Following the events of Bright Memory, Bright Memory: Infinite throws players into the shoes of Shelia who works for the Science Research Organization (SRO) as one of their special armed warriors. Shelia's weapons include various guns—which are mixed—and her special sword that can slice and dice enemies, and make Raiden from Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance blush. It’s still a ridiculous story that just screams “it could be an anime” but that is what keeps players from ever questioning some of the insanity our girl can pull off. When she isn’t swinging enemies into the air to slice and dice them, she can unleash various psychic-themed powers to grab enemies and turn them into puddles of blood. Bright Memory: Infinite is the FPS players want if you love games like Devil May Cry but wondered how it would feel if it merged with Call of Duty.

When we last were running around as Shelia we had some major concerns for this small indie-developed FPS title. Despite looking absolutely stunning—even more so on a PS5—there were a lot of bugs and glitches with the demo that concerned us for the finished product. Thankfully, most—not all—of those bugs were ironed out and the overall experience is considerably better. As aforementioned, Bright Memory: Infinite is an FPS where you’ll be unloading guns on baddies that range from military soldiers to ancient warriors—don’t ask—and where the demo was a bit all over the place with gameplay, sometimes being silky smooth to us clipping into walls or not being able to escape areas, the final product is considerably more polished. Yes, we did still discover various bugs while playing, such as scenes repeating themselves or literal moments of us clipping through items, it is a lot more bearable than the original version. Again, we need to stress to our readers that the team behind Bright Memory: Infinite isn’t a team but rather, a singular developer…so this level of quality is quite remarkable and understandably it will have some flaws here and there.

It’s never unusual to hear people debate what is better: swords or guns in a game, but Bright Memory: Infinite removes the debate by having both…right? Honestly, we found ourselves relying on our swords as much as we could, and slicing enemies is always fun and rewarding. Once you gain abilities, like shooting out sword slashes, you’ll notice that guns just aren’t as fun in Bright Memory: Infinite. Some guns are beastly and beating this game without them would pose a serious challenge but more often than not, guns felt strangely pathetic at times. While the intro machine gun has a strong presence for most of the game, most other unlockable weapons feel like a hit and miss. The other end of the spectrum is the special abilities players can unlock by finding tokens in the game that allow Shelia to dash, punch, and utilize other psychic abilities, but these powers range from being cool looking—albeit useless—to just being downright forgettable.

While Shelia herself might look…weird at times and the same can be said for the enemies, Bright Memory: Infinite is a pretty good-looking title. While it won’t push your PS5 to the max, we still found ourselves in awe of some of the set pieces and environments. The opening of your first mission alone is eye-popping with some stellar visuals that really looked next-gen. Indie developers shouldn’t be making excuses they can’t mirror these visual cues, Bright Memory: Infinite is quite a charmer even if not always perfect.