LOOM™

First of all, this is one of the all-time great fantasy adventure games. It's beautiful, poignant, the gameplay is unique. You use your musical staff to play notes and solve puzzles. The fantasy world it's set in is wonderous. My only criticism is that the game is too short. I won't go any further because that's all you need to know: Go play this game. So why only 4 stars? The GOG version is subpar. This is the VGA talkie-version, which does improve on some aspects of the game. The VGA graphics are nice as are the voice parts. But this is at the cost of cutting content. There are portions of dialogue missing and it's really a shame. Some folks also think this version feels less magical than the EGA version. I personally would like the changes they made, IF this version of the game was complete and uncut. You can get the better version through other means (I think the FM-TOWNS version is considered the best). Use your favorite search engine to learn more. I'm not saying don't get this version here, it's still a great game, just not quite all it could be.

At the time, this was considered one of the most innovative adventure games, but as I recall, the game was quite easy and beatable in a few hours, which tended to limit people's willingness to part with $30 for it. Nonetheless, the voice acting and UI was amazing for it's day. And I still have the "Loom" novel somewhere in the basement. I was awaiting this game's return on gog.com and I was not disappointed. So thanks for bringing it back. A note about the graphics, this is indeed a VGA game; people tend to forget that the original IBM VGA supported 256 colors, but only in 320x200 mode, which makes the graphics quite blocky.

I remember this from back when it was originally released. One of the big selling points was it never left you scratching your head, trying to figure out some sort of "moon logic" puzzle. If you take what you have at any given point in the game, you can find a solution to the problem in front of you. That is also one of the game's few weaknesses; you'll finish this game because once you figure out how things work the answers are easy to come by. But I liked Loom. It was a lot less frustrating than the other Sierra games that had come before with their often bizarre solutions and ""dead man walking" scenarios. It was easy in old point & click games to miss something very early on and find yourself in an unwinnable game but not know it until you have already sunk several hours into the game. Then there's the fact that this version is missing a lot of artwork, is oddly censored (to eliminate any signs of blood) and is missing some sounds and music. It'd be nice to have someone remake this game with modern art and sound. It's a good game, just not the best version of Loom you can find out there.

The best version of this game, the Amiga version, is nowhere to be found. Wasn't GOG all about preserving these titles? Giving users the experiences that they remember, or may have missed out on? The talkie version is even missing alternate puzzle solutions and character portraits!

The original game came with a tape providing the Black Story in an audioplay. Why GOG wont supply this as mp3 is beyond my understanding. While one can play and win the game without this Info, the games Story is incomplete and in many places makes only limited sense. GOG, fix this!