Loom - Lucasfilm Games / US Gold - RRP œ29.99
                    (Graphic adventure)

                  Reviewed by Neil Shipman

It was long after the passing of the Second Shadow, when dragons 
ruled the twilight sky and the stars were bright and numerous, 
that humankind began to thirst again for dominion over nature. 
Their weapon was industry, and they wielded it with confidence. 
One by one the mysteries of light and darkness fell before the 
engines of progress. Whole nations came to believe that nothing 
lay beyond the power of their own arrogance.

Competition was fierce in those productive days. Skilled labour 
became a valuable commodity, and so the tradespeople of the land 
banded themselves together to promote their common interests and 
to protect their secrets. These professional societies swelled in 
power as their membership grew. A few, such as the Blacksmiths 
and the Clerics, acquired vast territories with private armies to 
defend them. Thus began the Age of the Great Guilds.

The Weavers were not so ambitious as the other Guilds but, by 
inbreeding, they purified their talents to produce fabrics of 
extraordinary beauty. Gradually, they found ways to work patterns 
of influence such as healing or good fortune into the cloth they 
wove. In time they learned to wield the very stuff of light and 
music and spun new patterns directly in the fabric of reality. 
Some men, in ignorance, called this witchcraft and, to avoid 
persecution, the Weavers retired to practise their art alone on 
the island of Loom...

When her baby is stillborn Lady Cygna seeks an audience with the 
Elders. She asserts that the Weavers' seed is barren and their 
numbers failing because of strict adherence to the rules of the 
Guild. The Pattern has become the master of their destiny, but the 
Elders see its fulfilment as their only purpose. She pleads with 
them to use the power in the great loom to end the suffering and 
bring life and health. However, they fear to tamper with the 
Pattern as its subtleties have passed beyond understanding. "Who 
are the weavers now, and who are the woven?" exclaims Cygna.

For her blasphemy Cygna is sent back to her tent. But later, when 
the Sanctuary of the loom is deserted, she returns and weaves a 
grey thread into the rainbow colours of the Pattern. This results 
in a child being born out of the loom itself. For defying the 
Elders, though, she is made to surrender the child to kindly Dame 
Hetchel before being turned into swan, condemned to wander the 
skies in solitude, forbidden to set foot on the island of Loom 
ever again.

Hetchel names the child Bobbin. He is to be raised outside the 
ways of the Guild until his coming of age at 17 when his fate 
will be decided by a High Council. Because he is unschooled the 
other children think him a halfwit and he spends his days 
friendless, exploring his island home. Every year on his birthday, 
Hetchel takes him to a point on the island where he sees a white 
swan flying by, but he is not told the meaning of this.

Bobbin's birth had thrown the Pattern into chaos and it was 
disintegrating. No one knew how to stop it. The Elders prayed he 

would be unable to fulfil his destiny and would never leave the 
island nor learn the ways of spellweaving. But Hetchel teaches him 
how to weave threads - notes - into a draft and shows him her 
distaff which is used to spin music and light into threads of 
influence.

On his 17th birthday Bobbin goes alone to see the swan. Reaching 
the top of the cliff before sunrise, he sits down and waits - and 
quickly falls asleep...

This tale is told in a superbly produced 30 minute audio drama.
Just pop the tape in your hi-fi, sit back and close your eyes. 
This is a novel approach to scene-setting which has the effect of 
transporting the listener to the magical fantasy world of Loom.

The adventure begins when you, Bobbin Threadbare, are summoned by 
a messenger nymph from your clifftop vigil to the Sanctuary. There 
you find the Elders in heated discussion and see the loom itself. 


Events outside your control result in the population being 
transformed into swans and you are the only person left on the 
island. But it is here that you acquire a distaff and are able to 
learn the four threads of the draft of Opening. You soon learn the 
notes which make up other drafts and, before long, you will be 
able to leave the island in your search for the flock of swans.

Simply drawn graphics in bold, bright colours vividly depict your 
progress throughout the adventure from the blue of Loom to the 
translucent green of Crystalgard, home of the Glassmakers, and the 
fiery reds and yellows of the Blacksmiths' Forge. The graphics 
appear in the animation window which takes up the top two-thirds 
of the screen and gives a "camera's-eye view" of your location.

Blue-eyed Bobbin, clad in a grey cloak and carrying the distaff, 
is moved by the usual "point and click" method. He is a sensible 
size in relation to his surroundings and appears smaller when far 
away. He moves smoothly although sometimes very slowly, especially 

when there is a lot of background animation taking place. This can 
be turned off to (slightly) speed up play but is well worth seeing 
at least once. The display has a film-like quality which I felt 
was different from, and superior to, the other Lucasfilm games.

The distaff is displayed beneath the animation window and a 
musical staff appears directly under it showing, when you begin, 
the first three notes of the C major scale. Certain actions on 
Bobbin's part (like examining objects) cause a series of four 
notes to be played, making up a draft. These are identified on the 
musical staff and the relevant sections of the distaff glow in 
response. A Book of Patterns is provided with the game, detailing 
the effects of many of the drafts created by the Weavers - but not 
the notes required to spin them (which may be different in each 
new game). As the adventure unfolds, Bobbin will learn over a 
dozen drafts and, as he gains in experience, additional notes 
become available for him to use.

Objects are easily found by moving the cursor over them, bringing 
up a square icon in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen. 

The object or character is further identified by name when Bobbin 
is standing close to it. Clicking on the icon then enables him to 
examine or use it or to initiate a conversation. He can also spin 
a draft on it by clicking on the right notes on the distaff (or by 
typing them in on the keyboard). A successful draft is accompanied 
by a musical arpeggio, and twinkling stars surround the object as 
it is magically transformed.

Bobbin can only carry the distaff and Book of Patterns with him so 
there is no need for an inventory. Similarly, as things are only 
affected by weaving drafts on them and there is no "object 
manipulation" in the game, then there is no verb or "action" list.

Conversational text is sometimes shown within the animation 
window, when it appears with a picture of the character speaking, 
and sometimes beneath it. As in all the other Lucasfilm games the 
storyline is enhanced by "cut scenes", animated sequences which 
provide clues and information. These can be bypassed by pressing 
the ESC key, so you don't have to watch them every time you play.

Throughout the adventure Bobbin's exploits are accompanied by 
music, much of which is transcribed from the ballet music of 
Tchaikovsky. I found that this added greatly to the atmosphere of 
the story and kept it on all the time. However, if you don't like 
it, it can easily be turned off as, indeed, can the sound effects. 
The game music is, incidentally, supplied on the flip side of the 
audio drama cassette.

One minor criticism of Loom is that everything, including the 
music, comes to a full stop when the disk is accessed to load a 
new scene. For quite a few seconds you are left staring at a blank 
screen and this, unfortunately, does have the effect of breaking 
up the flow of the story. It would not have been so bad if the 
current graphic remained for you to look at while new ones were 
being loaded, but I expect this has not been done because of 
memory constraints.

The adventure comes on 3 double-sided disks and can be played 
using 1 or 2 D/S drives or a hard disk. I have 2 D/S drives and 
this meant that very little disk swapping was necessary. If you 
have a single-sided drive then you'll have to send off the 3 disks 
to US Gold in Birmingham to exchange them for 6 S/S ones before 
you can begin. Not only could this be very annoying for overseas 
buyers but I would imagine also that the amount of disk swapping 
needed when playing with S/S disks might become rather tiresome.

The game can be played in either Standard, Practice or Expert 
mode. In Standard mode the distaff glows when you hear or spin a 
draft and the musical staff beneath helps you to identify the 
notes. In Practice mode the letters of the notes are also 
displayed in a small box. Expert mode dispenses with the musical 
staff and effectively means playing by ear. If you use this you'll 
be rewarded with an extra animated scene in Bishop Mandible's 
Cathedral towards the end of the story.

Loom is a simple adventure with an extremely linear style in which 
it is difficult not to make rapid progress (even in Expert mode). 
Indeed, my main criticism of it would be that it is far too easy 
and even novice adventurers should complete it in a couple of 
days. All the puzzles are solved by spinning drafts on objects or 
characters, but there is no penalty for spinning the wrong one. If 
you don't know which one to use - which is fairly unlikely 
considering the number of clues you'll pick up on the way - then 
you can just keep trying until you find the correct one.

It is nothing like a traditional adventure with lots of places to 
explore and brain-teasing problems to make you think. It makes very 
few demands on the player as the story unfolds and this will be a 
great disappointment to many. I felt as if I was turning the pages 
of a glossy, fantasy storybook rather than playing an adventure.

The author, Brian Moriarty, is my favourite adventure writer 
having been responsible for the Infocom classics Wishbringer, 
Trinity and Beyond Zork. I was interested, therefore, to see how 
his creative talents would transfer to the graphic medium. Whilst 
I still far prefer his text adventures, I think it is fair to say 
that with Loom his imagination is undimmed and he has woven a 
beautiful, albeit extremely simple, fantasy reminiscent of a 
children's fairy tale. Indeed, Loom has a child-like innocence 
about it that some may feel borders on the "cutesy". The 
implementation by Lucasfilm gives it a magical glow and the whole 
package is an audio-visual delight - but, unfortunately, one which 
is unlikely to appeal to seasoned adventurers.

(You don't need to pay anything like the RRP of œ29.99 for Loom. 
Many mail-order firms have it on offer at around œ16.99!)