Review — Lost Records: Bloom & Rage [Tape 1]

Lost Records: Bloom & Rage

We sit down and review Lost Records: Bloom & Rage. A new narrative from the masters out there, even if this is only the first half. Here is our review of half of Lost Records: Bloom & Rage

The kids on bikes trope is never able to stay down and that is on display again with Lost Records: Bloom & Rage. While not specifically that trope with the bikes, it is a whole new narrative game from DON’T NOD that takes us back to the ’90s with a group of teens getting into a supernatural adventure. All while learning something about themselves along the way. That and maybe causing some extra trauma to have to deal with later in life. That is the very basics of Lost Records: Bloom & Rage, but now is time to see if it is going to be worth your time and/or money to see how things are going to play out. Well, at least half-way play out as we have the first “tape” of the game out there on the PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC with the second half still to come on April 15^th. For now, let us dive into our review of the game and see how it is shaping up so far.

Story

The narrative of Lost Records offers up two kinds of stories in the mix. One where we get to see the budding friendship of Swann, Kat, Nora, and Autumn back in 1995. All of whom have a home life that is not their ideal but form a bond and start up a musical band to help let some of that angst out. The second part of the story has us joining the women all grown up and dealing with some of the basic and supernatural events that took place 27 years ago. All while documenting the events and seeing if their friendship has lasted the test of time. Will Bloom & Rage live on, or is it something that should have been buried with those Lost Records out there…?

Hated

I am always down for a good and new mechanic to get brought into a genre like Lost Records has on display here. This time around, it is taking out a camcorder and recording various things around the play areas of the map, as well as some of the characters and scenes along the way. Not too hard or too convoluted to understand, but there seems to be little point to actually doing it in the game. Not only that, but there is also a way to edit the footage afterward, but again, outside of collecting trophies/achievements, there does not seem to be any bigger reason for this in Lost Records. This is only the first half of the full game, so maybe Tape Two will help explain, but it felt like a waste of time to me when I just wanted the rest of the story to keep playing out and allowing me to see how I could alter it along the way.

Building from that, in Lost Records, there is a whole lot of story to take in and dialog to listen to. All with the same mechanics many other games like it use where responses can be timed. Not a terrible thing, but in many instances in the story here, other characters are cut off randomly mid-sentence or a new scene is fired up before the last one played out. In a few instances in Lost Records: Bloom & Rage, it makes sense that the characters would go through that. The rest of the time, it led to so much frustration on my end because I wanted to hear the rest of the dialog, but Swann just cut in and moved the scene along. Sometimes, key clues or moments get lost in the mix. DON’T NOD did so well with their games in the past that the scene would play out no matter when you selected the option, but they seemed to have forgotten that in this game. An extremely weird and bad call to go with in the mix.

Lastly, and this is the usual gripe I have with so many games like Lost Records: Bloom & Rage, but there are so many pointless things to interact with in the game. Some do help to expand the thoughts and feelings behind some characters, even if there is nothing for the grander game, but so many things are just there. They do nothing other than let us waste time and hope that it might build to something. You could easily waste a few extra hours if you are one of those gamers who needs to find and look at everything in a game. There is a good way to do this, but in Lost Records there is so much time wasted that it can get rather annoying. Why do I have to look at a pinecone that Swann found well before the events of the game, and she adds nothing to it at all? Just to make me need to go look at it, spin it around, and be let down that it was an extra 30 seconds of time in the game I could have been doing something else.

Loved

Gripes and issues aside, once Lost Records: Bloom & Rage dives into the main story of the game, that is when the game takes off. Not only as it is intriguing and a fun coming-of-age story, so far, but it does feel like so many of the choices and actions have bigger outcomes than we might think. We are trying to bond with three other characters in the game for starters, but this also leads to things that are left around for us to look at and interact with. It took me a second play to see that if we embrace more of the nerdy side of Swann, we get more D&D stuff in the room. If we lean into other things, that is replaced with other fun little things to play with. Almost as we are truly shaping a character in Lost Records and not just always seeing a nerd when we have been making the punk choices constantly. It is a weird thing to focus on, but it is something that truly stuck out to me in the game.

While it does seem overused and pointless in the grander scheme of things in Lost Records, the recording bits in the game can be a little fun to explore. It is not something I think should have been at the core of it all, but when we get to the segments that truly need to be documented, it is fun to find and capture those as they play out. Not only that, but adding in some of the motion controls of the controller to add to a level of realism was a nice touch. Even if it did take me a bit longer to recognize that was why things were not fully steady in Lost Records. After that revelation, though, it allowed me to have a little bit more fun as I recorded the scenes I wanted to. Now, if only there was a good explanation as to how that is going to build things out there in the game world. Maybe Tape Two will show all of that off well.

Finally, when the supernatural and otherworldly elements of Lost Records started to kick in, that is when the game started to shine even brighter for me. I am not a young woman coming of age, so those parts of the story did not capture me as much as they will others, but when it started to dig into the aspects that can capture you no matter how you identify, it truly shined. Offering up just enough for the mystery while also making us all question even more. All to lead into the big cliffhanger that will lead us into Tape Two, of course, but still hitting all of those correct vibes to get there. I do not want to say much more on that so as to not spoil it, but the gameplay we have below will get you to that same place of understanding when it comes to the supernatural side of things.

Overview

I will say that Lost Records: Bloom & Rage does feel like it suffers a bit by only having the first half of the story out there right now. Not only the story but maybe even parts of the gameplay that have been lost on us for now but might play a bigger role in the second half. Take that into account. The story of the game is another one that hits the heartstrings so well right now and might lead to something darker as it builds out further. It is hard to say, which is why I would say you might want to hold off for now, unless you get it as part of one of the monthly plans out there. It feels like half a game and half a story, a good one, but one that should not be left hanging as long as it is. Especially if there is truly something more to all of the video we capture and the trinkets we have to play with in Lost Records: Bloom & Rage

I give Lost Records: Bloom & Rage 12 Cat Videos on the Cat Video scale.

Lost Records: Bloom & Rage — Hades Plays The Game [PS5]

Lost Records: Bloom & Rage Tape One was developed and published by DON’T NOD for the PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on February 18^th, 2025. A PlayStation copy of the game was provided by the publisher for reviewing purposes.