Lost Records: Tape One - Bloom

When I reviewed Life is Strange for another media outlet back in January 2015, I was blown away by how well Don't Nod could tell a very relevant and realistic story. A lot has happened to Don't Nod since then, but with Lost Records: Bloom & Rage they are simply back in top form.

The story at the centre of Lost Records: Bloom & Rage is about four teenage girls, Nora, Autumn, Kat, and Swann, who are brought together one summer evening in 1995 by some rather dramatic circumstances. Over the course of that summer, the girls form a close bond and it's a summer they'll never forget - for a number of reasons. The game's story jumps back and forth between that summer in 1995 and 2022, when the friends have grown up and, after many years apart, met at a local pub - despite having promised never to see each other again. So why are they suddenly reunited in the same town as in 1995 - this is the central plot of Lost Records: Bloom & Rage.

From the start, you take on the role of the slightly awkward, slightly nerdy, slightly introverted, and somewhat insecure Swann, who is also the game's only playable character. Don't Nod is really good at portraying people and you quickly get a sense of who the four girls are. They feel real, they are anxious, flawed, insecure, and they come in different sizes, ethnicities, and proportions - just like real people. They form the centre of a story about self-exploration, overcoming the challenges of teenage life, and making new friendships. And the fear of losing each other.

The story in Lost Records: Bloom & Rage develops slowly - very slowly. It will no doubt be too long for some, but I enjoy the slow pace where there's room for thought and where there are sequences when quiet and calm takes over. You can't help but get a Twin Peaks feeling when the game moves slowly and is sometimes interrupted by sequences where nothing happens - it gives the game a very special atmosphere.

There isn't much gameplay here, as you're really witnessing an interactive narrative that you have a say in. You have to explore the surroundings and solve simple puzzles, and you can choose different dialogue directions that will change the relationship between the four girls. To create a little more player interaction, Swann has a video camera that she loves to use. She films the animals in the forest, her three friends goofing around and some of the footage is actually mandatory for the overall narrative, but there are also many opportunities to capture extra elements of the world just because Swann feels like it. This could be documenting different bird species in the local area, graffiti in the car park, filming the unusual water tower from different angles, or recording Swann's cat doing something special.

The visuals are quite pleasant and atmospheric and generally use very cinematic camera angles and steady panning to keep things slower and calmer. Don't Nod has also managed to capture the 90s style quite convincingly, especially when using Swann's video camera. Here the image changes to a 4:3 format, with grainy quality and overly harsh contrast, just as it looked with those video cameras in the 1990s.

The technical side is a bit of a messy affair though. The graphics don't always run smoothly, surfaces can sometimes take a long time to display correctly, some character movements are a little weird, and I experienced a progression bug at one point, which meant I had to load my save game, before being able to move on.

The voice actors do a great job and the dialogue is always believable and convincing. Music has always been a central part of Don't Nod's narrative style and it is also in Lost Records. The soundtrack is mainly provided by American singer-songwriter Ruth Radelet (lead singer of the band Chromatics) and Canadian band Milk & Bone, and it's a dreamy and melancholic soundtrack that fits perfectly into the game's style - a powerful soundtrack.

You can choose to look at Lost Records: Bloom & Rage in two ways. If you choose to look at it as a game in the traditional sense, you will be disappointed. There's simply nothing to do here and, as mentioned earlier, it's very, very slow. You can also choose to look at it as an interactive narrative and it really comes into its own. The story is compelling, the characters are excellent and the game sticks to the familiar format of the Life is Strange series - only better.

Lost Records: Bloom & Rage is a very powerful story - and the ending really took me by surprise. You had the feeling that "something was up" - just not that! It's a powerful story about people, about insecurity, about love, about hate, about being a teenager in the 90s and it's especially a poignant story about friendship and some human qualities that would make the world a much better place if more of us had them.

Lost Records: Bloom & Rage is a game that sticks in your head for a while after you've finished playing it. Not many games can do that.

Lost Records: Bloom & Rage comes in two instalments (called tapes) and Tape 1: Bloom is out now, while Tape 2: Rage will be released as a free update in mid-April.