My time with Lost Records: Bloom & Rage begins in Swann Holloway's bedroom. I've been transported back to 1995 to relive one of her memories, and I'm looking around for a VHS tape to pack away in my rucksack. I spend a lot of time soaking in all of the details of her room, examining every available object and admiring the decor. Everything I can interact with fills me with nostalgia, from opening up tape boxes with homemade labels, to admiring Don't Nod's take on the iconic '90s troll doll. I'm immediately reminded of Life is Strange and the way the adventure always lets me take my time to explore my environment. But here, there's a lot more interactivity in Bloom & Rage, whether it be unfolding a crumpled ball of paper I find, or choosing a greeting to say to a stick insect pet named Twiglet inside a terrarium. The bedroom paints a picture of Swann, with her belongings shining a light on her interests, and her commentary opening up a window into her personality.
What I love the most, though, is when I'm able to get my hands on her camcorder. As she readies herself to move out, I have to film around Swann's bedroom to create a home video she can keep as a memoir. With various points of interest and a set number of shots to complete, I'm free to choose what I film, and I can even watch it back and edit the video to replace shots. The more I play, the more I come to love the camcorder's role in Bloom & Rage - it's an outlet of expression for Swann and her friends that encourages me to let my creative side loose. But it also gives me another way to view the world I'm in.
"It's Swan's tool to interact with her surroundings," producer Cathy Vincelli tells me. "But as a player, we're giving people agency, even though you're shooting specific things for memoirs, you can still edit and swap out shots if you feel it's not good. Reshoot something, if you want, as well. So it's cool to have that kind of balance. It's a tool for gameplay, but it's also something fun for players to also be creative with."
Making movies
I love the way I can decide what to film at any given opportunity throughout the demo, and that I even see the characters play back and watch what I've filmed later on. It's an ever-present fixture to reflect Swann's passion for making movies, and the way I get to shape the footage is a tangible kind of feedback that makes it feel like I'm directly affecting the video memories. Not unlike the way you snap Polaroids to collect achievements in Life is Strange, there are also filming opportunities throughout that are connected to different collections. After filming my cat Pumpkin (who yes, you can pet) in my room, for instance, there are several spots I can capture marked "more cat shots", such as a part of the wall covered in scratches, or a mouse toy. I also seize the opportunity to film a little bird outside the window, and with a number indicator for more birds to capture, it's clear there will be others to find later on.
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"We were thinking back on what we did with the camera, or what we did not do with the camera, with Max in Life is Strange," creative director Michel Koch says. "And we asked the programmer, 'do you think we could capture video all the time in the game and make it work?' We felt it was the perfect tool to make you look at the environment to be immersed into the world of the game, which is so important, and to look at your friends, to look at things."
"It's cool because you can film almost all the time," studio executive producer Luc Baghadoust adds. "You can capture, of course, gameplay-related stuff, but there's also the freedom to shoot basically anything you want. It's really cool to see even with ourselves, we use the camera in a very different way when we play the game. Cathy is doing superb shots, and I'm doing messy stuff, but I'm happy to see my messy shots playback. We cannot wait to see how people will use the camcorder in creative ways."
Since the camera allows you to zoom into the environment, the team had to ensure that every object and area was detailed, and that definitely shows. When I first stepped into Swann's shoes, I was immediately struck by how gorgeous the environments look, from her bedroom full of nostalgic decorations, to a forest I later go to with her newfound friends to shoot a music video. Koch tells me about developing Lost Records: Bloom & Rage on Unreal Engine 5, and speaks of their aim to achieve a level of quality that's somewhat akin to a Pixar movie; striking a balance between being stylized and realistic.
Essentially the team wanted Lost Records' style to be a continuation of the look of Life is Strange 2, only with more texture and detail. I want to spend time in the world, soaking everything in through Swann's eyes and camera lens. When I venture to a garage and meet Autumn, Kat, and Nora for the first time in the demo, I notice how all of the characters are more expressive, and I once again examine every object I come across. Not only does it all look good, but the level of interactivity just adds to the joy of exploration and brings me right into the '90s. From discovering an art pin toy I can press my face into (just as I did as a kid), to blowing into a game cartridge, I see so much of my own experience reflected back at me in the things I find.
Past and present
Above all, I love how relatable Swann and her friends are from the get-go. Following the story of a group of teenagers is nothing new, but I appreciate how Don't Nod makes each character feel real with a mix of personalities in the group. The level of detail means I also can see acne on their faces and imperfections that we so seldom see represented in games. The demo may only be 90 minutes long, but I come away from it already caring about the introverted Swann in particular, which speaks to the team's strengths when it comes to bringing loveable characters to life.
Don't Nod also leaves it up to you to decide how you want to approach each conversation and scenario, and whether you want to push Swann out of her comfort zone or lean into her introverted side. Deciding to play through the demo twice, there's a point in the garage where I have to pick a spot to sit, and both times I choose something different which leads to slight alterations in how Swann remembers the moment.
In conversation, we can choose to say nothing at all at times, or even say things too early and interrupt someone, which makes the dialog system feel more natural. I see how what I choose and say and do sometimes causes different hearts to show, which tells me I've either gotten closer to a member of the group, or they don't appreciate my response. Koch says the team decided not to directly tell you who in the group is the recipient of the positive or negative feedback, but you should still have an inkling as to who it's affected based on the conversation you're having.
"We don't want the players to feel like they're getting punished for choosing something that they want to choose", Vincelli adds. "It should just be organic, you choose what you want, and then the relationship will adjust based on that."
The wider concept behind Lost Records: Bloom & Rage is at once intriguing, and it's teased throughout the demo. As the initial opening outlines, in 2022 you play as 43-year-old Swann who's headed to a bar to meet up with her old friends. In doing so, she's breaking a long-held vow to never speak to them again after something mysterious happened between them 27 years earlier. But when her friend Autumn gets a package that's seemingly tied to their past, they're going back on their promise.
As I control Swann in 1995 from a third person perspective, I'm frequently reminded at certain points that I'm playing through memories, with comments from Swann and Autumn from the future occasionally coming through. Every now and then, it will also cut to a first-person perspective in the future timeline, with me seeing Autumn sitting across the table from me in the bar through Swann's eyes. Not only does it highlight how I'm experiencing moments from their past, it also offers insight into how different characters remember how things played out through my choices, with both Autumn and Swann explaining how they felt, or what was going through their minds at the time.
As the demo comes to a close, I watch Swann and her friends watch the music video I filmed in the forest earlier for their newly formed band - Bloom and Rage. Suddenly a mysterious purple glow starts to bleed into the footage just as the game cuts off. I'm left with so many questions: what was that package in the future that caused them to come together? And what does that glow signify? If I'm this invested already, that's a very good sign. I can't wait to discover what's in store when Lost Records: Bloom & Rage arrives on February 18, 2025.
