textfiles/games/REVIEWS/loom.rev

 LOOM

 Adventure games usually rely on a few well-established themes: the fantasy game
with magic and dragons; the space game with blasters and aliens; the detective
story with corpses and footprints. Instead of creating a whole new universe,
most computer games try to remind you of your favorite stories from movies or
novels; for example, the plots of the KING'S QUEST series are based on
well-known fairy tales. The game that creates a truly new world is therefore a
rarity.

 As it happens, LOOM -- the latest adventure from Lucasfilm Games -- is a
fantasy game complete with magic and dragons. Yet author Brian Moriarty (who
also created WISHBRINGER, TRINITY, and BEYOND ZORK) has avoided the usual
cliches and devised a fantasy world that ranks in originality and depth with
that of ZORK. LOOM is an extraordinarily entertaining, if brief, adventure.
(This review is based on the IBM-PC version.)

 LOOM takes place in a world dominated by the Guilds, organizations of craftsmen
devoted to increasing their power and preserving their secrets. At first, the
Weavers' guild was small and unimportant, but when the Weavers realized they
could weave magic spells (as well as cloth), the guild's power and influence
grew. However, the Weavers' mastery of magic made them feared as well as
powerful, and eventually the Weavers withdrew to lead a secluded life on a small
island. They devoted their time to the study of magic and to breeding ever-more
skilled Weavers. But the Weavers' isolation had its price: Ultimately, the
Weavers became barren, and no new children were born to them. One day, a Weaver,
frustrated by the failure of the Elders of the Guild to solve this problem,
altered the fabric of reality to allow a new Weaver child to be born. The Elders
predicted that this child would cause a great calamity, and they therefore
isolated the child from the rest of the Guild and refused to teach him magic.

 In LOOM, you play the role of this child, named Bobbin Threadbare. When Bobbin
reaches the age of 17, his nurse begins to teach him magic. This triggers a
chain of events culminating in the sudden, mysterious disappearance of the
entire Guild. Bobbin finds himself alone on the island, with only a distaff
(used to cast spells) and one spell to help him. He sets off to find out what
happened to the Guild, but as his journey progresses, he becomes caught up in a
complex web of events. Bobbin discovers that, paradoxically, he must help cause
the world's Third Age of Darkness, and help save the world from it, as well.

 As Bobbin, you travel through the lands of the various Guilds: the Glassmakers'
city (made entirely of green glass); the peaceful fields of the Shepherds; and
the strange, anvil-shaped city of the Blacksmiths. Along the way, you learn more
and more spells, beginning with the fairly dull (like Dyeing). As you earn more
experience, you're able to cast more powerful spells, such as Invisibility, and
Terror. Spells consist of a series of four musical notes. You learn spells by
hearing them, then cast them by repeating the musical pattern with your distaff:
You click on different sections -- the bottom of the distaff produces a low C
note, the next section up produces a D, etc.

 The game has three different difficulty levels. In practice mode, when you hear
a new pattern, the segments of the distaff that correspond to the notes glow
briefly, and the tune is recorded in a box below your distaff. In standard mode,
the notes glow on the distaff, but are not recorded. In expert mode, you only
hear the notes; the distaff does not glow. Because the game is short, I
recommend playing it in expert mode to get the most out of it. Although it seems
difficult at first, all but the truly tone-deaf will get the hang of playing "by
ear" fairly quickly. (As I can attest, no musical training is needed to succeed
in expert mode.) Expert mode also rewards players with an animated scene that's
not included in the easier modes.

 Casting spells is particularly important, because that's how you solve puzzles
and win the game. Indeed, the player can only do three things in LOOM: Move
Bobbin around the screen, cast spells, and click on objects. Except through
magic, you can't pick up objects (other than the distaff) or manipulate them. In
the press release for LOOM, Brian Moriarty explains why the interface is so
simple: "So many actions in most fantasy games are mundane. A lot of time is
spent managing inventories.... What fantasy gamers really enjoy is Power. They
want to stride fearlessly across vast, exotic landscapes, casting magic on
things to see what happens." LOOM reflects this philosophy. For example, by
casting a spell, you can dye any woolen item in the game green if you like,
whether this helps win the game or not. With a little experimentation, you can
also figure out how to change a spell so that its effect is different.

 LOOM offers another distinctive design feature: It is almost perfectly linear,
meaning that you must solve one puzzle before you can move on to the next. Most
linear games are either boring or frustrating, but LOOM is an exception: Many of
the puzzles are easy, so you don't spend much time anguishing over their
solution. Even more importantly, LOOM's plot is terrific. Unlike the usual "find
the sacred orb and kill the evil wizard" plot of many fantasy games, LOOM is
based on a much richer, less stereotypical plot line: The story is not a simple
tale of heroism ending with "...and they lived happily ever after." Bobbin makes
mistakes in LOOM -- sometimes disastrous ones that lead to violence. The ending
is, at best, a qualified victory for the forces of good. There is genuine drama
in the game, something that can be said for few other adventure games.

 LOOM offers not only an excellent story, but fine graphics, as well. The
backgrounds by fantasy artist Mark Ferrari are splendid, and throughout the game
dithering extends the palette beyond EGA's usual 16 colors. The animation is
also very well done: There's none of the stiffness that characterized early
Lucasfilm adventures. The music is quite good, too -- as well it should be,
since it consists of excerpts from Tchaikovsky! (My only complaint about the
sound is that the high notes are painfully piercing.)

 LOOM requires 512K of RAM and supports EGA, CGA, and Tandy graphics modes. The
game can be played from the keyboard, the mouse, or a joystick; I found that the
mouse worked best. Either 3-1/2" or 5-1/4" disks are available separately. The
program supports AdLib and CMS sound cards; it also supports the Roland MT-32
and LAPC-1 Sound Module, but the music does not come with the game. Roland
owners can mail a coupon to Lucasfilm to obtain the music disk, or they can
download the LOOMRO.ZIP file from Library 7 of the Game Publishers Forum on
CompuServe (GO GAMPUB).

 There is no on-disk copy protection; instead, the player must enter information
from the manual using a red acetate overlay. In addition to the usual game
instructions, LOOM comes with two other forms of documentation: a 30-minute
audio drama on cassette that provides the background to the plot, and the BOOK
OF PATTERNS. The latter serves mainly as a place in which to record the spells
you learn, but it's also filled with occasionally hilarious details regarding
the Guilds' dealings. (In fact, it reminded me of the documentation for the old
Infocom text adventures -- high praise, indeed).

 My sole criticism of LOOM is that it's too short. An experienced gamer will be
able to finish it in one evening. This is deliberate: LOOM was designed as an
introductory level game. But is an evening of entertainment worth $40? In this
case, yes, because the quality of the entertainment is so far above average.
Still, after completing the game, I was left craving more. If I read the endgam
hints correctly, a sequel is in the works. Here's hoping that the follow-up is
every bit as enchanting as LOOM -- and a little more difficult, as well!

 LOOM is published by Lucasfilm Games and distributed by Electronic Arts.

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