Lost Records: Bloom & Rage - Tape 1

Part One is the perfect beginning to a story that will stay with you for a long time to come, all set against an evocative soundtrack.

Lost Records: Bloom & Rage digs deep into the realities of coming of age in the 90s. Whether through snappy, gorgeously rendered cutscenes, fuzzy homemade VHS tapes, or confused conversations at the local watering hole, it’s a thoughtful story that delivers sincerity in a way that feels quintessentially human. Propped up by a cavalcade of multi-faceted characters, Lost Records: Bloom & Rage Part 1 is a no-holds-barred opening act that will leave you desperate for Part 2.

The wait for Tape 2 is going to be a long one, because Lost Records: Bloom & Rage Tape 1 has me utterly hooked. It perfectly captures the highs and lows of being a teenage girl, brought to life with a cast of characters that feel as real as your childhood friends. While it's a slow burn, and most of the game's major secrets will (hopefully) unravel in Tape 2, this is still an absolute must-play for any fans of the narrative adventure genre.

Lost Records: Bloom and Rage Tape 1 is a stunning return to form, offering a great story and a bunch of wholesome, special characters. The choices feel more personal to you, and the camcorder mechanic adds more depth to Swann, allowing you to feel more in control of your own destiny than before.

Tape 1 of Lost Records: Bloom & Rage is a solid prologue for what might hopefully "bloom" into a memorable story of reunion and reconnecting after decades apart. There are some bold new steps for the genre here, that are unfortunately held back by design choices that already felt archaic back when we first encountered them a decade ago. For now, I'm intrigued and interested to see what comes next, despite the obligatory wait.

Lost Records: Bloom & Rage- Tape 1, Don't Nod's '90s-themed return to adventure games after creating Life is Strange, is more than nostalgia bait.

Lost Records: Bloom & Rage – Tape 1 is everything you’d want from a DON’T NOD game: realistic characters, a gripping journey, and a sci-fi-infused adventure. While it doesn’t break new ground in the genre, it delivers a well-rounded, intriguing story. The first part lays the foundation for multiple compelling narrative threads. With its rich character drama and lingering mysteries, Tape 2’s release on April 15th can’t come soon enough.

Ultimately, Lost Records: Bloom & Rage proves to be an uneven experience where the characters are more interesting than the plot. With a final twist that doesn't feel earned and fails to illuminate the game's greater mystery, it's hard to imagine players eagerly awaiting the second half of the story when it arrives on April 15. However, it's still possible that the remainder of the title could continue building its wonderful characters and make the juice worth the squeeze.

Even if Tape 1 won't immediately grab you, Lost Records: Bloom and Rage is off to a decent start, thanks to its intriguing characters and plot.

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.

Look, I can talk all day about the parts of Lost Records that didn't work for me. If I hadn't been playing it for review, I probably would have stopped after a couple of hours and never gone back. As it is, I reached its climax and it finally introduced the drama and the stakes that were missing from the rest of the story. Lost Records is bland, derivative, lacks momentum, does not reward player agency, and it twice made me cringe so hard I had to look away from the screen. I wish it was half as long as it is. I wish it had learned to let go of the ideas that have lost their power, like Sarah ...

Lost Records: Bloom & Rage - Tape 1 tells a beautiful coming-of-age story, but takes far too long building up something that never pays off.