Loom (Amiga) - Part 2: Rumpelsneezeskin - Octotiggy
5Well, now that I have all of these wonderful powers, what shall I do with them?
I know!
"OPEN... BIRD."
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Loom is a 1990 fantasy-themed graphic adventure game by Lucasfilm Games. The project was led by Brian Moriarty, a former Infocom employee and author of classic text adventures Wishbringer (1985), Trinity (1986), and Beyond Zork (1987). It was the fourth game to use the SCUMM adventure game engine, and the first of those to avoid the verb–object interface introduced in Maniac Mansion.
A departure from other Lucasfilm adventure games in many senses, Loom is based on a serious and complex fantasy story. With its experimental interface, it eschewed the traditional paradigm of graphical adventures, where puzzles usually involve interactions between the game character, the environment, and items the character has in their possession.
Loom's gameplay centers instead around magical four-note tunes known as "drafts" that the protagonist, Bobbin Threadbare, can play on his distaff. Each draft is a spell that has an effect of a certain type, such as "Opening" or "Night Vision." Some drafts can be reversed by playing their notes backwards, so the "Dye" draft played backwards becomes "Bleach," while others, such as the "Terror" draft, are palindromes (e.g. C–E–E–C) and so cannot be reversed in this manner.
Bobbin can learn drafts by observing an object that possesses the qualities of the desired draft; for example, by examining a blade while it is being sharpened, Bobbin can learn the "Sharpening" draft. When the game begins, Bobbin is only able to play drafts using the notes C, D and E, limiting his ability to reproduce more powerful drafts. As the game progresses and additional notes become available, so his ability to play new drafts increases.
The game can be played at three difficulty levels, each differing in how clearly the notes being played are labeled. For example, the "Standard" level indicates the notes on a scale below the distaff, while the "Expert" level shows no notes and must be played by ear. In the original release, expert players are rewarded with a cutscene that does not appear for the other two difficulties. The later CD-ROM release, however, shows an abridged version of this scene to all players.
Loom was originally published for DOS on floppy disk with 16-color EGA graphics in May 1990. This version was soon after released on the Amiga, the Atari ST, and Macintosh.
Computer Gaming World gave it a Special Award for Artistic Achievement as part of the magazine's Game of the Year Awards, stating that Loom's colors, "mesmerizing special effects," soundtrack, and user interface combined to make it "a work of art."
Scorpia of Computer Gaming World approved of the game's graphics and gameplay, but said that "as an adventure game, it is just too lightweight." She stated that the game was impossible to fail, with very easy puzzles, but that the linear gameplay resulted in no freedom of movement. While praising the story, Scorpia wished that Lucasfilm would have given it an "epic treatment" instead of Loom's simplicity. Game Rankings gives Loom a combined rating of 75% based on six professional reviews. The most often repeated criticism of Loom is its relatively short length.
Loom (video game). (2015, December 4). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Loom_(video_game)&oldid=693767315
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