Lost Records: Bloom & Rage Part 1 has me thinking the 90s really were awesome
With Lost Records: Bloom & Rage, developer Dontnod has captured that same soothingly melancholy vibe that I loved in Life is Strange. Unfortunately, I’ll need to wait two months to come to my final verdict, as the game’s being released in two parts.
When you’re 16, you’ve got the world at your feet. At least, it seems that way. Slowly but surely, the invisible cord connecting you to your parents is severed as you come of age. Alongside that come the first triumphs and trials you need to go through alone or with friends. Adventure game Lost Records: Bloom & Rage depicts this phase – and the wistful way we look back on it as adults – masterfully. The game tells the story of a group of teen girls in 1995, then follows the same group of adult women 27 years later.
Multi-layered characters and strong dialogue
In the game, you play Swann, who returns to a place in 2022 that changed her life in 1995. That summer, her family’s planning to move away from Velvet Cove, a sleepy little American town on the Canadian border. It’s now 2022, and she’s sitting in the driver’s seat of her rental car, talking to her mother on the phone from the car park of a Velvet Cove diner. The conversation with her controlling mother makes it clear that Swann has repressed events from her past. It’s subtly conveyed by specific things they say.
In these first few minutes, the strengths of Lost Records: Bloom & Rage are already apparent. The dialogue portrays the game’s multilayered characters beautifully. Rather than shoving their character traits right under your nose, the dialogues use careful exposition. From listening to the mother, you can figure out that Swann leads a lonely life, getting most of her affection from cats.
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The other main characters are relatable too. You first meet them as teenagers in 1995. There are two friends, Nora and Autumn, who make music together. Right from the start, Autumn seems vulnerable, but with a strong personality. Rebellious Nora, on the other hand, is only strong on the surface, and has a lot of fears. In contrast, the wild fourth member of the group, Cat, appears fearless. She appears to live by her own rules. The whole group are united by the fact they’re outsiders who came together for this one magical summer in the 90s. Even I, a 41-year-old man, grow fond of this spirited group of friends within a few minutes of playing, and feel emotionally connected to them.
Source: Dontnod
In the present day, the former friends meet up at a diner. The occasion? A mysterious package that’s been left on the doorstep of Autumn’s parents’ house. On it, there’s a message: «Only for Bloom & Rage. Remember 1995?» Having grown apart in the years since, the women come together to open the package and reminisce about their teenage years. As a result, the story switches between 2022 and 1995. You play «past» Swann from a third-person perspective and «present» Swann from a first-person perspective.
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In contrast to the rather clichéd characters in Life is Strange, the small number of supporting characters are also multifaceted. Take Kat’s sister Dylan and her boyfriend Corey. At the beginning, they’re described as bullies and behave as such. The two intimidate Swann, accusing her of filming Dylan. In reality, her camera’s pointed at a balloon. Over time, however, the waters get a little muddier, and you start to understand their actions – at least in part. This subtly develops through snippets of conversation between the friends or through Dylan and Corey’s behaviour.
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The story of Part 1 is told in an exciting way, and kept alive as a result of the game’s great characters. You see the game’s few plot twists coming, but thanks to the strong cast, it doesn’t matter too much. The fantastic setting also contributes to that feeling of a magical summer in the 90s.
The 90s were kinda cool after all
Stranger Things reconciled me with the 80s. Now, Lost Records: Bloom & Rage has done the same with the 90s. I never thought I’d consider the 90s groovy. Being born in 1983, most of my childhood and adolescent memories stem from that decade. And until now, I wasn’t particularly fond of them.
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The locations in the game are designed with so much attention to detail that it makes me look back on the 90s with misty eyes. Swann’s room’s decorated with X-Files posters, and she has one of the troll dolls that were popular at the time. She also keeps her beloved camcorder in a bum bag – the fashionable accessory of the era. Meanwhile, her mixtapes include classics like Nirvana. I’ll forgive the developers for the fact that the Tamagotchi on Swann’s desk wouldn’t actually have been invented in 1995 (those bad boys didn’t come on the scene until 1996). But I do think it’s cool that you can feed or stroke Buzzy the Tamagotchi pet.
The diner in 2022 is brilliantly designed too. At the entrance, you’re greeted with face masks and hand sanitiser – items more commonplace in 2022 than they were today. There’s a notice board with information on the latest goings-on in Velvet Cove. Songs that take Swann right back to 1995 are playing on the radio.
Despite the fantastic setting, there’s still one downer in my view: the performance.
High performance requirements and pop-ins
I like the art style in Dontnod games. That being said, the games aren’t exactly known for their graphical splendour. And Lost Records: Bloom & Rage is no exception. This makes the game’s resource requirements all the more astounding.
On my PC, with a Ryzen 7 5800X3D and Radeon RX 6800 XT, it runs in 1440p resolution and maximum details at an average of just 40 frames per second. Occasionally, it even drops below 30. On the Steam Deck, it’s usually not even 30 frames per second in native resolution on the lowest setting. My colleague Phil managed to get 70 frames per second in 4K resolution with an RTX 4090 and DLSS upscaling, but that doesn’t strike me as much for this type of game and its intended audience. I can’t comment on how the game runs on the PS5 or Xbox Series. On top of the enormous performance requirements, there are also regular pop-ins. Overall, the game seems under-optimised to me, although Dontnod has promised it’ll improve things for the launch on 18 February.
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When I watched the trailers, I was pleased to see that the characters’ lips were finally moving in time with the audio (at least in the English-language versions). However, that’s not actually the case in reality. At times, this looks pretty weird. Plus, the main characters’ movements occasionally come across as awkward and wooden.
Since I actually like the art style, that’s a real pity. As is always the case with Dontnod games, the first-class soundtrack deserves a special mention. As do the well-executed voiceovers. I like the voices of the main characters. The only one that fails to win me over is Corey’s – it’s delivered too theatrically. However, since he doesn’t speak too often, it’s no big deal.
Nothing revolutionary in terms of gameplay
Like Life is Strange, Lost Records: Bloom & Rage doesn’t have many gameplay elements. In contrast to the former, Swann doesn’t even have supernatural powers. Instead she has her camera, which she can take out at any time. You can use it to film story-related things, but also capture animals and landscapes and cut short clips from them. This is fun, but optional.
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Apart from that, your interactions are limited to the various dialogue options and examining objects. You gain new options by looking around, then asking specific questions about the object. There’s often a limited amount of time to choose a particular option. Or you can decide to say nothing at all. Depending on the answer or question, the relationship with your friends changes – in both the past and the present.
In this respect, the game doesn’t revolutionise the plot options typically offered in an adventure game. The cool thing, however, is that you can do different things in longer scenes set to music, like in Life is Strange. You can screech or blow the petals off a dandelion, for example.
My tentative verdict: a must for adventure fans
The first instalment of Lost Records: Bloom & Rage impresses with great characters, an exciting story, a cool art style and a catchy soundtrack. It also achieves something I’d never have thought was possible: it’s made me like the 90s again. For that reason alone, it’s a must-play for all adventure fans.
Source: Dontnod
It doesn’t really offer anything new in terms of gameplay, but fans of the genre won’t be put off by that. However, the high performance requirements might be a downer for anyone playing the game on a PC. The occasionally clunky animations and numerous pop-ins are drawbacks too.
Personally, I’m most annoyed by the fact I’ll have to wait two months for the second instalment. By then, I’ll definitely need to repeat Part 1 to get back into the story. With this in mind, I’d recommend you wait until Part 2 is released on 15 April.
Lost Records: Bloom & Rage will be available from 18 February on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC. The PC version of the game was provided to me by Dontnod for testing purposes.
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Kevin Hofer
Senior Editor
kevin.hofer@digitecgalaxus.chFrom big data to big brother, Cyborgs to Sci-Fi. All aspects of technology and society fascinate me.
