Loom

Loom is an enjoyable but short adventure game. The concept is great but feels like its full potential never quite gets fulfilled. It's really fun while it lasts, especially around the middle when you start to get the hang of it and feel like anything is possible.

In Loom, instead of using the typical commands of point-and-click adventure games, like push, pull, talk to, pick up, give to, etc., you can only either click on things to interact in some general way, or cast spells on things. The way you cast spells is by playing notes on a magical staff. It's a unique concept. As a musician, it was fun trying to work out the notes by ear and memorise them rather than always having to check my notes.

The game comes with a handbook for looming which helps paint a picture of this fictional world. It's pretty funny and interesting. These people have been around for millennia and all kinds of famous disasters have apparently occurred from spells being used incorrectly. There are lots of political groups and factions which have a vested interest in how spells are used. It feels like much longer stories could be developed in this world.

The strengths of the game are the nice visuals, the undercurrent of humour, the simplicity of the concept and the joy of discovering new spells and trying them out. It just feels like it needed to be fleshed out more. I was really looking forward to learning new spells and dealing with tougher adversaries but the game ends very abruptly and somewhat randomly. It doesn't feel finished. It's a start, not an ending.

The puzzles are not too tricky and generally make sense with subtle hints to help you. But it's also easy to miss things in a few areas or to assume a spell wouldn't work when it does.

Most spells only get used once or twice. I would have liked to reach later sections where we had many more spells under our belt and multiple ways to solve a problem. It's nice to just get to play around, but if spells are only needed in one place, and only work that one time, it takes some of the fun away.

Anyway, Loom is a unique and fun little game. It's quite amusing, but the story becomes a little contrived later on. It just doesn't feel finished. It's like the first third of a really amazing game. Apparently sequels were planned so that partially explains the feeling of emptiness.