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Some games can be ahead of their time, especially when leaning toward the experimental side. Nowadays there are many games in which the narrative uses music like Wandersong, follows the rhythm like Crypt of the NecroDancer, or even mixes genres like Rez. But one of the oldest and most experimental was Loom, released by Lucasfilm Games (later LucasArts) when adventure games were evolving. One of the first to use the SCUMM engine, the project was led by Brian Moriarty, author of Beyond Zork, and was inspired by Swan Lake, the ballet by Tchaikovsky. It was a rather impressive title for the time with a unique idea: what if everything was performed instead of the two most traditional interfaces, either the written prompt or the visual menu, using musical notes?
The game starts with a young boy named Bobbin Threadsbare, a member of the Weavers Guild that lives in the island. The culture of the world is divided into guilds, each with a specific function, and the Weavers protect the Loom and the fabric of reality itself. It is his birthday and the elders were to decide his fate as an old dame named Hetchel went against their wishes by educating him in the ways of the guild – however, as soon as they transform her into a swan to banish her from the island, a tear in reality opens and a white swan appears causing the entire village except for Bobbin to be transformed as well. The reality is fraying and the Third Shadow is about to cover the world – and Bobbin’s only lead is to follow the flock.
By the course of the story, Bobbin visits the other guilds and stumbles upon a sinister plot that starts with a few signs of something brewing underneath the surface and escalates to a rather cosmic scale. The story is far more ambitious than it first appears; it was preceded by an audio drama that comes with the game that follows the events that take place seventeen years before the game.
Around the end of the production of the title, there was an interest by the team to develop two more games and turn it into a trilogy but it never came to fruition as they got busy with other projects.
There are three versions of the game: the original floppy disk with EGA ports, then the CD-ROM re-release and the final version, the first voiced SCUMM game – which came with the caveat that the dialogue had to be rewritten and the close-ups during the dialogue had to be removed. The version that can be purchased on steam is the last revision, and one preference may vary. You can easily play the FM Town version on SCUMMVM, with the portraits.
The gameplay is entirely using Bobbin’s distaff to use drafts to play the musical notes that can be produced either by clicking in the areas of the staff or using the keyboard. By exploring the locations and interacting with objects, the distaff reacts to the sounds and the player needs to memorize the sequence – writing down the spells is highly advised, and every run of the game has a different selection of notes too. There are also three different difficulties, with the Expert one the distaff doesn’t show the notes so it must be played by the ear. The puzzles are simply figuring out which draft to play and where to apply them, which can take some guessing if it is your first time playing.
While it is a short experience that can last a couple hours if you know what you are doing, Loom is a tight experience that doesn’t wear its welcome. It might lack the recognition like the Secret of Monkey Island or Maniac Mansion and it was actually a success at the time but it is an obscure title nowadays that can be worth your time.
The game starts with a young boy named Bobbin Threadsbare, a member of the Weavers Guild that lives in the island. The culture of the world is divided into guilds, each with a specific function, and the Weavers protect the Loom and the fabric of reality itself. It is his birthday and the elders were to decide his fate as an old dame named Hetchel went against their wishes by educating him in the ways of the guild – however, as soon as they transform her into a swan to banish her from the island, a tear in reality opens and a white swan appears causing the entire village except for Bobbin to be transformed as well. The reality is fraying and the Third Shadow is about to cover the world – and Bobbin’s only lead is to follow the flock.
By the course of the story, Bobbin visits the other guilds and stumbles upon a sinister plot that starts with a few signs of something brewing underneath the surface and escalates to a rather cosmic scale. The story is far more ambitious than it first appears; it was preceded by an audio drama that comes with the game that follows the events that take place seventeen years before the game.
Around the end of the production of the title, there was an interest by the team to develop two more games and turn it into a trilogy but it never came to fruition as they got busy with other projects.
There are three versions of the game: the original floppy disk with EGA ports, then the CD-ROM re-release and the final version, the first voiced SCUMM game – which came with the caveat that the dialogue had to be rewritten and the close-ups during the dialogue had to be removed. The version that can be purchased on steam is the last revision, and one preference may vary. You can easily play the FM Town version on SCUMMVM, with the portraits.
The gameplay is entirely using Bobbin’s distaff to use drafts to play the musical notes that can be produced either by clicking in the areas of the staff or using the keyboard. By exploring the locations and interacting with objects, the distaff reacts to the sounds and the player needs to memorize the sequence – writing down the spells is highly advised, and every run of the game has a different selection of notes too. There are also three different difficulties, with the Expert one the distaff doesn’t show the notes so it must be played by the ear. The puzzles are simply figuring out which draft to play and where to apply them, which can take some guessing if it is your first time playing.
While it is a short experience that can last a couple hours if you know what you are doing, Loom is a tight experience that doesn’t wear its welcome. It might lack the recognition like the Secret of Monkey Island or Maniac Mansion and it was actually a success at the time but it is an obscure title nowadays that can be worth your time.
