is a port of the Steam release and although it’s created by just one person, it looks pretty decent when you first boot it up. Since I’m currently playing on an Xbox Series X, I’m testing out as many new games as possible to see what this new piece of hardware is truly capable of. When I first started playing Bright Memory, I was pretty surprised by its visuals. Featuring tons of great reflections and details on the weapons, I was ready to be blown away… Sadly, my enthusiasm quickly died after a couple of minutes. This isn’t the best game in the launch line-up at all, it reminded me of the first wave of Full-HD games way back in the days. Games where developers tried to showcase stunning visuals but still got a lot of things wrong. That’s exactly what Bright Memory is. It’s a great concept and it certainly has great elements, sadly I can’t live up to modern standards.

I’m doing what now?

First things first, there’s a story in Bright Memory but in all honesty, I had no idea what it was. You’re in control of Shelia who got teleported to a strange location filled with undead monsters and strange creatures. This happened while you were trying to stop a terrorist attack. From that point on, it’s not really clear what you’re doing or why you’re even in this strange place. The story makes no sense at all and it happened multiple times that I had the feeling I missed a cutscene that was never there. A shame really, as the premise of the story is certainly interesting enough to flesh it out some more. What we got now is Shelia running around in a mysterious world without having the slightest clue of what’s going on. Of course, it doesn’t help that you’ll finish this game in less than an hour of time so there’s no room to build up the story. Since the game is developed by one person, I understand that the story wasn’t the main goal to achieve but I do hope we’ll get to see more from the story in Bright Memory: Infinite when it releases somewhere in 2021. Luckily, a game is more than its story alone, time to discuss the gameplay.

Fun elements, terrible bugs

The gameplay of Bright Memory certainly has a lot of fun elements. At first sight, it’s just another typical first-person shooter but once you start playing, you’ll notice some important difference. The guns aren’t Shelia’s only weapon, she can wield a deadly sword and use special powers to throw her enemies into the air. It feels like a first-person Devil May Cry game where you combine your weapons and special powers to take down hordes of enemies. With just a push of the button, Shelia can also perform a quick dodge, making the action really high-paced. The game is at its best when you’re really into the flow of combat, switching your guns for your more devastating weapons while timing your dodges precisely. It’s fun to take down the hordes of enemies that way and it’s even better when you face the gigantic boss fights. It’s in moments like those that you can truly see the image of a great game with tons of potential. But, it sadly suffers from a lot of bugs, even on the Series X.

Bright Memory doesn’t run well on the Series X and feels like a straight port of the PC version without really taking the architecture of the Series X console into consideration. This ended up in a game filled with audiovisual bugs and a constant screen tearing while playing. Of course, this is disappointing, to say the least. I’ve played Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla on my Series X, a game that’s a lot bigger and demanding and that one runs flawlessly. I’m hoping that the team behind this port can still fix these bugs with a patch in the future but as it stands right now, it’s barely playable. Yes, there are great elements and yes, it’s fun taking down those enemies, but not like this. The bugs and technical issues really take you out of the action immediately and it’s not really motivating to push forward.

Conclusion:

Even for its small price, Bright Memory isn’t worth the trouble in its current state. The gameplay certainly has its moments but the bugs and technical issues really stand in the way of having fun. It’s a short tech demo that’s over too soon and offers almost nothing worth remembering. I hope some patches can fix this game since I’m pretty sure this version might hurt the hype for the upcoming Bright Memory: Infinite, which will release next year.

4/10

Tested on Xbox Series X