Lost Records: Bloom & Rage Tape 2 PS5 Review. Just over two months after the first part of the game, Tape 2 of Lost Records: Bloom & Rage sets out to knock down the pins that it spent a good few hours setting up. Following on from the climax of Tape 1, this is a distinctly more brisk story with a tighter pace and less downtime.
You’ll be spending more time dealing with engaging choices and scenarios rather than the mundanity of Summer, and this juxtaposition was fairly welcome given the admittedly leisurely cruise of the former tape.
There are some cool ideas here, and the nexus of a poignant emotional story in this group of four. Unfortunately, I found myself left severely wanting by this finale and couldn’t help but wonder why this was the direction the game had to go in.
In trying to appeal to fans of the past, it feels like Lost Records ends up ironically losing its own direction and identity.
I said in my review of Tape 1 that my worry was that “It spends just a little bit too long on introductions, putting pressure on Tape 2 to tie everything together into a satisfying conclusion”. Unfortunately, my worries have been proven to be true.
Lost Records: Bloom & Rage Tape 2 Review: Life is Complicated
Straight into the Fire
Tape 2 of Lost Records benefits significantly from picking up immediately from where the previous Tape concluded. In this way, it feels less like an “episode” and more so just a continuation of a game that wasn’t ready to ship. This isn’t inherently a problem, but it speaks to the structural differences that characterise this entry.
The pace is far tighter, with less of an emphasis on the environmental exploration that was a tentpole of the previous Tape. Where Tape 1 manages to recontextualise the exploration into something that actually rewards you, that flies out of the window here in favour of keeping the story moving forward.
In light of what’s actually happening in the plot and the generally heightened stakes of this chapter, it makes sense. You wouldn’t be mindlessly wandering around a house while you’re trying to avoid detection; it doesn’t make sense.
To the credit of Dontnod, there were more action-oriented set pieces here than I was expecting. The same dynamic conversation system makes a return, but this is supplemented by a handful of dynamic objectives that force you to make your way around the world in a relatively creative way.
It’s not often that you can actually fail an objective in a game like this, so it was a refreshing change.
Muddled Intentions
All of my frustrations with Tape 2 of Lost Records stem from how it feels like the team completely lost sight of the unity that was being built in the first. I noted the similarities between this game and Life is Strange in my previous review but I was willing to attribute that to some kind of return to roots.
Now, after finishing the game, it feels like it was a misguided homage that completely misses the point of what made the original Life is Strange so impactful. It feels sad – and maybe against the point – to review this separate IP in the shadow of what came before, but it’s abundantly clear that this was the primary source of inspiration in the development of this new project.
Unfortunately, Lost Records proves that the success of Life is Strange was the result of a careful balance between the supernatural and domestic, resulting in a story that remains intensely relatable while still playing with the mystic. The same mix is totally off-balance here and feels borderline intrusive to the overall dynamic of the cast.
It’s impossible to accurately describe my problems without diving immediately into endgame spoilers, but I genuinely thought something was wrong with my game or the version I was playing during the final hour; it was that jarring.
Lost Potential
That isn’t to say there aren’t good ideas here. The concept of storytelling across two distinct periods presents an interesting context for the things you did in the past. I found the difference in characterisation to be compelling. I wanted to see these four have as good of a summer as they could have and I wanted to learn about what caused them to split apart for so long.
There were interesting conversations to have about characters we assumed were just villains protecting the people they loved. The cost of illness on relationships and the strain it can bring. Over-protectiveness and how this can spiral into something far more sinister, against the backdrop of a subtly supernatural summer. This is what I was expecting when I continued the story, instead I was hit with a story that seemed far too eager to ratchet the pace into something that barely made cohesive sense and totally lost control of itself as it barreled towards a conclusion that felt like a first draft.
This isn’t helped by a lead vocal performance that feels incredibly stilted and without any of the nuance of the previous episode. This really does feel like it was pushed out without consideration for what the last episode set up. I don’t know what happened in the production of Tape 2, but there were more than a few high-intensity moments where the vocal performances of everyone on screen let them down.
These characters thrive in their quiet moments and shared adoration of each other. Tape 2 has a distinct lack of this unity.
Lost Records still has the strengths of interesting mechanical twists; the video camera is a genius way of recontextualising the environments you explore and forces you to soak in the detail. It’s in these broad strokes that Lost Records provides anything of interest. And — it just so happens that the camera becomes far less prevalent in this episode.
The atmosphere of Velvet Cove is immaculate. Every area has a timeless sense of place, and it deserves a much better story to share. There genuinely isn’t much more that I can say without jumping into direct spoilers for the plot, but as it stands, this is one of the harshest dips in quality I’ve ever seen for an episodic game. It’s a genuine shame.
Lost Records: Bloom & Rage – Tape 2 is out now for PS5, PC, and Xbox Series X/S.
Review code kindly provided by publisher.