Loom

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North American box art.

Loom is a graphic adventure puzzle video game by produced by Brian Moriarty and developed and published by Lucasfilm Games, originally released in January 1990 for Amiga, Atari ST, and MS-DOS, and later ported to several other platforms. Although the game uses the SCUMM engine, it doesn't use the typical verb-object control scheme. The game also came with an audio drama which gave backstory to the world.

Personal

My middle school friend friend Mike had the LucasArts Classic Adventures box set and showed me a short part of this game near the end. I was impressed enough to ask to borrow it, and, after a few days, I had beaten it. Later, I got a copy of the MCGA CD version and beat that one as well. I really loved the game and thought it told a very clever and creative story. I was, as expected, a bit miffed at the ending.

Status

I do not own this game, but have beaten the DOS EGA and MCGA versions on easy mode.

Review

  • Overall: 6/10
  • Best Version: CD talkie version.

— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

  • The game's story by Brian Moriarty is really creative and original. Having different guilds, each who see the world in a manner befitting their own trade, was a fantastic idea.
  • The game is wonderfully packaged with mixed-media. In addition to the diskettes, the game came with multiple booklets like the manual and the Book of Patterns, which is a nice addition and adds depth to the game world. It also came with a cassette which contained an audio drama setting up the story. I really wish more development companies put this much work into their games.
  • I really like the idea of having short songs to act as magic spells, and the fact that you can play them in reverse to have the opposite effect was really clever.
  • Even in the EGA version, the graphics are amazingly well drawn.
  • Despite just being arrangements of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, the music is wonderful and extremely fitting to the atmosphere of the game.
  • The SCUMM engine is well-made and solid, even after being altered to handle this game.

Bad

  • The game is both too easy and too short. More effort should have been put into making more complicated puzzles and extending the game's length.
  • The box art is pretty lame. I remember seeing it in stores and having no desire to buy the game because it looked like a cat's cradle simulator.

Ugly

  • Nothing.

Media

Box Art

Documentation

Maps

Screenshots

Videos

Longplay, EGA, hard mode.
Longplay, VGA Talkie, hard mode.

Download

This is the LucasFilm Games Passport to Adventure game sampler. It contains an MS-DOS demo version of Loom, The Secret of Monkey Island, and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure.

Titles

Language Native Transliteration Translation
English Loom
Japanese ルーム Rumu Loom

Links

Link-MobyGames.png  Link-Wikipedia.png  Link-TCRF.png