Almost quietly announced last year by Daedalic Entertainment, The Lord Of The Rings: Gollum immediately aroused interest in all that series of gamers accustomed to the works of JRR Tolkien, waiting for a title that could finally give space to one of the most iconic characters of the Oxford Professor's books.
After the success of the chapters made by Monolith Productions and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and Middle-earth: Shadow of War, Middle-earth Enterprises, which owns the rights to The Lord degli Anelli and The Hobbit, has decided to entrust the videogame production of new tie-ins set in Middle-earth to Amazon. Athlon Games will make a free-to-play MMORPG that will follow the literary works, Daedalic instead is developing The Lord Of The Rings: Gollum, a title that mixes elements of action, adventure, platforming and stealth, starring one of the bearers of the One Ring.
We have deliberately referred to the genres which will inspire this new videogame transposition, as, unlike the releases on PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4, the title will not have a GDR component. The choice is wanted by Deadalic: Gollum has a long history behind him, the character has evolved, there are no skills he has yet to learn. It has already had the opportunity to develop, evolve, grow and explore Middle-earth far and wide. What he knows, he already knows how to do: he cannot learn more, no new skills. Gollum is this and his adventure begins from the basement of Barad-dûr.
Daedalic has not released too specific information on the plot: it is only known that the story will start from the interrogation at the Dark Tower and will end approximately in Rivendell with the beginning of The Lord of the Rings. We sure know that cThe will be different environments, levels and dungeons all inspired by the literary work. Daedalic stated that the tie-in will be based on Tolkien's writings and not on Peter Jackson's cinematic work and based on this information already revealed it could be assumed that, in the course of the adventure, we will meet several characters narrated both in The Hobbit than in The Lord of the Rings, as Wood Elf King Thranduil, the Elven Prince Legolas, the sorcerer Gandalf and the ranger Aragorn.
It is known that Gollum's is an ambiguous character since two distinct personalities exist within the creature: that of the Hobbit Sméagol and that of his form corrupted by the One Ring. This dualism - explains the developer - serves to create a moral system of choices that permeates the entire adventure of The Lord Of The Rings: Gollum. The decision-making choice to make one mentality prevail over another is up to the gamer: a fearful personality like Sméagol's will lead the user to a stealth approach, avoiding fighting as much as possible and preferring an escape-based gameplay; an aggressive personality like that of Gollum will lead the gamer to face hordes of orcs. Daedalic wanted to explain that this sort of moral parameter has effects on the character during the adventure, in fact on several occasions we will hear the two personalities talking to each other: choose a stealthy or a belligerent perspective so it could reinforce one rather than another. , affecting the course of quests.
For example, basing everything on a stealth approach we will have the possibility to sneak past the enemies by creating diversions, such as the throwing of a stone or the release of caged animals that could attack the enemy's camp or we could even stay hidden and spy on the conversations of the hordes of orcs, thus unlocking clues that could lead to both new missions and delving into the setting and lore of the title.
It is interesting to know that Daedalic, in creating the setting of The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, was inspired by some illustrations by JRR Tolkien and those of some of the most famous artists such as Alan Lee, Ian Miller and John Howe. For this Gollum should not have the features of Andy Serkis, the actor who played the creature in the films of Peter Jackson since the development studio wants to remain as consistent as possible with the original sketches.
This new tie-in made based on the works of JRR Tolkien, will be released on PC and on the next generation consoles, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. Daedalic has not revealed anything else about the release of the video game, so we do not know if the title will also be released on Google Stadia, or on current consoles, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
► The Lord Of The Rings: Gollum is an Action-Adventure-type game developed by Daedalic Entertainment and published by Daedalic Entertainment Nacon for PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Nintendo Switch, Expected release: 2022
