As is common in Don’t Nod’s creations and narrative adventures like Life is Strange, you start 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Lost Records: Bloom & Rage with the classic “explore your bedroom” scene. In this case, the bedroom belongs toꦜ Swann, a young cinephile who loves plant൲s and filming everything she finds interesting, has a hard time making friends, and seems to be very shy when people are around. We start discovering this by checking the films she needs to get back to this universe’s Blockbuster, her notes, drawings, and her lovely cat.

Apart from the expected “grab, zoom, and rotate things as you want”, we quickly get to experimen💜t with this game’s new mechanic: recording. Instead of taking photos like in other titles, you need to film objects and situations, being able to edit them later in a very rudimentary system and create a short video that becomes a memoir.

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At firs꧂t, I wasn’t getting too much from this new feature: it’s clunky, takes a bit of time if you want to change scenes, and it doesn’t feel like the reward is worthwhile. However, as I kept using ജit and watching the results, with Swann’s inner thoughts and comments over the final videos revealing a bit more about her, I started finding more value in the mechanic. Plus, this part of the story takes place in the 90s, with the old cameras you might know if you’re over 25, and the representation of how pixelated and colorful those old videos used to be can leave a pleasant note of nostalgia.

A screenshot showing the recording mechanic, filming a cat next to a bed in Lost Records.

Swann is not alone, though. Lost Records' alpha test also let me play a few scenes that introduced the rest of the group that would quickly become friends with our protagonist. Nora, Autumn, and Kat have their own personalities, some members being more vibrant than the rest, although I couldn’t help feeling cringe at some of the dialogue between them. I guess it’s intended — they are very young teenagers, after all. As my own experiences knowing groups of people as a kid weren’t as kind and naive as this one (I was surprised by the tiny amount of banter between the girls and the super positive attitude towards each other), these interactions left me scratching my head. Before I felt completely disconnected from the protagonists, Nora’s and Autumn’s intention to create a punk band and Swann’s reflections on her hurt self-esteem slowly began to take my hand.

The deal was almost closed when I started experiencing a scene set in the modern day, 27 years after something happened with the group. You are having a coffee with a grown-up Autumn, but the vibe is off: the warm colors that were prevalent in the previous sce൲nes are much more turned down, with a change of tone that feels less full of heart and sadder. The contrast between the ages is tangible, and it made me more interested in what was going on. You go back to this scene from time to time as you keep learning more about the girls back in the day, and you 𓆉also hear some of Swann’s and Autumn’s current thoughts and memories of the scenes you seem to be remembering.

A screenshot of Swann filming Nora and Autumn playing a song while Kat is looking from a couch.

As a Life is Strange player, I wa❀s wondering when the supernatural element was going to pop up… and it never did. In fact, the demo ends just when the group is about to experience something weird going on in a recording they are watching. Up to that point, you spent the first hour and change just getting to know these girls, learning a few bits about their personal lives as you help Nora and Autumn record a music video for their band. You get to explore the band’s garage and a forest, recording different situations in the intimacy of a kind group and making decisions during dialogue. These choices seem to earn you points with different members depending on what you choose, although it’s too early to say what will come of any of this. Just when things were about to get really interesting, it was time to exit the test and start to wait for any new info about Lost Records.

The logo of Lost Records: Bloom & Rage, showing a picture of the four girls faces mixed together.

While I was left a bit lukewarm about the bit I got to play, I can’t say I don’t see the potential for something truly moving to grab our minds like previous works from the studio have already done. The Life is Strange series (especially 2) and Tell Me Why managed to get me invested much more quickly, but this one could be a bit more of a slow burn. The change of timelines and emotions got me invested enough, and I want to see what happens with our new protagonists, in the '90s and today.

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