Diving into Lost Records: Bloom & Rage Part One "Bloom," I had a lot of high hopes. I love story-based games where you have to make decisions that will have consequences later down the line. The aesthetic of this game also really pulled me in. I love games that have that retro feel and are full of neon vibrancy that is reminiscent of the 90s. Despite being neon, it has a beautiful muted feel to it at times and really provides the grittiness and dated feel to help you travel back in time.
Loading the game for the first time, you're immediately pulled into a gritty cutscene, giving you glimpses of the events that took place that summer. As soon as that unraveled before me, my interest was peaked. It slows right down quickly soon after that, as you play as Swann gets a phone call from her mother. Examining items in the car, I immediately noticed the masks and became very aware that it took place during the pandemic, a time I would much rather forget. For those who had a difficult time during the pandemic, this game may prove to be a little bit uncomfortable at times, with the reminders that crop up throughout the story.
After the scene in the car, you are introduced to Swann as a teenager who loves to film everything she can with her camcorder. This was something that I spent a lot of time doing. Getting to see the environments through the camcorder was a lot of fun and very nostalgic. It also reminded me a lot of Life is Strange, and the collectibles being in the form of photographs. Instead, you would film a bunch of scenes of life happening around Velvet Cove to create a memoir. Whether this was birds, items moving in place, or your gang of friends, there were lots of optional memoirs to create alongside the story-based ones.
What really helped elevate the game's aesthetic was the art style that went with it. While music played an important part in the game, having the color schemes of the 90s helped bring the game to life. I loved the lighting that was used to reflect off of objects in the world, as well as the characters. Seeing Nora, Kat, Autumn, and Swann bathed in neon lights was one of my favorite aspects of the game, and it made me happy to see that a photo mode had been implemented into Lost Records: Bloom & Rage.
Getting to examine items from around the world, such as the books and videotapes in Swann's bedroom, helped me remember my own childhood and fond memories of mixtapes, CDs, and videotapes. I loved the amount of detail that went into every little thing that you could examine. Whether it was a beer bottle in the park or a book in Swann's room, there was so much detail, and love poured into this game to help provide a true, immersive experience in the 90s. Every recording helped to build the world up further, as well as provide beneficial evidence in tough situations.
While the game is quite a slow burn, it helps set up the story for the second episode, which I am eagerly awaiting. There's a lot of unanswered questions, and I'm excited to see where this supernatural tale will end.
That being said, there were moments in Lost Records: Bloom & Rage that were a little awkward. With games that rely on your choices impacting the story, there are often a lot of pauses to allow you time to respond. However, in this game, the conversations feel a little bit too drawn out, even when I'm not actively contributing to the conversation. Pauses are long, and conversations often overlap. While this would make sense since it's a group of people all talking to each other, sometimes the option to give a response comes in a bit too late, and it feels wrong to contribute to the conversation. I found this to be an issue predominantly with Swann, as she is quite an awkward teenager and is very nervous around people.
In addition to this, some of the animations for the conversations were a little bit wonky. For example, when you finally meet up with Autumn at the bar in Velvet Cove, sometimes you can hear the voice-over of the conversation that is taking place, but her mouth isn't moving. Alternatively, her mouth moves after a delay, and she only says half of the sentence or after it has already been said. While these issues were relatively minor, they did break the game's immersion and lessen the impact of conversations, as it became something I focused on.
Although it's to be expected, I did wish that the game had a save option rather than relying solely on autosaves. Because of this, it meant that saves were pretty few and far between, meaning I had to commit to some beefy gaming sessions to make progress in the story, as well as having to get to a certain point before the game was saved.
Overall, getting to experience the conversations between the girls was a lot of fun and reminded me a lot of my own childhood and adolescence, just without the supernatural elements to go along with it. The game is very aesthetically pleasing, and there is a ton of optional content that you can do within the time frame of playing the main game due to the function of the camcorder.
Certain parts did feel a little bit drawn out, especially the scene of Swann and Autumn collecting Autumn's keys. A lot of that scene was Swann and Autumn reminiscing on the past and how they became friends at that very moment. Despite that, it felt like it ran on longer than it needed to, which really added to the slow-burn effect of walking through their adolescence.
When playing as adults, it felt like it progressed a bit quicker, and the scenes in adulthood weren't as long as those in adolescence. I look forward to seeing how this story will conclude in the second tape, and I hope I get to hunt for more collectibles again.
Reviewed on PC (code provided by the publisher).
