The stealth game The Lord of the Rings: Gollum will be released on September 1 for PC, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X / S, developer Daedalic has announced. A Nintendo Switch release will follow later this year, although no exact date has been set yet.
“The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, based on the legendary book trilogy The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien, recounts Gollum’s backstage experiences in the early chapters of The Ring Community,” writes Daedalic. “After losing his precious ring to Bilbo Baggins, Gollum decides to leave the Misty Mountains and embark on a perilous journey that takes him from the dungeons of Barad-dûr to the kingdom of the forest elves in Mirkwood.
“To survive the dangers of his journey through Middle-earth, Gollum must sneak in and climb and use all his cunning.” As part of a hands-on preview last week, I was able to see some of this cunning in action.
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum: A movie trailer with a divided personality.
Gollum is certainly an agile creature, with the ability to climb walls with ease (he has had 500 years to hone his skills at this point, after all). However, he is much weaker in combat than your typical hero, and as such, players must take this weakness into account and adjust to prevail over Middle-earth opponents, including some boss fights.
Screenshot of The Lord of the Rings: Gollum.
That said, don’t get into the game waiting for Gollum to get stronger as the story progresses. Rather, the skills Gollum has at the beginning are the same skills he will have when he finishes. “That makes sense in the context of the gaming tradition,” Daedalic said. “The events that happen during the game happen in a very compressed amount of time compared to Gollum ‘s overall useful life, so it didn’t seem very logical for him to gain new skills. [throughout]. ”
This has inherently turned The Lord of the Rings: Gollum into a great puzzle. Instead of facing orcs and such confrontations, Gollum must use his environment and his “Gollum Vision” to avoid encounters and gain the advantage.
This was shown in the preview I saw with Gollum throwing a rock at a nearby light to sink an orc patrolling in the dark. In his confusion, the orc soon fell to his death without Gollum ever being able to finger them.
Screenshot of The Lord of the Rings: Gollum.
In short, The Lord of the Rings: Gollum will not be an expansive action game, but to be fair, it was never meant to be. In addition to seeing more of the stealthy gameplay, I was able to see the personality mechanics divided into action.
“The players will be the protagonist and the antagonist at the same time, united in one person,” said the narrator of the preview.
“[Gollum] he has to deal with his self-hobbit – Sméagol. It depends on the players whether they want Gollum to have the advantage when it comes to making important decisions, or whether they prefer Sméagol to take over. ”
Screenshot of The Lord of the Rings: Gollum.
During the preview, I saw both sides of Gollum’s personality arguing over whether or not to trust a beetle. Gollum wanted to eat the beetle, suspecting that he was a spy for Mordor. On the other hand, Sméagol wanted to look at the beetle and felt that he was simply an innocent creature.
During this example, the game did not show any hard and fast push towards one personality over another. Instead, many options arose for the player to choose before he could finally decide which personality to win (which, in this case, turned out to be Sméagol).
This mechanic will be used throughout the game and will eventually lead to The Lord of the Rings: Gollum ending with one of two scenarios. However, these two endings will give rise to the same epilogue. This is because, while the game’s developers tell a unique story set in Tolkien’s world, they can’t change the general events that take place in his Middle-earth (and how Frodo and his adventures eventually join him). .
Screenshot of The Lord of the Rings: Gollum.
In addition to affecting the narrative rhythms, Gollum’s two conflicting personalities will also act as a guide for the players.
In games with only one main character, this can sometimes be a bit awkward, as it seems like the hero is just vocalizing his inner thoughts to connect with the player. This can break the overall immersion in a game.
However, as we play as Gollum and Sméagol at the same time, we will hear a personality that reminds us of other things, such as being silent when enemies are near. As for the narrative of the game, that makes sense, and I liked that inclusion of Daedalic.
Screenshot of The Lord of the Rings: Gollum.
Finally, I met some of the other characters that will appear there. I saw and heard Gandalf and the elf king Thranduil talking about Gollum inside Thranduil’s royal chamber, while Gollum was hiding unseen. Even more interesting, I was also introduced to a new character: an imprisoned elf named Mell.
Gollum met Mell before the pictures were shown, and together they formed an alliance to escape the confinement of Thranduil. Although Mell didn’t show up in the flesh, so to speak, it revealed a bit of his story.
Mell has a magical ability that allows him to communicate through water, which was demonstrated by his conversation with Gollum even though he was not with him in person. However, she misused this power in the past, and this caused her to become an outcast among the elves. The preview ended before we could see if Mell would become a reliable ally for Gollum or if he would eventually betray him later.
Screenshot of The Lord of the Rings: Gollum.
To learn more about The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, you can take a closer look at how characters like Gandalf and Sauron’s Mouth will be shown in the game here.