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Lost Records: Bloom & Rage Tape 2 Review
by Peggy DoyleIt was difficult for me to review Lost Records: Bloom & Rage Tape 2. Not because I didn't enjoy it (I did), but because I last spent time with the characters over two months ago, and I didn't want to recap everything for you again. You can read my review of Tape 1 HERE. I also really didn't want my time with the characters to end either.
Lost Records: Bloom & Rage Tape 2 drops you straight into the story where Tape 1 left off. There is next to no recap for you to jog your memory (a very good reason to perhaps play both parts back-to-back). Hopefully you've not forgotten major parts of the storyline.
If you've not played Tape 1, there might be some spoilers in here, although I'll try to keep them to a minimum to not ruin the entire experience for you. We start where all four of the friends have drifted apart after it's revealed that Kat has a major health issue. Nora has fled to live with her mother, Kat is locked up at her home to protect her, and Autumn has decided to cut herself off from everyone. Swann begins to clean up the mess left behind in the bar parking lot after the concert Bloom & Rage played at the end of Tape 1.
Tape 2 is focused more on dialogue and choices versus actual gameplay, and you dive directly into it, where you decide whether to take the blame for things you've done in the past that led to this point. Certain dialogue choices will only be available to you in Tape 2 if you completed certain actions or made certain choices in Tape 1. Tape 2 really is all about the consequences of your actions.
As someone who loved recording the moments and gathering collectibles, Tape 2 has much less of this and is more linear. I preferred the more interactive quality of Tape 1. This also means the game is substantially shorter. I'd estimate about 4-5 hours for Tape 2.
Tape 2 is heavy on narrative and full of complex dialogue and feelings between Swann, Nora, Autumn and Kat. Two particular moments were standouts for me, an afternoon where Nora and Swann are hanging out together listening to music and exchanging gifts. Conversations about feelings, both spoken and left silently hanging in the air. The other is Swann sneaking into Kat's room and helping her fix the hair she cut herself before chemotherapy could take it from her. This was a poignant moment full of feeling and laughter (calling Kat's hair ‘weed whacker chic' in particular) between friends. Most of Lost Records was well written concerning the girls and their relationships, but those two scenes were standouts in Tape 2 for me. Love and loss are rarely written so well for teenage characters.
The mysterious hole referred to as "the Abyss" is still a large part of Tape 2 and whether there is actually a supernatural component to the game will lie within how you played the game and how you interpret what happens. I played through multiple times, and during one playthrough, I encountered something that could be considered supernatural by some, or it could simply be the way the girls decided to portray what actually happened to them in the forest. This is hard to explain without spoiling story points, but ‘someone' meets their end at The Abyss, whether they were pushed in, or pulled in by supernatural powers, can be up to interpretation.
Because of the wait between Tape 1 and Tape 2, a real feeling of nostalgia came into play while playing Tape 2. Over the last few months, I've wondered what might become of the four girls. Perhaps that was intentional in the design of bringing out the parts separately. Perhaps it's just because of my age and nostalgia for the time in which the girl's past stories take place.
Once again, the graphics and original soundtrack are incredible. Facial animations are particularly well done. Slight eye movements, flawed and faded makeup applications, all wonderful. The music is full of nostalgia for a time passed, although it's new and original.
I hadn't mentioned the wonderful actors who brought these girls to life in my first review but Olivia Lepore as Swann perfectly captured her combination of shyness and determination. Andrea Carter as the insecure Autumn, Amelia Sargisson as the fierce and rebellious Nora and Natalie Liconti as Kat. Natalie found a way to make me cry multiple times during the game. The conflict between her being sick but not wanting to be seen as fragile. Her determination and will to live her life the way she wants to, in what time she has left. Powerful stuff and so well done.
All of the ‘past' and ‘future' (present?) story lines culminate in the opening of the mysterious box sitting on the table in front of you. When you finally get to this moment, it is worth the wait. There are at least four different endings that I've found. Culminating in who is still sitting in the booth at the pub to open the box. You can have a combination of Swann (you), Nora and Autumn. All three together, Swann and Nora, Swann and Autumn or just Swann. Each will give you a different version of the end scene when you leave the local bar as well, although all are similar. Whether you consider any of them better or worse will ultimately depend on how you feel about the characters. Whether they stay or go is based on how you chose to act and interact throughout the game. In my first playthrough, I was alone at the end. At first, I thought this was the worst possible ending, opening the box alone and leaving alone. The more I sat with my thoughts after the game, I understood why each of them had to leave for their own stories to make sense, and if that isn't excellent storytelling, I don't know what is.
There were a few strange gameplay choices in Tape 2, particularly a random stealth section outside of Kat's house. It made sense story-wise, but just didn't seem to fit with the style of the game. I wish Tape 2 had more of the interactive gameplay like Tape 1, and I also wish they had let some of the story play out a bit more. At times, sections felt rushed. While it was nice to get the answers to the mysteries quicker, it felt like some story was left on the table, and I wanted more. Maybe I just wanted more overall. I wasn't ready for my time with the girls to end.
Lost Records is ultimately a game about love, loss, friendship, and how these things change as we age. By the time the credits rolled, I found myself filled with a sadness that the four friends had lost so much of their optimism back in the summer of 1995. I felt I was one of them (being roughly the same age as them back then) and perhaps a lot of those feelings of love, loss and friendship transcend time and place and make me one of them in reality.
**Lost Records: Bloom and Rage Tape 2 was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**
Overall 8/10
Graphic 9.0/10
Gameplay 7.5/10
Audio 9.0 /10
