Lost Records: Bloom & Rage is DON'T NOD at its finest.

Sorry if this article is sloppy, I was literally up way to late tonight dedicated to finally beating Tape 1 of this game. Oh my god the ride I went on.

If you know Don't Nod and have played games like Life is Strange then you know what kind of game you're getting into here. And while you're probably right, jesus, what a fucking ride.

Lost Records: Blood & Rage is a then and now type story that keeps leaping between now and the 90's. As the characters in the now talk about the events from their past, you relive the moments in your head where you play as their teen-aged counterparts.

What starts as a story of women meeting up in their old town to talk about their childhood gradually goes from reunion to something darker as the real reason for the women meeting up comes to the surface.

The story mostly takes place in the past where you play as Swann, an awkward teenager with a camcorder obsession who meets Nora, Autumn, and Kat one day and become fast friends. As someone who was also a teen in the 90s, I met these girls. I knew several that were like all four of them. The way they were all captured was exceptional.

Whether it's your awkward loner Swann, Nora, the edgy kid who pretends to be the de facto leader while being secretly terrified, Kat, the girl with the rough home life who can occasionally become pure angst, or Autumn, the down to earth "normal" girl that seems almost exhausted with keeping her friends in line. I knew these people growing up.

On of the best parts of this game is how often it defies your expectations. With Don't Nod's fun method of throwing in just a little unexplained supernatural to a level where it makes things interesting but doesn't pull away from the main plot, whatever you think is going to happen is rarely the case. What feels like Stand By Me, very quickly can shift into The Craft, before going full I Know What You Did Last Summer.

The game also has a really cool collectathon feature that I became obsessed with. Your character, Swann, is obsessive about documenting things with her camera and you can use that to film things around you.

If you collect enough of a certain type of subject, Swann is able to make a full video. You enter a menu, put the clips in the order you want, pick the best clips for a certain scene, and viola, you have your own custom video with Swann waxing poetic over it.

I loved it so much because it stuck with me. Even after I stopped playing, I was walking through my house automatically paying attention to everything around me as if looking for interesting shots. I've never had a collectathon resonate with me so well. It felt meaningful and world building, which is so rare for that sort of thing.

All in all, these remarkable elements mixed with Don't Nod's ability to make all your choices feel meaningful, creates an incredibly meaningful and rich story with several absolutely remarkable twists.

Lost Records: Bloom & Rage is out NOW and if you're a Playstation Plus subscriber, good news, it's been free since day one! Get it!