I recently had the pleasure of completing two very nice Lucas Arts
GAGs, Loom and the Secret of Monkey Island. I played the CD versions
of both titles, but played both of them with my SCUMM virtual
machine. The Loom game I played had exquisite voice acting; some of
the best I've ever heard in a game. Monkey Island lacked speech, but
the sound effects and music were pleasant and added greatly to the
pleasure of the game.
Loom and Monkey Island appeared in the same year, 1990. Lucas
Arts used the same engine Lucas Arts had developed earlier for Maniac
Mansion, a game I'm not yet familiar with. The engine, SCUMM, even
stands for Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion. While I'm not
familiar with the games from a code perspective, I do like the
interfaces and find the graphics, while perhaps 'poor' by modern
standards, have a consistency and coherence that I find both effective
and endearing. I am reminded of cartoon animation.
Loom's interface is simpler than Monkey Island's. The player
moves Bobbin Threadbare around by clicking the mouse. Clicking on an
object allows the wizard to "point" a spell, or "draft," at it. The
mouse pointer doesn't change; it's always a glowing triangle. This can
be a bit of a pain at times, because it's not clear where you can
go. I wasted several minutes early on trying to go into a doorway that
turned out to be merely a decoration. Sometimes scrolling the mouse
over objects will cause them to appear in the lower right corner of
the screen; this indicates that they can be 'pointed at.' This doesn't
seem to work all the time, though. My guess is that the developers
tried to set it up so that it would only work if Bobbin was facing the
object or they were in his line of sight.
Sound plays an important role in this game, and critical at
the end of the Standard Game and throughout the Expert Game. Players
are expected to recognize changes in pitch. If you can imagine playing
SIMON without the benefit of the flashing lights, you have a good idea
of what's expected here. Thankfully, there are only one octave to
worry about, and no minor keys. Still, this could be a problem for
'tone deaf' players and a show-stopper for a person with limited
hearing.
The strength of Bobbin is its evocative world and compelling
storyline. The game has a unique magic system and terminology which is
confusing at first, but consistent with the storyline and setting. To
put it simply, the gameworld is divided into Guilds, each of whom have
special 'songs' and abilities. For instance, the guild of blacksmiths
are expert sword-makers, and you must learn a 'sharpening' song from
them. It's great fun checking out the various guilds and seeing how
completely their lifestyles have been shaped by their career. The
player character comes from the guild of the 'weavers,' magical beings
held in awe or contempt by the other guilds. The weavers are always
hooded, and anyone daring to peek under the hood dies a quick and
painful death. The symbolic or Freudian implications of all this must
be fascinating, really.
The drafts are great fun to play with. Some of them can be
reversed to interesting effect. A spell that opens can be reversed to
close things, for instance. More fascinating things are possible, of
course, but I can't talk about them without giving away the rather
enjoyable puzzles.
The only real problem I had with Loom was the brevity of the
game. Just when you think you've got things figured out and are ready
to get down to some serious adventuring, the game is over. I was
utterly shocked at the game's shortness and thought I had somehow done
things wrong and arrived prematurely at the ending. Nope. I spent
roughly three hours playing this game from start to finish, and I was
taking my time and exploring every nook and cranny. I expect someone
in a rush could finish the game in a half hour.
There are also no serious challenges here, which is noted in
the game's manual. The developers say that the game is really designed
to be a 'story you play through' rather than a puzzle game that stumps
you at every turn. The manual, by the way, is a thinly veiled
commentary on adventure games and an argument for the superiority of
more story-focused games. Game scholars won't want to miss out on the
manual if they bother to play Loom at all.
The Secret of Monkey Island is a much different than
Loom. Even the interface is different. Whereas in Loom the player can
really do nothing but click on different parts of the screen and hope
something happens, Monkey Island gives you a little fixed menu of
actions like 'PICK UP' and 'LOOK AT' and an inventory.
Undoubtedly the best thing about Monkey Island is its humor. I
laughed aloud quite frequently, and I'm not the kind of guy that
laughs at any lame attempt at humor. The game even effectively makes
fun of itself, and there are some very funny segments that seem to
satarize the genre. One of the best is when you are fighting with the
Sheriff, who catches you in the act of stealing an idol from the
mayor's mansion. Your character is drawn out of view, but messages
flash as though someone else is controlling the character. The player
isn't exactly sure what is taking place back there, but waxed lips, a
staple remover, and a rhinocerous are deeply involved.
Many of the puzzles in Monkey Island are also satirical. For
instance, a troll guarding a bridge can be taken care of by tossing
him a red herring. The troll grabs the herring, takes off his troll
suit revealing he is only a man, and then says, 'Oooh! A red herring!'
and scampers off. Of course, we adventurers are all too aware of the
significance of red herrings, though this one turns out not to be
one. Later on the player meets some vegetarian cannibals, a giant
monkey head that can only be opened by cleaning its ear with a giant
Q-tip, and a swindling 'pre-owned boat dealer.' I don't know how many
other people would find this kind of humor appealing, but judging by
the game's noted success, I'm not alone in finding it just too much
fun.
There are also some interesting allusions to Loom in Monkey
Island. Two are explicit'we meet 'Cobb,' a henchmen who meets his
demise in Loom, at the SCUMM BAR at the beginning of the game. He goes
into a spiel about Loom and the bottom of the screen flashes
'ADVERTISEMENT.' You are given several funny possible responses. There
are other more subtle references to Bobbin Threadbare (your player
character in Loom). I don't know why, but I find these kinds of
'easter eggs' great fun.
If asked, I'd probably tell someone trying to decide
'EITHER/OR' to go with the monkey. Even though I liked Loom, I don't
find it as 'literary' or 'artistic' as other critics have
asserted. It's frustrating to learn all about the unique magic system
and storyline for just an hour or so of gameplay. In all seriousness,
the game needs to be at least twice as long and offer more
opportunities for alternative strategies. I don't know if the
developers just ran out of time or what, but the game has a distinctly
'unfinished' feel to it. Monkey Island, on the other hand, is deeply
polished and just glows with creative wit.
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