After bringing the world Life is Strange a decade ago, Don’t Nod have been cooking up a brand new adventure.

Heading straight into PS+, Lost Records is split into two parts – Bloom and Rage – with the first available from today. And it’s a real return to form for these narrative, choice-based adventures, channelling Don’t Nod’s previous work but throwing in some Yellowjackets and Blair Witch vibes for good measure.

Lost Records expertly blends first and person views as you move through a four hour story that really tackles some challenging themes, but most importantly does an excellent job of switching between the past and present without it seeming overwhelming or confusing. Even more masterfully than some films manage.

See, the game begins with you playing as Swann trying to control her emotions while sat in a car having a conversation with her mom. Swann has arrived at an old haunt – The Blue Spruce – to meet an old friend after 27 years. They’ve completely lost contact since when they were kids and have led completely different lives ever since, but something has drawn them back together and over the course of Bloom you’ll come to understand exactly what that is. And why.

The time shifts might take some getting used to at first as Lost Records jumps around A LOT. Go to order some drinks at the bar, Swann sees something on the wall and starts day dreaming. Taking a trip to the toilet, oop there she goes again, thinking about something in the past. Right in the middle of a conversation…you get the picture.

Fortunately, the game handles this perfectly by having you control in first person in the present and third in past, it’s a smart way to help differentiate. But of course that’s not the only difference. As the events of their childhood take place over a summer period, you’ll soon see everything is vibrant and beautiful.

And there’s plenty of nostalgia to be found, like Magic Eye books on shelves, old TVs and even VHS sleeves that have recordings of Sliders and Gargoyles Episodes 1-3. This was a wonderful little throwback and spoke to my childhood a lot more than most pieces of retro media every manage.

The detail in Lost Records is pretty astounding, frankly, particularly when you go on nature walks and walk alongside the trees and gaze out at the stunning scenic landscapes. It might even be one of the most beautiful games I can point to in recent memory.

Truly, Lost Records is art and that’s without going into the level of detail in character facial expressions and models. Don’t Nod have really crafted a very special, believable game that is truly movie-like but in a satisfyingly interactive way. These are the kinds of games people should be able to find and play on Netflix, I feel.

The same can be said for the narrative. Many games that claim to have a good story aren’t as well written as people may have you believe, but the back and forth chatter between characters, they way they effortlessly converse about their personal lives then get back on track with the story and how all of these choices feed into the relationship building which I’ve yet to see fully play out in part one. It’s quite astounding.

Lost Records is really gripping. You know there’s something underlying bubbling beneath all of this. An unspoken tension and based on our track record with these games, you know something bad is coming. That said, I found myself coming away from Bloom intrigued about what will happen in Rage but not necessarily as on the edge of my seat as I would have hoped.

I get it. Bloom deals with a lot of very sensitive themes and you can’t just breeze past them in order to work with them appropriately. There’s everything from bullying to mental health, to weight shaming, alcohol abuse and even self-harm. The way Bloom handles all of these topics and does so in a way that feels natural and not forced is really a lesson to just about anyone looking to craft a story.

I will say, though, after a lot of build-up, I needed something a little bit more to whet my appetite for part two. Admittedly, I don’t have long to wait, but where Life is Strange had these really jaw-dropping cliffhangers, Bloom leaves you with more questions than when you started and is very much about the build up of the relationships of these characters. Perhaps, then, Rage will be dealing with the consequences of your actions. If so, that’s a very exciting prospect but we’ll have to wait and see.

Something that did happen quite a bit in my playthrough is miss-timed cues on the dialogue. I found a lot of the time characters were talking over each other and starting new topics before finishing old ones. In general, there just felt like a delay on the game as even textures took a while to load in while switching scenes and there did result in a bit of slowdown. It’s something you’ll be familiar with if you’ve ever played these games before, though, so wasn’t a complete shocker or deal-breaker for me.

Bloom is a great ride, for the most part. And one of its main hooks is actually Swan’s camera and the ability to record your entire environment, even creating montage tapes using your own footage. You’ll come to learn that Swan’s a lonely girl who loves her cat, books and films, and even collecting unusual artifacts on her travels. But she’s also an aspiring director of sorts and loves taking her camcorder out on adventures with her.

As the past is set in the 90s, you get this wonderful feeling of nostalgia, seeing a camcorder hooked up to the TV and VHS players so you can watch back all of her old footage. There’s even the appropriate filters in there when watching the footage back just to really make us oldies feel right at home.

When travelling on walks, you can tap R1 at any point to start recording and look out for points of interest. If you notice a Squirrel, for instance, you can zoom in and start recording, watching in its natural habitat. Same with birds and critters. But this also goes for beautiful scenic views, for places you want to remember like the movie palace you frequent or even the stunning landscapes. Even things that move in the wind draw some inspiration.

But as you get deeper into the episode, those Blair Witch vibes really come through, with Swan capturing more things at night. You begin to see some distortions in the footage and even unexplained phenomena when you watch it back. And if you choose to watch these back, you can hear Swan’s narration change, twist and warp is slightly sinister ways. It’s yet another tick for the narrative as you can actually get some interesting hints at whats to come if you take the time to watch these videos back.

Camcording is a pretty intriguing addition here as you can not only use your footage in these tapes, but actually re-order the scenes, and even delete footage from your camera and capture new ones. Storage is something you’ll need to watch on the camera as it is easy to get carried away and it is finite. Fortunately you do get warnings to clean up the camera and you can star footage you like and the game will tell you if a piece is already being used in one of its tapes.

Best of all, on PS5, you can actually aim the camera around by just holding the DualSense, meaning you don’t even need to rely on control sticks. This adds a lovely layer of immersion and precision to the mechanic.

Swan’s camera even has a light on it, so when you find yourself in dark and gloomy places, this will naturally help you find a way through and find items of interest.

While Lost Records has this sinister undertone to it, this episode is mostly about the relationships you form with three other girls – Autumn, Nora and Kat. And as you’ve come to expect from these games, your decisions and topics of conversation will affect each relationship. By the end of the episode, you’ll then see your standing with each character. But perhaps most compelling of all, the relationships in both the past and the present.

For instance, something you did wayback when, could, theoretically, influence conversations you’re having in the present. This gives the game’s characters a really three-dimensional feel and truly adds some weight to the consequences of your action. Though, again, I don’t feel like Bloom really breaks into that too much, so I’m really hoping in Rage we’ll go beyond scratching the surface.

Music is key to that as well, with the friends bonding over music, even if it isn’t how they choose to spend their time. There’s actually a lovely little moment in the game where you’re asked about music and you can choose to pretend and lie that you like a band based on a poster you see on their wall, or you can just be honest and say movies are more your thing. The responses you get either way are interesting.

But we all know how important music has been to these games in the past and it absolutely still is here, often working as an engine to drive the emotion in critical scenes and as a plot device in others. Milk and Bone have crafted many haunting melodies that also crossover into punk and rock in a way that not only feels appropriate to the times – there’s some lovely synth in here – but of how we look back at nostalgia and the way it resonates with us.

And just a note on the voice acting, because this cast does a brilliant job of really capturing the age and maturity of the modern day characters as well as their carefree, youthful attitudes in the 90s. That’s not easy and certainly an incredible skill to have. It’s so rare to really feel like the characters you’re interacting with have grown and have lived two very different lives. But even the recreation of the times, where the past really feels like this hard-hitting sense of nostalgia and the present is glum, moody, all builds into that. Nora, especially, really caught me offguard and impressed me most of all.

So, yes, I really enjoyed Bloom and I am eager enough for Rage to see where the story goes, more so to see what the consequences of my actions will be. There’s enough mystery set up here that I’m intrigued to see where Don’t Nod take the story, but you should absolutely be prepared for a lot of build up in this episode and then a cutting of the cord before things take a turn. If that’s not for you, and you’re used to ‘binging’ maybe you should wait a few more weeks for the full experience to drop on April 15.

Verdict

Lost Records: Bloom sets the scene for a very intriguing finale with good character and story build-up but it does take time to get there and the episode ends just as the story is taking a turn. In that build up is some brilliant characterisation across two periods in history, world-class acting that makes these characters feel truly three-dimensional, compelling writing that keeps you hooked and a truly stunning depiction of Michigan that glows and glistens with beautiful, natural scenery. Swan’s recording adds an interesting approach for players to tell their own interpretations of the memories and this is a pleasant trip that often feels soothing and wholesome, but you feel Rage has quite a bit of work to do to stick the landing. 

Pros

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Lost Records: Bloom is available from today on PC, Xbox and PS5+

Rage will launch as a free update on April 15, 2025

Played on PS5

Code Kindly Provided by Don’t Nod for review purposes