Lost Records: Bloom & Rage - Tape 1 review — When you stare into the abyss…

The 90’s have such an iconic vibe for so many that just the opening for Lost Records: Bloom & Rage sets up exactly what you should expect from the game. As you boot up the game for the first time you’re greeted with the VHS static scrub at the bottom and top of the screen like you’re placing that VHS tape in the player for the first time on Saturday morning before breakfast. As the title cards move, you’ll see a familiar warning similar to the FBI warnings about no piracy. This sets the tone QUICKLY as we’ll be playing in two time periods. Current day and then flashing back to the summer of 1995.

The game follows four girls in the prime of their childhoods. Autumn, the responsible one; Nora, the rebel; Kat, the poet; and finally, Swann, the shy movie buff and playable character. These girls meet when Swann is trying to film a balloon and accidentally films Dylan, Kat’s older sister and notable jerk, which starts a heated argument. As the altercation continues we meet Corey, Dylan’s boyfriend, who treats the girls horribly and creates more problems as the game progresses. These will be your main cast for Tape 1: Bloom. 

We will try not spoil the story as we go, but the game is split into tapes. The first tape, called Bloom, is about 10-15 hours depending on how much filming you do as Swann. Meanwhile, Tape 2, called Rage, will be out April 14th. 

Bloom and Rage, as mentioned earlier, takes place during two time periods. Present day (or 2022), with Swann meeting up with the girls in a bar in their hometown after 27 years apart. Each of the girls, now women with jobs and families and careers, are nervous to come back home due to a promise made to each other before they went their separate ways: to never see each other again. During these moments, you get a look into who each of the girls are now. Their lives, careers, etc., but you also get their fears about coming back peeking through, especially with Autumn. She received a package with the name of their childhood band on it. Bloom & Rage. 

You also get a clear message from the game during the beginning of the current day section that your responses and relationships will change due to your choices. Which feels scary at times as you really don’t know how things will change relationships on the first playthrough. However, this also adds a lot of replayability. The game also has the ability to check these relationships in the menu after you’ve played through it. 

The flashbacks are to the summer of 1995, right before Swann moves away with her parents. Swann is a movie buff and loves filming with her camera. You’ll spend a lot of time with the camera from the very start of the game. Filming Swann’s journey through the woods on a solo-hike. You’ll film everything during these to create little movies with voiceovers by Swann. People, animals, graffiti, events, locations; you name it, Swann is going to want to record it. Sometimes you’ll even use the camera to solve puzzles. 

The puzzles in Bloom and Rage can be really fun, while others can find you getting a bit lost. Especially if you’re enjoying the recording aspects and don’t always follow the characters around. For instance, early on there’s a little section where Autumn’s keys are stuck high on the playground. You’re supposed to be looking for them with the other girls but I found so many things to record that I didn’t follow them and ended up trying to figure out who I was supposed to be talking to and where. It didn’t take too long for me to finally find the right direction, but that kind of thing happened throughout the game where my need to complete the videos made me get lost in another area. 

For the most part, this game fits with the other Don’t Nod style games. You’re playing for the story and the experience of living through a time in a life you may have never gotten to live through. For Bloom and Rage, you’re living through a summer in the life of a teenage girl wanting to be part of a group and have friends. Swann is such a sweet character that you truly want her to be happy and I found myself becoming attached to these characters fairly quickly seeing how much Swann adores them. 

For Bloom & Rage you’ll be switching between the third person of Swann walking around in 1995 at the age of 16 with 1st person elements with the recording. Then you’ll go into first person only for the current day sections as you talk to your former friends. 

Something I greatly appreciate from the Don’t Nod staff is the usage of trigger warnings if you want them. There are a LOT of heavy topics in Bloom & Rage as the characters all have their own baggage. Don’t Nod provides an option at the beginning of the game to have trigger warnings pop up so you know what you’re dealing with during a section. This is something I have personally never seen anyone else do before, but with how deep some of the moments can get, I understand the need to warn people before going into the game.

As the game progresses, the transitions between current day and the flashbacks will continue to progress the mystery, but we won’t cover all that as the twists and turns are part of the fun. All we’ll say is that some things may feel a little basic, but you have to remember that these are children being children, so sometimes life is just a little basic. The game will ramp up the drama later on, it just needs to take its time setting everything up.

From a graphical perspective, the game has some issues with lag and clipping. The most obvious is when the character's mouths don’t match with what the audio has going on and when hands clip through objects such as Swann’s hand through the handle on the camera. While these can sometimes be annoying, they don’t affect the story and are quite counterbalanced with the beautiful style that the art team went with for Bloom & Rage. The usage of the purples, blues, and pinks are absolutely stunning and some of the most emotional moments are made even more emotional as you continue through the game.

Adam: A huge shoutout to the score for Bloom & Rage by Milk & Bone, an electric-pop duo that’s been around since 2015 and Ruth Radelet, an electronic singer and songwriter who worked as the singer for the Chromatics. The music was everything to me about this story. Every detail felt fully thought out and made every moment even more special. The electronic sounds fit perfectly with the VHS vibes while adding the punk rebellious rage moments when needed for the story of the band of Bloom & Rage. As someone very impacted by music throughout my life, having the music play such a pivotal role in the story made everything hit me that much harder. For any of you who grew up walking around with a walkman or discman attached to their belt, you will probably have the same feelings I did. 

David: DON’T NOD is great at capturing the very specific feeling of growing up in a very specific time. I don’t think this surpasses their best work, like Life is Strange 2, as it takes a bit too long to get into the supernatural elements, but it is a choice based narrative that feels totally reactive to your actions. With how many small things came back later just in this episode, I can’t wait to see how Tape 2 ripples out from there. 

Bloom & Rage: Tape 1 ends with a cliffhanger but is very clear that Tape 2 is coming and provides the release date of April 15th for Rage. This will be a free update for anyone who purchased the game at launch. I am extremely excited to see the ending to this story and the resolution of the mystery showcased in Tape 1: Bloom.