Review: Bright Memory - Masterpiece by just one Dev...
132Steam knows it, I know it: Bright Memory is a true Masterpiece. Everything you see is created by 1 single developer, the godlike Zeng Xiancheng who also goes by the name of FYQD Personal Studio. 1 Year. 1 Year in the Unreal 4 engine and this is what he comes up with. It's brilliant, it's bloody, it's friggin amazing, this is what Early Access should be like.
Bright Memory puts you, Shelia, in the field as an SRO operative in a stealth suit. You're uncovering that your organization is on the verge of a great discovery regarding otherworldly universes, you know how it goes. Before you get answers, this blue orb sucks you in, together with the bad guys. After arriving on this alien world, the plot is driven by well executed cut scenes, which reminded me of Tomb Raider, both in terms of ambiance, main character and storyline. Shelia slowly discovers why her superior Wick has disappeared. The bad guy, Carter, has his own agenda, although the game doesn't elaborate on it much. It's up to you to escape Carter and solve the mysteries surrounding this planet.
To do so, you have a wide arsenal of guns and abilities, which can be unlocked as you gain experience. You can unleash these flesh ripping visceral blade attacks, you can kill creatures with powerful guns, summon blade storms which deal AOE damage, use your grappling hook to go from one place to the next OR grapple enemies and slice them up from up close, you can get powerups and make everyone float, there's an EMP blast to pump enemies in the air, leaving them defenseless and the best thing is, you can do all these things at once. It results in some of the best shooting experiences I've had in a long time. The total mayhem, the particles that fly all over the place, the intense and brutal combat, it's very satisfying.
There's a variety of enemies and bosses to take down. Most of the fights are simply dodge and attack, but there's definitely a few surprises waiting for you which I won't spoil in this review. The game feels fresh, because of the amount of different foes and other larger creatures to take down. Combine it with all the hurt you can lay onto your enemies and you got yourself many ways to kill foes and quite a bit of replay value.
After finishing the game, you can try some additional attempts in the New Game + mode, which just lets you do another run in a School Girl outfit, if that's something you're into. You also keep any skills you already unlocked. The second time I completed this, I did it in around 25 minutes. Reading the Store Page on Steam, the final product is supposed to be around 3 hours long. So far, there's no difficulty level and although I did die a bunch of times during my first run, this game isn't overly difficult. Certainly nothing Souls Like, although the easter egg might suggest otherwise.
It's not all hallelujah, there's a few bugs and oddities to report, still. For example, the UI around the gun was disabled in the menu, but kept popping up. The UI in general is a little cluttered for my taste and this game would look even better without all these icons. Loading Times are quite long, even though this is running on my SSD. There's some invisible walls as well. For now, you can't key bind your keys, which shouldn't bother anyone in particular, apart from this guy. Love you Mack. Finally, there's some translation issues which is to be expected I guess, but all these are very minor issues and there's definitely nothing game breaking.
This game isn't only a testament to what dedication and talent can achieve, which is truly breathtaking, but also to how good of an Engine Unreal 4 actually is. It runs buttery smooth and looks great.
The game has been in Early Access for a year and it still in active development. FYQD has received an Unreal Dev Grant, which is a sum of money given by Epic Games to talented developers, in order to fulfill their dreams and projects. It's unfortunate this guy still needs another job and that he can only work 5 hours per day on Bright Memory, but I'll take it, especially given what he's done so far. This guy should just be funded indefinitely for this game, but until that happens, don't hesitate to spend the 5 euro's on this experience. It's short and sweet, but definitely worth it.
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