Loom

ManualWalkthrough

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The Loom Review

"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. Thus began the age of the great guilds, vast citystates devoted to the absolute control of knowledge, held together by stern traditions of pride and of fear... but not all of the guilds were equally ambitious. The Guild of Weavers never attained the prominence of the Shepherds or the Glass Makers, and outsiders regarded the Weavers with distaste, yet their customs were not without benefit.

The natural talents of their membership were nurtured and purified generation after generation, until the greatest among them wove fabrics of such extraordinary beauty that the whole world wondered at their achievements. Certain weaves seemed to possess remarkable powers of healing, others held a charm against ill fortune, and in the fullness of time the art of the weavers transcended the limits of physical cloth.

They abandoned the flax and dyes of their ancestors to wield the very stuff of light and music and spun new patterns directly in the fabric of reality. The ignorant looked upon these works with fear and called them witchcraft, and many of the guild were persecuted or hanged. To protect their heritage, the weavers extended a small fraction of their wealth to purchase a rocky island off the mainland coast, refining their arts in solitude. Many wars and plagues followed, and mighty guilds fell into ruin while others rose to superiority. The exhausted world all but forgot the humble Guild of Weavers, and few found reason to visit their home: An island of mystery, shrouded in perpetual mist, shunned by sailors, which ancient maps called: Loom."

- Excerpt from the Loom Audio Drama

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Bobbin Threadbare awakens on the dawn of his 17th year. Summoned by the Elders, he enters the chamber of the great Loom and finds them discussing his fate with Dame Hetchel, the elderly maid who raised him from infancy. He learns that he was not born of a woman, but rather of the Loom itself, and much of the Weaver's Guild fears him because of this. The Elders feel his coming means the undoing of the pattern, for since his birth it has been thrown into chaos. It is revealed that Hetchel has been secretly teaching him the art of weaving and for this she is punished and transformed into a cygnet, or a young swan, but the spell fails and she instead becomes an egg. Seconds later, the rest of the Guild are also mysteriously transformed into cygnets, and the flock of swans fly away into the night sky. Bobbin, the Loom-Child, the only remaining Weaver must now discover what has become of his Guild, and he sets out on his quest to find this mystical flock of swans.

Loom bears many similarities to other point-and-click adventures, specifically those made by LucasArts, but the major difference is that in Loom you have no inventory. There is no combining of items nor taking of more things than you could possibly carry. The game is instead centered around one item you obtain: the distaff. The distaff is used to weave magical spells, called drafts, through a combination of different four-note tunes. At the beginning of the game, you only have the ability to weave a few simple drafts such as Opening and Closing, as you are only able to use the notes C, D, and E. As the game progresses, you are able to learn the notes F, G, A, B, and high C, increasing your ability to weave new musical drafts. Each draft is in a specific order, and some drafts may change from game to game and there is no in-game diary of which you've learned, so it is a good idea to keep a physical note of each draft as you go through the game. Aside from these simplistic musical spells, the background music in the game is phenomenal and consists of excerpts from Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake," and it is a promise that once you find yourself engrossed in the game, you will also find yourself humming some of the songs found in the beautifully artistic locales you'll visit.

Loom was a simple game with a wonderful and strange storyline, and it has an almost cult status among its fans. A true gem.

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The Loom audio drama is a wonderful companion to those who are interested in hearing more about the history of the world of the great guilds and the background of Bobbin Threadbare. We have it for download, and provides a great bit of back-story on several characters in the game.

By: Modern Rocko