Writers note: This review of Lost Records: Bloom & Rage (Tape 2) contains spoilers for Bloom (Tape 1). If you haven’t played the first part, you may want to check out my review of Bloom (Tape 1) first.

Lost Records: Bloom & Rage: Rage (Tape 2) is a narrative adventure that sifts through the wreckage of innocence, tracing the cracks in fragile friendships and the weight of a summer haunted by grief.

Don’t Nod continues its tradition of crafting compelling episodic choice-based narratives that explore complex themes with Lost Records: Bloom & Rage. Probably best known for Life Is Strange (2015), this new title feels like a page out of Max Caulfield’s universe (and maybe it is?). Interestingly, this game has been split into two parts called ‘Tapes’. Bloom (Tape 1) and Rage (Tape 2).

Lost Records: Bloom & Rage: The girls, Swann, Nora, Kat, and Autumn. — *Swann, Nora, Autumn, and Kat are inseparable for one perfect summer in Velvet Cove, an unremarkable town touched by an unseen, lingering strangeness.*

Don’t Nod’s Lost Records: Bloom & Rage begins with four teenage girls forging a bond powerful enough to outshine the uncertainties of growing up. Bloom (Tape 1) captured the bittersweet beauty of adolescence in a way few games manage to: moments of joy that already feel like memories as you live them. Shadowed by the unspoken knowledge that, in the words of Robert Frost: “nothing gold can stay”. After Kat’s collapse at the concert, the girls are blindsided by the news: she’s been battling leukemia, and time is running out. In an instant, their endless summer and their childhood begin to crumble.

Now, in Rage (Tape 2), we step into the fallout.

“What else should I be? All apologies.” — The Art of Growing Up and Growing Apart Part Two

Lost Records: Bloom & Rage: Swann in the intro sequence — *Swann finds herself wandering through a shadowed landscape illuminated only by scattered screens replaying old memories.*

Where Bloom (Tape 1) basked in golden sunlight, filling Velvet Cove with warmth, colour, and the boundless energy of youth, Rage (Tape 2) drapes nearly every scene in dusk, twilight, or full night. Trauma has taken root, and the story no longer hides behind sunbeams and pop-punk anthems.

The inevitable confrontation with Kat’s mortality has sent each girl spinning in their own direction. Swann, once the outsider desperate to belong, finds herself in an even more precarious position now. Bloom (Tape 1) was about saying the right things to fit in. Rage (Tape 2) is about choosing the right words to keep that circle from collapsing. Swann acts like the glue keeping everything together past and present, while also having to confront and contain her own emotions.

Lost Records: Bloom & Rage: The girls, Swann, Nora, and Autumn as adults — *Trying to stay true to yourself while navigating other people’s grief, anger, and guilt is one of the most difficult parts of growing up.*

Actions Speak Louder — Mini Games

The weight of the group’s friendship now rests squarely on Swann’s shoulders. Suddenly, Swan can’t afford to be passive anymore. Don’t Nod even go as far as to take Swann’s trusty camcorder away and replace it with a classic photo-mode. Cutting out a major layer of interactivity, the gameplay begins to lean further towards dialogue and cinematics. However, there are a couple of stand-out moments I wished there were more of.

After the explosive end to Bloom (Tape 1), Kat is locked away and grounded. Swann and Nora impulsively sneak over to the Mikaelsen farmhouse in an attempt to break her out.

Lost Records: Bloom & Rage: Swann stealths past Corey in this gameplay sequence — Swann *must avoid Corey (Kat’s older sister’s abusive partner) who is prowling the property like a guard dog.*

Crossing the large yard, Swann must carefully choose paths and create distractions to reach Kat’s upstairs window. For a brief, thrilling, moment Rage (Tape 2) felt almost like a stealthy platformer. Sneaking, causing distractions, and strategising routes. Your chances to succeed were also limited which injected a sense of urgency and stakes outside of emotional ones.

Lost Records: Bloom & Rage: The girls, Swann, and Autumn. Panic Attack sequence.

In another scenario Swann finds Autumn at the cabin, struggling under the unbearable weight of Kat’s illness and her own spiralling anxiety. You’re tasked with identifying which belongings in the cabin are hers and retrieving them. Every correct item feels like a small act of love, a tiny but meaningful lifeline thrown to someone who is drowning. It’s not about “winning” the scene; it’s about proving, through action, that you were paying attention all along. Here, Rage (Tape 2) delivers another hybrid of dialogue and environmental puzzle-solving that I enjoyed.

Both moments carry real consequences. Succeed, and you deepen the bond. Fail, and you risk tearing it further apart. But were also highly interactive, and put pressure on the player to get right. I deeply appreciated those moments, I wish they didn’t feel so short-lived.

Girlhood in the Dark

There’s a beautiful ambiguity at the heart of Rage (Tape 1). The Abyss, the supernatural force that stalks the edges of Velvet Cove, could be a manifestation of trauma, or it could be something far stranger. Like a true adolescent fear, it’s shapeless but omnipresent, made stronger by the girls’ bond and their shared refusal to surrender to despair.

Lost Records: Bloom & Rage: The girls, Swann, and Kat. Kat cuts her hair before she loses it to treatment. — *Being a teenage girl means fighting for agency in a life where you’re so often powerless.*

There’s a power here that goes beyond surface-level “grrrl power.” This isn’t pop feminism in slogan t-shirts. It’s four young women learning to take their power back in the face of grief, betrayal, and growing up in a world that won’t stop spinning just because they want it to. Rage captures that silent, desperate fight with aching authenticity through powerful conversations and cinematics.

The End of the Tape — Rewind, or Skip?

Despite the emotional chokehold the episode had me in, Rage (Tape 2) could have been so much more. Its three-to-four-hour runtime felt rushed. Especially compared to Bloom (Tape 1) with an 8-9 hour playtime. Stripping back some core mechanics meant the loss of player agency and I couldn’t help but feel like there was more to explore. Particularly with characters like Corey and their relationship with Kat’s sister, Dylan. There are still plenty of unanswered questions, though a post-credits scene suggests that Don’t Nod may be looking to expand on this with a future sequel.

Ultimately, Lost Records: Bloom & Rage as a whole remains a stunning achievement. Cinematically, it’s near perfection, with voice performances that more than rise to meet the emotional weight of the narrative. Yet the split structure felt unnecessary and Rage (Tape 2) felt more like an epilogue than a true second act. I experienced little bugs, but still noticed delays in texture loading that I had hoped would have been fixed. If a sequel is on the horizon, I can only hope Don’t Nod grants the next story the time, space, and balance it deserves.

Quest Daily Scores Lost Records: Bloom & Rage (Tape 2):

7.5/10

Lost Records: Bloom & Rage: Bloom (Tape 2) is available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC via Steam.

Early access to Lost Records: Bloom & Rage was granted to Quest Daily by the publisher.

Review | Lost Records: Rage – Tape 2 (PC)