In the late 80s, Lucasarts was making a name for itself. Maniac Mansion, Zak Mckracken, and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade were all big hits among adventurers. All these games were award winning. This gave Lucasarts a reputation for their adventure games. And by 1990, everyone wanted to know what they were going to do next.
And on that very year, the infamous Loom came out. Once again, Lucasarts had a hit on their hands. But, sadly, this game was lost in time and quickly forgotton. Many gamers find that a big shame, as some people call the game "one of the best adventure games ever", or "highly underrated". But, are they right?

Here's my review of Loom.






Story: What makes a good story? To me, it depends on whatever type of game you're going for. Some game's go for a humorous story and it turns out great (I.E. Zak Mckracken, Day of the Tentacle). Some games go for originality and they turn out great (I.E. Syberia, Grim Fandango). Loom went for the fantasy/fairytale story. And it nailed it perfectly.
In some far distant time, all people separated themselves into the Great Guilds according to their occupation. There were Guilds for shepherds and blacksmiths and clerics and weavers. Each Guild guarded the secrets that it learned about its trade, forbidding contact with or marriage into another Guild.
The Weavers were the same. In time they learned that they could dispense with using thread and cloth altogether, and weave the very fabric of reality itself with music. But stillbirths were common due to centuries of the old restrictive ways, and the numbers of the Weavers were dwindling rapidly. If something was not done soon they would die out altogether!
But the guardians of the Great Loom refused to change the age-old pattern. Then one day a young woman dared to weave a new pattern in order to have a son. The son was born but his mother was condemned, turned into a Swan, and banished forever.
Raised by his mother's own childhood nurse, young Bobbin has been reviled and rejected by the Weavers since birth. Although forbidden to learn the secrets of weaving, he has nevertheless been taught the basics by his old nurse, under cover of darkness.
But when the evil Bishop Mandible of the Guild of Clerics plans to use the Weaver's magic to rule the world, and young Bobbin most stop him.
I could go on, but I'll stop there. This is one of the greatest storys in any videogame ever made.
Story gets a perfect 10/10


Graphics: At the time, these were the nicest graphics I had ever seen. The best thing about these graphics are the colors and backgrounds. This was a time when 256 colors were a big deal and looked great. In my opinion, they still look great today. The characters were also done nicely.
Graphics get a 9/10



Sound/Music: If you're going to make a music-driven game, you need to focus on music. And Loom has some of the best music in any game. Every single piece is fitting and well put together. This game has my favorite pieces of music and all of it's genius.
Music gets another 10/10


Gameplay: The game's control is point and click, but it does not use SCUMM. Insted, Lucasarts decided to go in a different direction with the gameplay.
Loom has one of the most genius styles of gameplay I've ever played. Bobbin has a staff that he can use to create magic by reciting musical notes. Each pattern of musical notes casts a spell. For example, If you hit the notes E, C, E, D, when you click a door, that will open it. And when you play the notes in reverse, it will close the door. As you progress in the game, you'll aquire more notes and more spells. I have often pondered why other games never did this.
Sadly, Loom is very short and very easy. There is a difficulty setting, but it doesn't make the puzzles tougher. It just tests your music ability.
Gameplay gets a 9/10


There is no doubt in my mind that this is onel of the greatest adventure games ever made. But because of the length and difficulty, this game isn't perfect. I give Loom a
9.7/10

[Eddy]

I would give it a 8.5/10.0 because I finish'd the game in one day.
But stil a good review.

[Kolzig]

Yes, Loom is one of the greatest LucasArts adventures made, and it's almost the only adventure game that has mostly musical puzzles.

And this game was also first made in 16 colors, later the cd version came out that had 256 colors and also some new cgi ending if you completed the game on the hardest difficulty.

[ATMachine]

Originally Posted by Kolzig

And this game was also first made in 16 colors, later the cd version came out that had 256 colors and also some new cgi ending if you completed the game on the hardest difficulty.

CGI ending? Please explain. I'd thought that Loom PC CD had no extra cutscenes in hard mode, unlike the disk version.

And SamNMax, Loom does use SCUMM. Even though it doesn't have the typical verb interface, the engine is the same. (Unlike early The Dig, in which LEC planned to use some new engine called StoryDroid, before scrapping the idea.)

By the way, the music is entirely taken from Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake, if you didn't know. A fitting choice considering the plot.

Also, I'd like to mention the game's rare FM Towns CD version. For those who haven't heard of it, it's a 256-color port of the EGA disk version, with that version's full-length music tracks remade in CD quality. Unlike the PC CD, which has truncated cutscenes, little music, and no close-ups of characters, the FM Towns port has everything from the disk version intact. Even though it doesn't have voice acting like the PC CD, I'd still say the FM Towns CD is Loom's best version. Sadly, it's almost impossible to find if you don't live in Japan.

Screenshots of it:


The FM Towns Loom CD music is downloadable from Soundfont Island.

I would've really liked to play the two planned Loom sequels, Forge and The Fold; unfortunately, the first game didn't sell well enough for LucasArts to continue the series.

[eriq]

My favourite game by LucasArts by a longshot. A masterpiece of graphics!!! This game's style inspired me so much. I own a copy of each version including the FMtowns japanese version with box and hint book. I could go on about this lovely work of art forever.

[ConcreteRancor]

Originally Posted by Eddy

I would give it a 8.5/10.0 because I finish'd the game in one day.
But stil a good review.

I finished System Shock 2 in one day. Doesn't make it any worse a game. It depends, I guess. Did you finish Loom in one day playing for only 5 hours or so? Or did you do what I did with SS2 and play from 10 am to midnight to finish it?

[Kolzig]

Originally Posted by ATMachine

CGI ending? Please explain. I'd thought that Loom PC CD had no extra cutscenes in hard mode, unlike the disk version.

Hmm, could be that I am wrong, but I seem to remember reading it from somewhere that the cd version had an extra animated scene in the ending if you completed it in hard difficulty.

I have both the 256 color cd and the 16 color disk version.
The FM Towns version would be cool to own.

Hey eriq, sell the FM Towns version to me for $15

[ATMachine]

Originally Posted by Kolzig

Hey eriq, sell the FM Towns version to me for $15

I'm sad to say that's not very likely, as FM Towns games outside of Japan (which are extremely hard to find) usually sell for $150-200 and up.

[eriq]

Originally Posted by ATMachine

I'm sad to say that's not very likely, as FM Towns games outside of Japan (which are extremely hard to find) usually sell for $150-200 and up.

I paid something like 275 bucks for it. It's really really cool. I can't play it though!!!! LOL!

Does the ScummVM program let you play FMtowns games??

edit : I guess so! I'll have to try it out. According to this thread, there are differences between the FMtowns CD version and the US CD version?

[ATMachine]

Originally Posted by eriq

Does the ScummVM program let you play FMtowns games??

edit : I guess so! I'll have to try it out. According to this thread, there are differences between the FMtowns CD version and the US CD version?

ScummVM does play FM Towns games, but its handling of Loom FM Towns in particular is a bit buggy. You may want to play the game using the excellent FM Towns emulator UNZ. You can find it pretty easily using Google; search for "unz emulator" without the quotes.

Here's some info on the differences between the Fm Towns CD and US CD, taken from Mixnmojo's database:

• "The PC 256-color CD, although it has superior graphics and spoken dialogue, has drastically shortened cut-scenes, very little music, and no close-ups of characters, in order to accommodate its speech."
• "The rare CD version for the Japanese FM Towns computer is a 256-color port of the EGA PC version, with all cut-scenes and close-ups intact and full-length CD music tracks. Although there is no speech, it is perhaps the best of all versions of Loom."

[Eddy]

Originally Posted by ConcreteRancor

I finished System Shock 2 in one day. Doesn't make it any worse a game. It depends, I guess. Did you finish Loom in one day playing for only 5 hours or so? Or did you do what I did with SS2 and play from 10 am to midnight to finish it?

I know, but I like to enjoy a game more then only ten hours.

[Toefur]

Holy moly... Loom VGA graphics... and I thought EGA was beautiful. They look awesome!

[Udvarnoky]

Originally Posted by Kolzig

Hmm, could be that I am wrong, but I seem to remember reading it from somewhere that the cd version had an extra animated scene in the ending if you completed it in hard difficulty.

That was in the manual of all versions (well, at least it's in my floppy version manual) and mentions nothing of CGI. It does say that you will be awarded an extra scene near the end of the game if you play it in the Expert difficulty.

SPOILER

This extra scene shows Cobb's fate when he removes Bobbin's robe. If you play the game through any other difficulty, it cuts before Cobb removes the robe and then shows Bishop Mandible complaining about the screaming coming from inside. When we return to the room where Bobbin is Cobb is nowhere to be seen and Bobbin says, "Can't say I didn't warn him." When you play through Expert difficulty, it stays in the room when Cobb takes off the robe and he gets "sucked in" to Bobbin's head in a very fast but cool special effect animation. It's a cool little extra but I think I actually prefer the action offscreen.

A lot of people (like me) assumed the extra scene would occur at the very end of the game or even after the credits, but there ya go.

[ATMachine]

I knew about that scene already, Udvarnoky. But the PC CD version shows both Mandible's complaint and the Cobb death special effect in Normal mode, so I don't think there're any extra scenes in its Expert difficulty.

Since Kolzig wrote of a new scene being in the Hard mode of the PC CD version, I was thinking he was referring to something else.

[Udvarnoky]

Originally Posted by ATMachine

Since Kolzig wrote of a new scene being in the Hard mode of the PC CD version, I was thinking he was referring to something else.

Okay, then apparently I misunderstood. As soon as he mentioned that, the first thing I thought of was my manual. Also, I wasn't aware that the animated segment was shown in the CD version, I guess I forgot. I'm interested in this supposed CD-exclusive extra scene.

[Monkey Face]

Just one strange thing I noticed when I was using scumm revisited to rip the backgrounds from Loom. I came across all the character close-up backgrounds featured in the FM Towns version (However none of them are used in the game).

[ATMachine]

Originally Posted by Monkey Face

Just one strange thing I noticed when I was using scumm revisited to rip the backgrounds from Loom. I came across all the character close-up backgrounds featured in the FM Towns version (However none of them are used in the game).

Not all of them look exactly the same in the FM Towns version as they do in the PC CD resource files. For example, the Dragon looks very different.

(And so does Elder Atropos, but the major difference there is that in the PC CD, his face contains the hidden message "Loom Sucks!")

Check out Mixnmojo's database entry for Loom for some pictures of the differences. The FM Towns closeups are in the Screenshots gallery and the PC CD ones are in the Concept Art gallery.