Retro What to Play: Loom

by Chelsea House, GGR contributor

As I’ve said before, I am a huge retro game fan. I’ve played, and in a lot of cases, replayed so many of them over the years that sometimes I just want to find something new. Here enters Loom. Loom is made by one of my go to game publishers, Lucasfilms Games, and boasts an experimental gaming experience for its players (at least for its time). Full disclosure, I was feeling fairly lazy when I was looking for a game to play, so when I saw the promise of your character never dying or needing to reload a game I was pretty much sold. 

Loom was released in 1990 as a fantasy graphic adventure game. You play the character Bobbin Threadbare, a Weaver who becomes an accidental world saver after his guild vanishes in a flock of swans. (Rather dramatically I might add.) Instead of your typical verb to object interface like we saw in Indiana Jones, Dig, and many others that used the SCUMM engine, you use a simple four-note system. No, I’m not talking about post-its or paper notes. Music notes. You wield a “weapon” called a distaff, and on said weapon, you play four note melodies called “drafts”. These “drafts” act very similarly to spells in the way they perform a command on the object you are directing them to. 

Loom has a beautiful fantasy story woven (see what I did there? 😉) throughout that is unique, but also simple to follow. The game play remains intriguing even without the threat of dying. I did find myself struggling a few times with figuring out exactly what the game was wanting. It is also a fairly short game, so if you’re short on time like I am, this is a great option! It was a very different experience from the other Lucasfilm Games I’ve played, but I found it just as well written and designed! They didn’t cheat you out of story or of gameplay, it just lacked the same intensity of “crap did I forget that item all the way back there???”. This is why I have save game anxiety.

My cons for the game? For one, I felt like it was almost too short. There were definitely a lot of opportunities to build a more rich storyline, or even delve a little deeper into the back story. Secondly, it leaves you with a feeling of incompletion at the end. My theory is that they were possibly aiming to make a second one and just didn’t have the backing? I’m not sure what would have stopped them as Loom has amazing review pretty much across the board. Maybe it was just ahead of its time? Regardless, the ending feels very abrupt and without closure. Knowing that, I would still play it. 

All in all if you are looking for a quick, fun, not too difficult game, Loom is certainly a good one for you!