Lost Records: Bloom & Rage: Tape 1 Review- I Know What You Did That Summer

When I think of narrative thrillers, I think of titles like Indigo Prophecy, Heavy Rain, Detroit, and most importantly Life is Strange. After Remember Me, DON’T NOD’s LiS propelled them into popularity and put them on a larger map. Gripping stories, stunning soundtracks, memorable characters, and well-written arcs made these episodic experiences stand out. With Lost Records, DON’T NOD attempts to recapture that magic by returning to their roots.

Lost Records: Bloom & Rage is a narrative-driven adventure game developed by DON’T NOD, the same studio behind the popular Life is Strange series. The game is split into two parts: Tape 1 and Tape 2. Tape 1: Bloom was released on February 18, 2025, and Tape 2 is scheduled to be released on April 15, 2025. The game is available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and Steam. It is also a day 1 release on PlayStation Plus Extra.

The Summer of ’95

Lost Records places you in the role of ‘Swann’, a woman in her forties who is revisiting her childhood friend ‘Autumn’ from the summer of 1995. The campaign is divided into two timelines: 1995 and 2022. The summer of 1995 is presented through the third-person perspective of a 16-year-old Swann experiencing her last summer in the town of Velvet Cove, a picturesque corner in the state of Michigan, as she prepares to move to Vancouver. Swann is a typical camera/camcorder enthusiast who enjoys making video memoirs but struggles with making friends due to her weight and body image issues. However, her life changes significantly when she meets and befriends Nora, and Kat, their bond strengthens as they form a band called Bloom & Rage.

The events of 2022 are narrated from a first-person perspective. Swann revisits the Velvet Cove with Autumn at a local diner. Together, they are forced to try and remember those fateful memories that have eluded them for the past 27 years.

Overall, it is a narrative-heavy experience that begins slowly with awkward dialogues but eventually finds its footing. Most of the dialogue Although Swann’s affinity for the camera and some similarities to Max from Life is Strange, she feels lacking in terms of depth. However, the cast is still likable, and the story is engaging enough to address issues such as homophobia, domestic violence, and body image effectively.

The music also plays a vital role in the game’s narrative. It’s good, but it’s not as great as DON’T NOD’s magnum opus. Compared to tracks like ‘Lisztoman’ and ‘All of You’ from Life is Strange, the soundtrack selection in Lost Records feels somewhat lacking. It is good but not as impressive as the soundtrack collection Life is Strange, though it is certainly an improvement over DON’T NOD’s recent titles such as ‘Twin Mirror’ and ‘Tell Me Why’.

New Found Sisterhood

As Swann, you will to know your newfound friends, each with their own lives and battles. As she slowly creeps out of her shell and embraces rebellion with her newfound sisterhood, she sets out on a path of self-discovery. Here the player’s actions and words shape Swann’s relationship with Autumn, Kat, and Nora. While not all of them have a huge impact on the story, the number of choices available makes it worth replaying some of these sequences. There’s also a collectible mode available if you are hunting for achievements.

Swann’s camcorder plays a significant role in all this as well. The town of Velvet Cove is brimming with stunning picturesque views of wildfire and township, and as Swann you try to capture most of it by creating memoirs. But instead of taking photos like Max, Swann relies on creating short clips with 10-20-second video snippets of animals, locations, and people.

In addition, the game also provides you with an in-game video editor that allows you to re-arrange clips, replace footage, and delete the ones that you don’t need. it’s a nice touch, and the best part is the retro aftereffects applied to each of those clips, which truly immerse you in the game as if you are truly matching some old clip recordings from the 90’s.

A Technical Conundrum

There are a lot of things that are good about Lost Records, but its performance and port are not one of them. As per the publisher’s minimum requirements, a 1050 Ti should be enough to run this title. However, in my playthrough, I was seriously struggling to even maintain 30 fps at low preset on a 3050 Ti as the VRAM usage just maxes out during most of its sequences, so I had to rely on upscaling solutions.

As far as upscaling goes, the game supports TSR, FSR, and DLSS. DLSS fares much better compared to FSR and TSR as the image and shadows look quite blurry in them. I tried applying aggressive upscaling with DLSS on ultra-performance which was decent, but the issues like textures popping and fps drops are all over the place. As of now, I at least recommend having 2060 at minimum to have a playable experience. The developer has stated that most of the issues with image quality and upscaling should be fixed in the upcoming patches.

That’s not all, if you have a 4 GB VRAM, some of the textures might not load at all or they would load at a very slow pace. Bogged down by these issues, I decided to replay the whole thing on my PS5 via PS Plus Extra, which fared much better than my 3050Ti, but it still had one major issue – the 30 fps lock. Still, it feels quite smooth while playing, as the frame times seem quite stable on PS5, with some occasional hiccups. This was quite similar to what happened with Nine Deck’s Life is Strange: True Colors, which eventually received a 60 fps patch. Given the performance of PS5, we could expect a 60 fps patch in the future.

Real Talk

Despite its somewhat rocky inception, Lost Records: Bloom & Rage manages to find its fitting during its pivotal moments. Tape 1 of this adventure does a great job of capturing the ’90s picturesque corners of Michigan and the nostalgia of the lost teens’ era. I can’t wait to see the remainder of Swann’s adventure in Tape 2. However, given the number of technical issues one might run into, I would only recommend picking it up if you have a 2060 or a better GPU. Given its thoughtful regional pricing, it’s worth picking up if you’ve got the specs. On the consoles, a 60 fps mode would greatly help.

FINAL RATING: 77/100