Lost Records: Bloom and Rage gives digital camcorders the love they deserve

digitaltrends.com:

The first half of Lost Records: Bloom and Rage is out now, and it’s a must play. Don’t Nod’s new narrative adventure game, which tells of a band of high school girls who get wrapped up in a supernatural mystery, is an excellent evolution of the studio’s Life is Strange formula (even eclipsing last year’s Life is Strange: Double Exposure). There’s a lot to love about it, from its 90s setting, to its choice-driven dialogue that makes conversations feel more natural. It’s a much smaller feature that has me singing Lost Records’ praises, though: a modest camcorder.

In Part 1, titled Bloom, players follow Swann in both first-person present day segments and 90s flashbacks, where the bulk of the story takes place. Bloom largely plays out as a coming of age story about Swann befriending a squad of cool punk rockers and embracing rebellion (April’s second chapter, Rage, seems like it’ll get more the supernatural mystery that comes from that). Swann is a shy, self-conscious girl looking to find her identity, but she has one defining trait. She’s a budding videographer who always brings a camcorder everywhere she goes, turning her into a documentarian for her pals’ band.

That isn’t just a quirky character trait, but a standout gameplay system too. While exploring in third-person during flashbacks, I can pull up Swann’s camera with the press of a button and film. That’s sometimes used as a way to progress the story, as I’m asked to film certain things, like one of my bandmates’ practices. It’s also used as a clever collectible system too, as I can capture stray birds, graffiti, scenic views, and more. It’s more active than simply finding a shiny object and pressing a button to grab it; I actually need to observe the world through my camcorder and use my zoom to find little critters and whatnot scattered around the woods.

Once I’ve filmed everything in a collection, my shots get edited