LOOM™

This was my first time playing Loom. I remember reading the raving reviews back when it was first released, and I can say I'm kind of disappointed. I've played quite a few LucasArts adventures, and this was the least enjoyable for me. The artwork is really well-made and enjoyable despite its age. On the other hand, the MIDI rendition of Tchaikovsky's music (which was a highlight of the original release) sounds rather dull by today's standards. On the gameplay side, the puzzles are fairly straightforward. The magic system is interesting, but in retrospect it seems that it's main purpose is to masquerade the lack of complexity in the puzzles. Or maybe it proved inadequate for developing more sophisticated puzzles (?). Finally, the humor is less cheeky than other LucasArts adventures. So while not a terrible game, I wouldn't recommend buying it full-price, especially given its short length. Some notes on the GOG version: - Do yourself a favour and print the book of patterns from the goodies before starting. The game is really meant to be played with you taking notes on it. - The Audio Drama mentioned in the manual is missing. A bit disappointing. - The bonus scene mentioned in the manual will appear even in standard difficulty. No need to do a replay in expert mode. - EGA version is not included. EGA version seems to render some in-game dialogs with LucasArts-style close-ups. For this, it would be nice to have.

This game is a classic, with a great and novel concept, and it certainly stood out in 1990! However, playing it now is frustrating as the animations are dreadfully slow, which makes it very frustrating. It takes absolute ages to move around. I eventually resorted to finding a walkthrough just so I could tick off having finished this game. For many this game will only be fun in order to relive the nostalgia of what was once an immensely popular and original game.

Add me to the list of people who are disappointed that the GOG version doesn't include the audio drama, nor any other versions of the game- from what I've heard, one of the other versions lets you see the main character's face briefly, and I'm curious! As for the game itself, it's good. In a departure from most Lucasarts adventure games, you have no inventory, nor any list of commands you can perform on the environment. Instead, everything is done by either clicking (which will examine or use objects and talk to people) or playing musical notes on your staff at the object or person. You can learn many different songs with different effects, including a few optional ones- I completely missed two of them and didn't realize they existed until I read an FAQ, but luckily a few puzzles have more than one solution. The graphics are beautiful, classic Lucasarts at its finest, and hold up very well today. The voice acting is also very well done, and the characters and world are charming and draw you in. There are a few problems- on expert mode, learning songs requires a keen ear and a lot of practice and experimentation, but on other modes, the notes are shown to you and the challenge is non-existent, reduced to little more than a game of Simon. Even on expert mode, the game is quite short, under three hours, which means you barely get to meet the characters before they're gone. And probably the biggest problem is that the game is a massive sequel hook with no sequel- the ending of the game has no resolution whatsoever, and, combined with the short length, this makes the whole experience about as satisfying as watching one third of a movie, then shutting it off forever. So overall good, and worth playing, but ultimately a bit disappointing, especially if you're expecting something on par with Monkey Island or Indiana Jones.

LOOM is one of those games that I remembered from trying out when I was too small to understand anything. It's images and music, as well as it's weird approach to interaction with the environment stuck with me, and I was glad to find it on GOG. I booted it up and started playing today. The graphics are as you would expect for the time, with the animation quality being quite lacking in comparison. However the scenery and colours range from haunting to magical and enchanting, and serve to give each area a very unique, unmistakeable vibe. No pixel hunting in this game. It only allows for meaningful interaction, and doesn't aknowledge any attempts to do otherwise. It clearly tells you what things you are supposed to look at, by highlighting them at the bottom of the screen. The puzzles range from very simple to mildly-pleasing-to-figure-out. You need to look at the guide for spells in order to fully understand what EXACTLY you are casting, and how it interacts with the environment. My biggest plus for this game has to be the voice-acting. It is wonderful and full of soul, the timing is tight and draws you in. The only lightly negative performance is that of fleece, who for some reason is incredibly breathy with everything she says and smacks her lips way too often. The biggest minus is the length. I finished this game in about one and a half hours without a walkthrough. From start to finish. The story starts gearing up, you are getting to know all these factions and people, and then it all does a nosedive and leaves you sitting there going: "What? It's done? Did I do something wrong? Is there an alternate ending?" Nope, no alternate endings. Also, for a music based game, most of it is spent in agonising silence. Why? In the end, LOOM started off wonderfully and sadly left me very, very dissapointed in the end. It excells in it's concept and visual-design, but lacks the length and complexity to be a truly great game. Only recommended for nostalgia-reasons.

Having heard long time about LOOM it was only now that I could play it by myself. And I was positively surprised, as it offered several extraordinary ideas I did not find elsewhere: - A music-tunes based adventure: You act magic spells with own music tunes that you learned before. (An approach I did not find in any other adventure. - A point-and-click-adventure where you DON'T collect any item. Its not "collect and combine", but enchanting items to solve puzzles. Also an approach I met owhere else. - A faboulous athmosphere created by subtle and impressive pictures and music that still impressed - Additionally I suppose it was among the first games (1990!) with spoken voices of all actors instead of (or supplemental to) sublines. Loom is a small hidden gem of games that has matured astonishingly good in 25 years. The main and eligible critique was and is the shortness of the game. It felt a bit more like a lengthened Demo than a whole game. But IMHO that critique was more valid in 1990 when the price was around 100 DM (Germany) than now, when it is sold for around 5€, and in sales even less. If you like more experimental games, that use extraordinary trails, you should try loom. And if you know other games that experiments like music tunes as magic spells please let me know so I may try them.