The fuzz of the cathode-ray tube (CRT) monitor, alongside static grains and flickering scanlines, is a touchstone for ’90s-era nostalgia. It’s shorthand for these halcyon days when expertise was predominantly analog and millennial children spent their summers shoving cumbersome tapes into VHS gamers, recording favourite bits of their after-school tv reveals, and making their very own house movies with camcorders. It’s this vignette that developer Don’t Nod Montréal leans closely into in Lost Records: Bloom & Rage. The sport follows a blossoming friendship — and obvious falling-out — of 4 youngsters over an unforgettable summer season. And all of it begins with dose of that nostalgia: the ubiquitously blue anti-drug message that precedes the title display, full with the telltale flicker of a CRT monitor.
Such adolescent longing is all par for the course for Don’t Nod. Alongside Telltale, the studio popularized the choose-your-own-adventure type of narrative video games with Life is Strange, whereas foregrounding the outsized ache and tribulations of teenhood. But extra than simply coating teenage drama in a layer of dreamy nostalgia, Bloom & Rage can be a possibility for Don’t Nod to write down a narrative primarily based in acquainted settings. The period already has its personal vocabulary and tradition; it’s the period of riot grrrl, Bikini Kill, The Blair Witch Project, and video rental shops. Doing so helps Bloom & Rage keep away from the criticism of penning teenage slang and utilizing outdated references that sound like they’re written by a lot older adults. This means quite a bit much less “hella cool” and extra “let’s bounce,” which is undoubtedly a phrase I bear in mind utilizing as a youngster.
At first look, Bloom & Rage seems to be like one other Life is Strange. Every second is infused with the identical emotional weight the collection is thought for, be it standing as much as a bully or excitedly gushing about your new greatest pal to your cat. Then there’s the tinge of the supernatural. But whereas promising, it’s a tad early to see if Bloom & Rage can surpass the juggernaut that was the unique Life is Strange. That’s as a result of Bloom & Rage is a two-part journey sport — a nod to the episodic roots of its forebears — with the second half of the sport anticipated to launch in mid-April this 12 months.
Image: Don’t Nod
Set within the small city of Velvet Cove, you’ll play as Swann, one of many 4 central youngsters. The story is depicted throughout two time durations: the present-day Swann as an grownup assembly her long-lost buddies a long time later, and her earlier days as a clumsy teenager in the course of the summer season of ’95.
The first jiffy of Bloom & Rage neatly set the stage. At first, the grownup Swann is scuffling with a tedious, largely one-sided dialog together with her mom over the telephone, and she will be able to select to reply meekly, with indifference, or mere silence. Meanwhile, a number of objects within the neighborhood can be found for her to fiddle with: a receipt, some brochures, and even a bottle of maple syrup. While analyzing these will trigger Swann’s mom to chide her for being distracted, this additionally demonstrates how Don’t Nod is increasing the methods during which dialogue can play out. You can have a look at particular objects and this can, at instances, open up new dialogue decisions that may affect your present and future conversations with different characters. It’s a small addition, but it surely helps make conversations really feel extra genuine, moderately than merely selecting between binary decisions of taking part in good or being impolite.
Flashbacks to Swann’s youthful days make up the majority of Bloom & Rage’s first half, with {the teenager} navigating the thorny passage of adolescent friendships. In the start, Swann is a loner, largely reluctant to socialize and too awkward to belong wherever — the acquainted plight of each millennial teenager. Spending her days memorializing nearly each waking second with a camcorder, Swann will meticulously document clips of something that catches her eye, earlier than placing them collectively to make quick movies. Aside from the conversations, documenting Swann’s on a regular basis life is the sport’s central conceit, a daring gamble given how this will really feel like busywork at first.
From fulfilling targets that transfer the storyline alongside, corresponding to filming the native video retailer (it’s one in all Swann’s favourite haunts), to discovering collectibles within the type of crude graffiti and unique birds, this nearly reduces the sport to an object-hunting journey. Eventually, you could develop the tendency to simply whip out the camcorder the second cutscenes conclude. But there’s a lingering appeal to this method, highlighting how Swann tends to instinctively work together with the individuals round her by way of her camcorder. Making movies is the one factor that empowers her. This is all of the extra poignant as she ultimately comes out of her shell and hides much less behind her lens.
And then there are Swann’s newfound buddies — Nora, Autumn, and Kat — who equally are extra than simply one-dimensional caricatures. There’s Nora who, for all her bravado and punk rock sensibilities, is likely one of the most conflict-averse people within the group and the quickest to recommend giving up once they get into hassle. Then there are seemingly villainous people who’re extra multifaceted than what their preliminary hostility suggests, which isn’t revealed till you look at their habits and private artifacts.
These level towards complexities {that a} younger Swann might not absolutely comprehend, evident in a few of her childlike responses, however that the older Swann — and by extension, the participant — can most likely acknowledge. This is what Don’t Nod has all the time been adept at: crafting plausible and deeply human characters and the ample world that they inhabit.
Image: Don’t Nod
Experiencing the idyllic reminiscences of Swann’s days together with her buddies could be deeply emotional, as if chancing upon a time capsule you’ve forgotten about. These are long-buried moments about partaking in hours-long telephone calls with shut buddies, partaking in rambunctious actions on the fly, and waxing lyrical about larger-than-life ambitions, like taking part in in well-known bands or dwelling in a secret getaway, hidden from the prying eyes of untrustworthy adults.
Seeing Swann, Nora, Autumn, and Kat commerce lifelong guarantees and kind intense bonds — ones so attribute of deep feminine friendships — will hit near house for a lot of. It’s this juxtaposition between these idyllic scenes and the fixed, foreboding reminder of the group’s inevitable fallout that feels so ominous, unnerving, and maybe slightly painful. And the obscure, supernatural happenings solely serve to intensify the anxieties of teenhood. Whether it serves a deeper, extra metaphorical function nonetheless stays to be seen.
The first half of Bloom & Rage ends in a dramatic cliffhanger, after all, but it surely’s one which’s not fairly as audacious because it appears. Some hints have been hiding in plain sight. But a small concern lingers. Stories like these typically introduce so many twists that would derail the sport, earlier than the story goes off the rails so shortly that it inevitably plummets. This was partly why the lately launched Life is Strange: Double Exposure faltered in its concluding chapters. For now, there’s loads of time to marvel; we nonetheless have to attend two extra months or so for Bloom & Rage’s melodramatic conclusion.
Lost Records: Bloom & Rage is accessible now on PC, PS5, and Xbox.
