Lost Records: Bloom and Rage

Lost Records: Bloom and Rage was provided by Don't Nod for review. Thank you!

I had always loved story-driven games that focused on creating an engaging, complex story that I could influence to some degree. I had played a few of them in my youth, but none were able to captivate me like Life is Strange did. Developer Don’t Nod was able to create an exceptional story that nearly brought me to tears, which is not something that could be easily done. Don’t Nod may have stopped working on the Life is Strange series after the second entry, but that hasn’t deterred them from making deep, complicated tales in games, and that’s where Lost Records: Bloom and Rage comes in.

Just like Life is Strange, Lost Records: Bloom and Rage is another heavy story-driven experience that is being released episodically. It follows a group of women who used to be friends who come back together after 27 years to face what happened in their youth and why they promised never to see or contact each other again.

The game is split into two episodes: Tape 1 and Tape 2. At the time of this review, only Tape 1 is out, with Tape 2 coming on April 15th. As such, this review will only be covering the Tape 1 and I will be updating my thoughts on the story in April when Tape 2 is coming.

That said, I feel Tape 1 does a solid job setting up the story, and it kept me interested throughout. There were times I had to take a break from playing Lost Records due to other games that needed my attention, but I was gearing up to come back to it and see what would happen next. Watching these four girls come together and develop an inseparable bond of friendship only made me more curious to know where it all went sideways.

The girls all fit into different stereotypes and, while wildly different, find a way to still be best friends. Swann, the one you play as is socially awkward and loves to videotape everything. The other three, Kat, Autumn, and Nora, befriend Swann and start to include her in their activities. It's sometimes a little bit cringy seeing how they all act with each other, but that made it feel more realistic. Swann's stuttery awkwardness, Kat's adventurous pessimism, Autumn's careful worrying, and Nora's rebellious confidence all come out in the many scenes, making each one interesting to watch.

However, even with their quirks, I liked all of the girls, especially Swann, who had this innocent vibe. It all fits into the intriguing tale of navigating life as a teenager in the 90s, with all the drama, love, and discovery piled in.

Most of the game takes place in 1995, and you can feel the mid-90s influence. From the vocabulary to the clothing and hairstyles and even the buildings and surroundings, it felt like I was getting a snapshot of the 90s right before me. Don't Nod did a great job setting the scene, and if I was alive in 1995, it feels like this could be it, based on what I have heard.

I also love the way the story is told. The game is set in 1995 and 2022 when the girls decide to break their promise and meet up again 27 years later. The way the game switches back and forth from the present to the past, with voiceovers from the present-day girls giving a little extra insight into what is happening or the motives behind what they were doing, was interesting. It frames the scenes in 1995 more like the present-day girls going back and retracing their steps through their memories, and it was handled nicely.

However, I did find some aspects a bit unbelievable. The girls became really fast friends, and I found it hard to believe some of the things they did would be something anyone would partake in that quickly. I don't want to spoil anything since the game is so focused on the narrative, but there were moments I wondered to myself how it happened that quickly.

I also found the magical elements and finale lacking. The purple pit we see in the promotion screenshots wasn't really prominent, and I was left with more questions than answers. I think the interactions with it impacted something, but it was hard to tell exactly what it did. That could be the aim of it, but with Don't Nod leaning heavily into magical elements in previous games (time manipulation in Life is Strange, Telekinesis in Life is Strange 2), I expected more.

I was also left hanging with the final scene. There was a shocking revelation, but it didn't have the impact I would have expected. I am still curious to see what happens in Tape 2 and learn more about this purple pit, but I wasn't on the edge of my seat waiting to know what was coming next.

The gameplay is pretty basic, similar to Life is Strange or other story-heavy titles like Detroit: Become Human and Heavy Rain. You walk around in specified areas, interacting with the environment and progressing the story by talking to individuals or doing specific actions. It's basic overall, but I would consider Lost Records more in the camp of an interactive choose-your-own-adventure, which is standard for games like this.

However, this story-driven game has an interesting mechanic in it: Memoirs. Swann carries her camcorder everywhere and documents what is happening to all of them. While moving around, you can take out your camcorder and record specific objects categorized into different parts of your memoir. If you record enough of each category, they will be completed, and you can watch the footage you recorded with a unique voiceover from Swann detailing what we are seeing. You can take as many records as you like and edit the Memoirs with new footage later, making your mini videos with scenes you designate.

It's a nice little extra, and I am interested in the voiceovers, but some of the Memoir's voiceovers only lasted 1/3 of the recording, which made watching the rest of the video a little useless. It's a cool idea, but not a ton of incentive to watch memoirs or edit them unless you are into creating your little scenes. For those that do, this will be a great feature. I do appreciate that once the Tape is completed, you can go back and find any missed collectibles without needing to start over the story. A nice way to finish out those memoirs if you accidentally missed any.

I also want to mention the soundtrack, which not only helped capture the period but also pumped me up a bit. Coupled with the gorgeous visuals on display, it was a great way to rope me in to walk around and soak in the surroundings.

Lost Records: Bloom and Rage - Steam Deck Performance

When I first played Lost Records: Bloom and Rage, I was having some issues with upscaling on the Steam Deck. Using FSR 3 made shadows flicker intensely, and that made it nearly impossible to enjoy. I ended up playing through it at first with TSR and resolution scaling at 65%. While a later update did make FSR 3 a bit better, there was still a lot of flickering in cutscenes, whereas there is none for TSR. Because of this, I found TSR upscaling to be the preferable choice.

Lost Records is a fairly heavy game, so I wouldn't expect to play above 30 FPS. Luckily, we can mostly hit 30 FPS in the spots where it counts. Some scenes do drop below, but with this being a slower-paced story game, it didn't impact my enjoyment at all. We will need to keep most settings on low, apart from high textures, but at least you can play through the entire game without issue. I settled on TSR upscaling with 65% resolution scaling as my favorite, and even though there were drops here and there, it was still a great way to experience the story:

Accessibility

In the settings, you can change the language, subtitles and their size, turn off some motion sickness options like headbobbing and motion controls for the camcorder, inverting camera and sensitivity, the interface text size, and audio sliders.

The game does support 16:10 resolutions, controllers, and cloud saves. The game also recognizes and supports HDR on the OLED Steam Deck.

Conclusion

Lost Records: Bloom and Rage has a lot of great moments with just a few outliers that keep it from being an amazing experience. The story is great, which is elevated thanks to a wonderful cast and an interesting way of telling it. The basic gameplay for these kinds of games is here again, but with an intriguing Memoir feature to record different objects to create your own mini-videos. I wish the magical elements and finale were a bit more impactful, but I feel the narrative had enough to keep me interested in how they would continue the tale.

It is also playable on the Steam Deck, albeit with some compromises. I wish I could get it to a fully stable 30 FPS without major visual downgrades, but with a game like this, the short drops down below weren't the end of the world. This is still going to be an enjoyable portable experience, and I had a blast playing it on the go.

Our review is based on the PC version of this game.

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