REVIEW – Don’t Nod (who made a name for themselves with Life is Strange back in the day) have been a bit experimental in recent years (Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden was an action RPG for example), but with this game the team is back to what they really know how to do, as they had a pretty good run with narrative-driven titles, and they didn’t disappoint with Tape 1.

There will be a second one later, but that will be a while yet.

A few lines of dialog

Contextual options in dialog. Sometimes awkward dialog. Mysterious, supernatural direction. This could be the definition of Life is Strange, but it’s something else entirely. Our protagonist Swann meets her friend Autumn after she wants to keep a promise she made when they were kids (back in the summer of 1995). Finding out why Autumn wants to find the other after all this time is, well, a major point of the story. Only this will be coupled with frequent time jumps, as this will happen frequently between 1995 and 2022. It only sounds scary or bad on paper, but luckily for us, time jumps are natural. Swann likes to record events with her handheld camera, and that will be important. And thanks to Don’t Nod, you can expect to have to check the background when making important story decisions. In the group you can build the relationship with the right options, and you have to get used to the fact that sometimes during the new dialog option Swann’s sentence is finished by someone else. The idea is good. The execution is lousy, as more than once the two characters speak at the SAME time.

It is not revolutionary in gameplay to find an object by looking around the environment, but at least the story covers several themes (growing up, fitting in, accepting yourself), and it is also quite good when the characters of today reflect on things from the past. However, not everything was written so well, as the writing style (and no, not the presentation style) made some events seem unnatural. Despite the good performance of the voice actor, the result is not good. Scenes don’t always play out chronologically, which can throw the player off a bit. Other times it’s no problem (like when you have to find Autumn’s keys), but the execution is a problem. Swann helps by filming and talking. You find the keys. You have to knock it down with something with a throw. Then when we talk to Nora, Swann asks if we have the keys when the location is already known. It’s a bit of a bummer, and you can’t blame it on remembering things wrong. At times like this, it feels like something is missing from the game. Maybe it’s a serious lack of sophistication, because sequence breaks like this (there’s no other way to define them) are not exactly Don’t Nod. It seems to be an editing error, because the order seems to be a bit wrong… a bit incomprehensible, but there is such a thing.

The girls are always talking

The characters are quite good though, because they are different and you can relate to them. Autumn is sober, modest and a bit shy, Kat is blunt and Swann is an enthusiastic but not very open character. Nora, on the other hand, is an abundance of clichés (how many times have we seen this: dysfunctional family, rebellious, punk rock interests… she’s like Chloe Price from Life is Strange, isn’t she?) The game is not action-packed. There’s no slaughtering or strategy here, it’s going to be walking around, filming and interacting with other people or the environment, all in the right art style, because the 90s were brilliantly portrayed by Don’t Nod (especially with the VHS tapes). So Velvet Cove, the setting, can’t be called dry.

The textures and details are not bad, but there are technical flaws: if you look at the facial expressions of the characters, the shifts between them become strikingly odd. The graphics are good, but the PlayStation 5’s performance is not. The frame rate drops here and there (even in less demanding scenes). Textures often appear out of nowhere (even when we are close to them!). And the soundtrack is good, but rather average at first, so it’s worth sticking with the Don’t Nod product here. But remember, this is not Life is Strange. There are similarities, but it differs in its narrative structure, characters, and themes.

Suitable as a basis

The Lost Tapes: Bloom and Rage Tape 1 can adequately lay the groundwork for the “second tape”. It’s fun to watch, but some of the dialog doesn’t come off very well. Perhaps it is worth waiting until Tape 2 is released, as it is a bit too early to judge it at this stage. In any case, the game is not that bad. It gets a fair 7/10, but if it was a bit more stable it could get 7.5/10. The art style is very good. The length of the game is also reasonable, as it takes about six hours to play through. It has potential, but let’s wait for the sequel…

-V-

Publisher: Don’t Nod

Developer: Don’t Nod Montréal

Style: episodic, adventure

Release date: February 18, 2025