Loom (1990): Final Thoughts

Well that was quick.

I had a great time with Loom, but I am positive that I would have been extremely disappointed if I had spent my hard-earned money on a game of this length when I was a kid.

All in all, Loom took me maybe a couple of hours total to get through the whole game without using any walkthroughs or anything.  Although I've played plenty of adventure games, I can count the number that I have completed on a single hand (Leisure Suit Larry, Shadow of the Comet and... errrr... now Loom).  I don't think the game would go by any quicker or slower depending on your skill at these kinds of games, because the game is so linear and the solutions to a given puzzle so limited, that you almost have no choice but to finish this game.

In fact, the greatest innovations of Loom—the unconventional approach to inventory even this early on in the genre and the lack of fail states—also serve as very restrictive limitations on what players can actually do in the game.  For all the unfairness of a game like Space Quest—in which death lurks under every rock and in every hole, and the player can easily reach a "walking dead" state where it would be impossible for him or her to complete the game without starting over—one realizes that allowing the player to actually make mistakes and his or her character to die only makes it that much sweeter when you finally reach the end.  In contrast, completing Loom makes you feel like you were able to tie your own shoelaces.

I enjoyed taking notes on the various spells I found and then looking through the spellbook to consider what spells might be useful in a given situation.  Unfortunately, this ends up being quite limited in practice because the game is so linear and you can only cast a few spells for the majority of game—it seems like you go 25% of the game with but a handful of spells, learn a few more in the middle, and then the rest at the very end (and most of the spells are generally just used in a single situation).

Having said that, I enjoyed the brief time I spent with Loom, and I wish they had followed up and make a longer, more difficult sequel.