Lost Records: Bloom & Rage – Tape 1 has been high on my radar for some time, having been delayed out of the end of 2024 thanks in part to Life is Strange: Double Exposure. Original LiS devs Don’t Nod have since parted with the series, and didn’t want their new project Lost Records: Bloom & Rage – Tape 1 to clash with their old series. I enjoyed Double Exposure enough, but it did leave me wanting in some aspects. So, can Bloom & Rage – Tape 1 fill that void?
Mostly, the answer is yes. It’s a solid new entry in the dialogue heavy, choose your own adventure style genre, with a good set of cast and performances, a setting almost laser-focused on my nostalgia bone, and a story that unwinds in the same weird and wonderful way LiS did back in 2015. It’s a fair bit slower to get going, but by the end I was won over and am very much looking forward to Tape 2 on April 15th.
We play as Swann, an awkward teen who finds comfort behind the lens of her home video camera. She loves filming out in nature, has a super cute cat (who we get to name), and a room that fits the typical mid-90’s nerd girl vibe; X-Files(ish) and film posters, a terrarium with her own stick insect, VHS tapes, and the accompanying 4:3 CRT TV among other niknaks.
On the way to return an overdue video rental (ask your parents), we get to play with her camera, taking shots of wildlife and scenic views. It’s here we get introduced to the main interactive element of Bloom & Rage – Tape 1 outside of dialogue choices – the filming. As we proceed we’re given plenty of opportunities to get her camera out and record, be it wildlife or views, her friends or enemies, or simply a key story moment. Each recording is several seconds long, and for each subject matter we can be tasked with capturing a certain amount of clips depending on the situation. Gather enough, and we can create a full tape edit, with Swann providing commentary about the footage over the actual clips we recorded.
For what amounts ultimately as a side-addition to the game, I thoroughly enjoyed making these little home movies. Each one can be edited with new clips as we take them, and once complete can be viewed at any time. As an…older player, I really did feel the nostalgia of making similar attempts at home movies as a teen myself. The presentation, from the fuzzy, washed colour visuals to the tinny audio is really spot on, and the crackles of white and black static in between the clips is a nice touch. There are story-required tapes to make, but also lots of optional ones as well that we can go back and finish off after completing the game. While I was a bit too engulfed in the story to edit much in the latter part of the game, I would absolutely like to revisit it now I’m done and see what else they have to offer.
These tapes are great then, and feed in part into the main story, but in the main Bloom & Rage – Tape 1 plays much as LiS does. We enter a scene, and are then given a few light objectives to complete while the characters interact, before we end up in dialogue heavy scenes that usually have several impactful choices to make, affecting the overall tale and the relationships within.
After returning our video, Swann gets into an argument with a nearby person named Dylan who accuses Swann of filming her. Just as things start to look bad for Swann, Dylan’s sister Kat – along with two nearby ice cream stall workers Nora and Autumn – step in to help. And so, blossoming friendships begin.
It’s a slow but effective start to the game. Swann is an immediately likeable character, but I didn’t warm to the other characters as quickly. It took several scenes to get a grip on them for me, though by the end I was firmly team Bloom & Rage.
Part of this slow start is down to the fact that there are two timelines at play here; Swann and co. in 1995, and older version of them in the current day. A mysterious package has arrived on the scene directly addressed to Bloom & Rage, and the girls reunite after all these years to try and solve the mystery of who sent the package, and what happened that they have forgotten about in 1995.
In Bloom & Rage – Tape 1 I’ve found the modern day segments to be a bit underwhelming so far. The mystery is dragged out until the end, and (without spoilers) I’m going to need to play Part 2 to know if it’ll pay off. That’s the idea of course, but I vastly preferred the tone and pace of the 1995 segments. Modern day felt like it was trying a bit too hard to be vague, blaming the women’s memories for why they’d forgotten important moments in the past.
Luckily, the ‘95 parts are far more interesting and keep the game flowing for the most part. We follow the foursome as they bond over a summer about music, movies, boys (and girls) and that teenage sense of self discovery. Performances are great throughout, with Nora and Autumn especially being a highlight. The dialogue choices are all effective at giving us a dilemma without necessarily being the world-ending variety, and there are some moments where we have to upset one person to please another. It’ll be interesting to see how my choices here play out in Part 2.
Music is also a highlight (I’d expect nothing less). Don’t Nod really are fantastic at picking musical accompaniments to fit the tone at each moment, and it’s yet another soundtrack I’m going to have to explore more deeply going forward.
From a technical perspective, the use of the Unreal 5 engine does some wonders for the presentation, with beautiful colours and detail throughout at the cost of some of that engine’s foibles like the textures on modern day Autumn’s jumper constantly loading in 2-3 seconds after the scene. These are small blips, but still break the immersion when everything else around it looks so lovely.
Conclusion
But really, it’s the tale we’re here for and this is Bloom & Rage – Tape 1 really is the old adage of being about the friends we made along the way. After a slow start, things pick up nicely, doing a great job of recreating that teenage feeling of the 90’s, with no mobiles or internet but more random happenstance that leads to unforgettable adventures. Bloom & Rage – Tape 1 ends at a point that I’m now chomping at the bit to see what’s next, and I just hope the big mystery gets the pay off it deserves.
This game was reviewed based on Xbox S|X review code, using an Xbox S|X console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.
