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Lord of the Rings: Gollum to release September 1st

cormack12

Gold Member
Source: https://www.theverge.com/2022/5/24/23138534/the-lord-of-the-rings-gollum-release-date

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, the upcoming video game starring Gollum that was first revealed in 2019, will finally be released on September 1st, developer Daedalic Entertainment announced Tuesday. The game will be available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X / S, with a Switch version in the works for “later this year,” according to a press release.

I was able to see a short preview of the game in a Zoom call last week. If you’re familiar with Gollum’s shadowy nature from the books and movies, you won’t be surprised to hear that you’ll be doing a lot of sneaking around to get to where you need to go. But the video featured quite a bit of environmental traversal as well — Gollum spent a lot of time scaling walls and making great leaps to avoid hazards. Players will also have opportunities to react to situations as Gollum or as his kinder self, Sméagol, and your choices can have consequences for the game’s story down the line.
 

SJRB

Gold Member
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, the upcoming video game starring Gollum

iu
 

anthony2690

Banned
I'm guessing now EA have the game rights for LOTR games, I shouldn't expect or hope for another shadow of Mordor/war game :(
 
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haxan7

Volunteered as Tribute
It's definitely caught my interest.

My hopes are:
  • Faithful to the overall plot and feeling of LOTR. No fan fic bullshit like Shadow of Mordor/War. That pretty much soured me on seeing LOTR used as a story setting in games forever.
  • No open world / checklist gameplay.
  • Good sense of exploration.
 

Bragr

Banned
Almost all of the previews I have seen have been negative. Apparently, it's a very linear stealth game, sneak around and choke out Orks sort of thing. But these guys aren't Rocksteady or Naughty Dog, so it's a bit potato.
 

Kerotan

Member
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, the upcoming video game starring Gollum
When you're trying to hit that word count but dunno what to say.

So basically what I'm saying is he has a word count to hit and he's not sure how to reach it so he just repeats the obvious so it helps him reach the word count because he's not sure what else to say to reach the word count.
 

fatmarco

Member
I remember this being one of the earliest next gen game announcements.

I hope they've improved the visuals because it looked horrendous originally. LOTR game developers really need to stop changing the art style of that universe. Treat it like Star Wars at this point, everything should look consistent with the films.

Any time Shadow of Mordor stepped out of line in that regard, it made the game much much worse for it (e.g. Shelob).
 

MiguelItUp

Member
Cool premise, but everything they've shown looks pretty rough and not well optimized. Here's to hoping that changes. Would've been really cool if the art could've been more consistent with the other LOTR branded games.
 

Kssio_Aug

Member
I think the idea is pretty damn interesting, and could have become an amazing and quite tense game. Sadly the gameplay they shown was pretty damn rough, and it doesn't look good at all.
 

RoadHazard

Gold Member
I don't think I've ever heard of this. And playing as Gollum doesn't sound conducive to fun gameplay to me. Much sneaking I would guess?
 

Kssio_Aug

Member
How are we getting a release date so soon and no fucking actual gameplay lmao. This feels like a fucking scam or it's going to be utter shit and they know it.
There was some (very little) gameplay before. No idea how it looks nowadays though... I guess not much different.

 
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Kacho

Gold Member
I'm guessing now EA have the game rights for LOTR games, I shouldn't expect or hope for another shadow of Mordor/war game :(
Yeah, Monolith usually only do a game or two before moving onto a new series. Wonder Woman is up next for them. At least they fixed Shadow of War before moving on. Game is in a great state now.
 

CamHostage

Member
I remember this being one of the earliest next gen game announcements.

It was, but mostly for logistical purposes, not that they ever were going to deliver this "true next-gen quality" game everybody expected when they led with next-gen announcements. The publisher later added back in past-gen versions and even a Switch release.
 

Mossybrew

Member
Almost all of the previews I have seen have been negative. Apparently, it's a very linear stealth game, sneak around and choke out Orks sort of thing. But these guys aren't Rocksteady or Naughty Dog, so it's a bit potato.

Yep, I've thought the premise of this game was shit from day one, and I've seen nothing yet to change my mind. Gonna go right back to forgetting this game exists after this post.
 

CamHostage

Member
Wasn't this game exclusive to the next gen?

It was announced as such, but that was before we knew what next-gen really meant this time. (Meaning mostly an augmentation of existing base products with next-gen improvements layered on top or underneath; not that this didn't happen in past-gens too, but the scaling approach between familiar architectures and the prolonged development of "true next-gen" approaches and other factors have meant most games work equally well as past-gen and current-gen projects.)

They announced PS5/Xbox Series to get it into the conversation and to isolate development for the most lucrative audiences, but Gollum was never going to be the amazing game that shunned cross-gen. They added PS4/X1 and even Switch late in development (or at least announced plans now included those platforms) and perceptibly nothing changed about what they showed then vs now.
 
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anthony2690

Banned
Yeah, Monolith usually only do a game or two before moving onto a new series. Wonder Woman is up next for them. At least they fixed Shadow of War before moving on. Game is in a great state now.
Disappointing as I sadly have no interest in wonder woman at all :(
 

Kacho

Gold Member
Disappointing as I sadly have no interest in wonder woman at all :(
I’m with you on having no interest in Wonder Woman but I play everything Monolith makes due to their history of excellence.

Would much prefer they revisit FEAR or Blood though.
 

Esca

Member
I love stealth games so I'm keep an eye out but I was less than impressed with what I remember seeing
 

skit_data

Member
disgusted not safe for work GIF

I don’t have a good feeling about this game commercially or critically.
Same here, it just feels like a wierd concept to take on as a game dev. Maybe if it released 15-20 years ago it would’ve worked but now? I wish the them all luck but yeah, I have a strong feeling this will be a 65 Metascore game that will see little to no sales. Just a hunch.
 

Banjo64

cumsessed
Love LOTR but a game on Gollum? Really? It’s be like having a game based on Wormtail from Harry Potter or some other skid mark. Wish they’d just made a normal LOTR game. Will try if it gets a positive reception.
 

Andodalf

Banned
I remember this being one of the earliest next gen game announcements.

I hope they've improved the visuals because it looked horrendous originally. LOTR game developers really need to stop changing the art style of that universe. Treat it like Star Wars at this point, everything should look consistent with the films.

Any time Shadow of Mordor stepped out of line in that regard, it made the game much much worse for it (e.g. Shelob).
Having a license to the lord of the rings for games doesn’t mean you have a license to the movies, and can’t directly copy it
 

Fbh

Member
Still can't believe how out of everything they could make with this franchise we are getting this.

Someone was joking above but I'd literally rather play a Hobbit farm/town simulator than this.


disgusted not safe for work GIF

I don’t have a good feeling about this game commercially or critically.

Yeah.
I have a couple of friends who are massive LOTR/Tolkien fans, read all the books multiple times, watched the movies so much they can quote most scenes by memory, played most LOTR games, have LOTR board games, etc.
Neither of them is really interested in this. They are both like "eh, I'd try it if it was free on Ps+".
 
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Kenneth Haight

Gold Member
Same here, it just feels like a wierd concept to take on as a game dev. Maybe if it released 15-20 years ago it would’ve worked but now? I wish the them all luck but yeah, I have a strong feeling this will be a 65 Metascore game that will see little to no sales. Just a hunch.

Still can't believe how out of everything they could make with this franchise we are getting this.

Someone was joking above but I'd literally rather play a Hobbit farm/town simulator than this.




Yeah.
I have a couple of friends who are massive LOTR/Tolkien fans, read all the books multiple times, watched the movies so much they can quote most scenes by memory, played most LOTR games, have LOTR board games, etc.
Neither of them is really interested in this. They are both like "eh, I'd try it if it was free on Ps+".
I agree, if I was the developer I would be cosying up to gamepass and ps plus to try and get some of my development costs back as I don’t see many flocking to this for full price.
 
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