While I was supposed to be doing something productive, I stumbled upon a dandy of a flash game that's about, well, I have no idea. Despite you being a little man that runs around a huge expanse of land trying to figure out an unknown something , I don't think it's a life sim, but then again, maybe it's a metaphor for life. In spite of, or perhaps because of its ambiguity, Looming has kept me going for two hours, and what's more, I'm going to keep playing.
According to the developer, Gregory Weir , "This game is about two lovers named January and September. No, wait; it's about a group of people who don't believe in the sky. No, it's about a pantheon of scientific disciplines. Or maybe it's about an ancient beast who knew exactly when it was going to die, and how. It's about a place. A place called Looming." Thank you Mister Weir.
As you move about the world, you'll encounter various objects like otherworldly animal bones and etched tablets that provided clues to what happened. The white speckled map seems divided into at least two sections. In the East, I've discovered artifacts from the Lorem, a civilization that understood all things through their Gods of Logic, Psychology, Biology, and the like. In the West, artifacts of the Seecha turn up. They seem to have been a more primitive people, but with a knack for mechanical engineering--constructing huge structures to capture an ancient monster.
I've spent an awful lot of time in Looming to know so little, but that plays a large part in why I like it. I'm gaining enough information often enough to keep me intrigued, and at this point, I've got to know what's going on. I feel a lot like the protagonist, September. In a letter to his lover, he says "That is Looming, January: a snapshot of the end of time, a place for remembering and discovering." So yeah, Looming is like that--try it and let me know what you think.
