Bright Memory Is Not The Xbox Series X’s Crowning Jewel

Ahead of the launch of the Xbox Series X | S, one of the biggest criticisms was the lack of new launch games, which isn’t strictly true. Gears Tactics is kind of new. Planet Coaster: Console Edition is kind of new. Tetris Effect: Connected is kind of new. Alright, so a large portion of the Xbox’s line-up is games that have been ported from elsewhere, but at least there’s Bright Memory, which-oh, it was ported from PC too. Never mind.

Developed by the one-man team of FYQD Studio, Bright Memory is certainly an ambitious game, proudly sporting its inspirations from the get go. The gunplay feels like your more typical FPS, with sprint and ADS as standard, but there’s also the DOOM-like penchant of chucking lots of enemies at you. Plus, Bright Memory borrows a little bit from Devil May Cry, with a style rating in the corner of the screen during battle. It takes from a lot of places, but the end product feels like less than the sum of its parts.

Gameplay-wise, Bright Memory is decent enough, although there’s some clunkiness overall. Lead character Shelia is built like a steakhouse and does not handle like a bistro. On the default settings, her aim sensitivity is glacial at best, and getting her to navigate the environment can be a bit of a chore. Her jump isn’t great, and the grapple mechanic has a certain finickiness to it that can lead to some untimely deaths when exploring.

It’s the gunplay and abilities that are Bright Memory’s biggest strength, and even then, not by a huge margin. The aim down sights mechanic isn’t the best, as it just doesn’t have the same level of responsiveness as other first person shooters like Call of Duty, though that’s to be expected considering this is the product of a single guy. The shotgun feels great to shoot, and there’s a nice impactful thud with every trigger pull, but that doesn’t seem to translate into any meaningful amount of damage.

Shelia comes loaded with a decent amount of abilities, her most useful being a lengthy dodge tied to the B button that can evade damage easily. She also has an EMP which, weirdly, doesn’t disable electronics and instead yeets people into the sky for follow-up damage. Killing enemies grants crystals to spend on more abilities, like an AOE field that damages everyone in range, or the ability to cast an electric cloud which also deals damage to everyone in the vicinity.

It’s in the abilities where the charm of Bright Memory begins to show, as you can launch a vast array of moves at your enemies simultaneously. If you want to use two AOE abilities, then pull out your sword and throw energy strikes at people, you can and should do that. It’s chaotic, and fights often turn into a bit of a mess, but there’s enjoyment to be found in amongst the carnage.

That being said, Bright Memory suffers from being completely not optimised for the Xbox Series X, despite the thumbnail on the My Games & Apps page proudly proclaiming otherwise. The textures and character models are at best comparable to a middle of the road release from the Xbox One, and the overall graphics aren’t much to write home about. The animation in the cutscenes is also subpar, leading to some laughable moments. Shelia just eats a grenade to the face at one point, and sells it like a professional wrestler getting hit with Sweet Chin Music.

The worst part though is the glitches, as Bright Memory seems to be riddled with them right now. The UI will often glitch, not showing your style meter or other key information, and there were times where I died and would lose all my EXP and even a purchased ability, often without warning or even a reason. If it was an ability I bought before a checkpoint, I’d get it, but no. Just a random ability, gone with no reason.

But the biggest issue here is the rampant screen tearing, evidenced very clearly in the video found on this page. While it’s most noticeable during the game’s cutscenes, it’ll also affect gameplay too, along with the aggressive framerate drops if you use too many abilities at once. It’s such a bad look for the Xbox Series X when Bright Memory, the precursor to Bright Memory Infinite, seemingly a flagship game for the platform, performs so woefully on the new hardware.

Again, there’s a certain level of leniency that can be shown towards Bright Memory. It’s the product of a one man crew, and it only costs around £6, which is fitting as it lasts about an hour, tops. If anything, Bright Memory is the proof of concept for Infinite next year, and while there’s potential for the next game to be a massive improvement, this is not the game that’ll justify your Xbox Series X purchase.

Unless you like gamerscore. There’s an easy 1000G here for you at least.

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