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[ThatStupidLion]

great art direction.

 

[01011001]

I'd rather have a remaster of LotR Conquest.

that was the Battlefront engine title right? felt basically a SW Battlefront spinoff, at least from playing the demo back then I got that feeling.

 

[R6Rider]

that was the Battlefront engine title right? felt basically a SW Battlefront spinoff, at least from playing the demo back then I got that feeling.

Yeah it was basically Battlefront with a LotR skin. If I remember correctly the servers were shut down not too many years after it launched.

 

[Hitchyhero]

Wow this looks veey basic. I was expecting a bigger budged game? It looks like a basic platformer that would come out digital only for £20/$20

 

[Kerotan]

AM I the only one who thinks it looks decent?

 

[Nankatsu]

LOL

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

Graphics aren't everything. The problem is the gameplay looks boring AF. This BotW climbing shit has to go. Also not licensing just the voice alone is a huge mistake, it's LotR FFS.

 

[Kaachan]

Dat Oblivion swimming animation

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

I wish a LOTR with a style "Dark souls- Elden Ring"

Or give me middle earth shadow of mordor 3

 

[sol_bad]

Literally all they show is Gollum running, climbing and shimmying. What the hell is this?

 

[Dorohedoro]

 

[Crayon]

Wow, uh.... wow.

Some games are more for like fans of the material so maybe it will find some success like that.

Other theory: This launches on one or more subscriptions and the msrp is innapropriatley high to make it look like the best deal in gaming.

 

[Hoppa]

 

[BaneIsPain]

Early access eh, smeagol?

 

[killatopak]

I still don’t know who this game is for.

Even if you’re a LotR fan, who the fuck wants to play as gollum?

 

[Bragr]

I'd rather would like a Hobbit game with Zelda like gameplay.

That would be incredible. Imagine Breath of the Wild only you play as Bilbo in a LOTR universe. Would be godlike.

 

[envyzeal]

All the budget was spent on licensing

 

[kiphalfton]

jesus...how did they think of making this? how did they not see how shitty it looked once they finished their first level.

Sunk cost fallacy.

Seriously though, I have no clue how the Lord of the Rings license has suffered so much when it comes to game adaptations. The last good games were the movie tie ins for the second and third game a long ass time ago (on PS2/GC/Xbox). Shadow of Mordor was garbage, and I'm sure Shadow of War was too (didn't play it, since the first game was extremely repetitive and had awful level design).

 

[ThatOneGrunt]

What do you even do in this game besides sneaking around? There can't be a combat system. That would be ridiculous. So is it just puzzles? What is the gameplay? How is this a 8-10 hour game?

 

[Apocryphon]

No. They can fuck right off with this nonsense!

 

[Bragr]

I hope none of the devs sees this thread.

 

[Apocryphon]

I hope none of the devs sees this thread.

It's time for them to start looking for new jobs anyway.

 

[Miyazaki’s Slave]

AM I the only one who thinks it looks decent?

No...but folks expect Shadows of War 3: Gollum Takes Manhattan when a new LotR property gets announced.
I don't see any indication that this is published by WB at all so it is probably a property license from the J.R.R Tolkien trust and the publisher/developers are not money hatted.
It is also shipping on PS4, Switch, and Xbox One (unless that got changed).

I would have gone with less hair on Gollum personally.

 

[Batiman]

That looks pretty bad. Reminds me of Styx but worse

 

[A.Romero]

Not my cup of tea but it's what I expected since they released the first screenshot. It's just a game barely above indie level in production values. There is space in the market for this.

 

[Craig of War]

Just found out this game is using Unreal Engine
I didn't know you can make a Unreal Engine game look bad but by god they did it

 

[Elder Legend]

Just found out this game is using Unreal Engine
I didn't know you can make a Unreal Engine game look bad but by god they did it

Dude the art direction is atrocious. There is no consistency in colors whatsoever. I am really curious sometimes how do some devs have these weekly or monthly meetings and no one points out how awful something is. I don't get it....

Bad art direction will make the game look awful no matter how good of an engine you are using.

 

[CitizenZ]

So its basically Styx Master of Shadows series. Cool Ill play that, but not at $60.

 

[Craig of War]

Dude the art direction is atrocious. There is no consistency in colors whatsoever. I am really curious sometimes how do some devs have these weekly or monthly meetings and no one points out how awful something is. I don't get it....

Bad art direction will make the game look awful no matter how good of an engine you are using.

Great point maybe they ran out of budget cause it developed by Daedalic Entertainment and published by Nacon
So not really AAA quality or budget wise oh well

 

[Punished Miku]

What do you even do in this game besides sneaking around? There can't be a combat system. That would be ridiculous. So is it just puzzles? What is the gameplay? How is this a 8-10 hour game?

Thats exactly the reason I chase games like this. For one brief moment before the disappointment fully sets in, anything seems possible. What do you even do in Gollum? Exactly.

 

[peronmls]

This just looks bad. I loved LoTR during the PS2/GC era. This is just not looking right. Basic stealth and platforming. Bright colors. Basic UE4 graphics. This voice actor sounds just as bad as Mickey Mouse OG actor replacements. Gollum looks like malnourished monkey? Come on, really? At least base the design off the movie and not this representation of Middle Earth and characters. This looks like Doom but that has better graphical fidelity. $30 at max.

 

[BennyBlanco]

wish we got another shadow of mordor game instead of this junk.

 

[gow3isben]

This looks bad for a PS3 game what the hell?

 

[Elder Legend]

Great point maybe they ran out of budget cause it developed by Daedalic Entertainment and published by Nacon
So not really AAA quality or budget wise oh well

I've seen solo devs pull better looking stuff using UE5/UE4 when creating their own art demos/passion projects because they have amazing talent and skills.

I don't think the budget here honestly is an excuse. Then again, I don't know how many people they have on the team or what their background is in terms of artists and who they hired exactly.

So I can't really speak here and pretend that I know everything because I haven't done enough research about this developer/publisher.

What I can say is though, I've played many indie games and seen really good and awful things. I don't think manpower/team size really has a big factor. You can still have a small team of 15 or 20 people and pull of amazing art direction if you have good talented art team.

The issue with some of the indie devs is that they try to bite more than they can chew. Whether it's ambition, too many gameplay ideas/mechanics and then what happens is everything falls flat on its face. Because the devs went too far with their wishes and ego instead of focusing on tight gameplay, good pacing and good game design. I see this a lot, and it's really sad that a lot of the teams fall into this trap that they create themselves.

Also, a lot of triple AAA developers such as Infinity Ward, Treyarch outsource a lot of their stuff for CoD. There is so much out sourcing in industry it's insane. They'll either outsource to a whole dedicated art studio or a freelancer.

Here is one such studio that specifically exists to be hired for outsourcing. They did CoD stuff.

https://www.artstation.com/ryzinart

Pretty insane looking gun models if you ask me.

 

[peronmls]

Looks like a small Indie game wtf

Honestly that's most UE4 games. It has the features but not the talent. UE4 does the work for them.

 

[fatmarco]

I was playing Kameo just the other day. That looks better than this does. That game is 17 years old.

Remember what 17 years used to mean in videogames lol?

 

[iHaunter]

I'm fucking dyyyyyyiinnnggggggggg!!!!

 

[TLZ]

 

[BigBooper]

Not really what I expected. Is it only the story of the trilogy from Gollum's perspective? I thought there'd be something more open.

 

[Elder Legend]

That looks terrible. Daedalic are fucked.

They need too switch out the "ae' to "ea". Because once the game comes out and gets the awful reception it clearly deserves, the studio would have transformed into "Deadalic" and then go bankrupt.

 

[Halo is Back]

Who honestly thought this would be a good idea for a LOTR game? Wtf

 

[emivita]

Maybe they should have stuck with point&click adventure games and improve their formula. I'm not the biggest fan of the Deponia games, but they were decent/good.

 

[Jim Ryan other Clone]

jesus...how did they think of making this? how did they not see how shitty it looked once they finished their first level.

When the boss has a stupid idea but no one has the balls to tell it in his face and they work just to work, knowingly that what they do is total disaster

 

[Jim Ryan other Clone]

Literally all they show is Gollum running, climbing and shimmying. What the hell is this?

Do you expect golum to get a sword and armor and fight the ferocious orcs? This is shit stealth game.

 

[kyussman]

All the cool characters in TLoTR.....and they make a game where you play as Gollum,fuck me!

 

[Braag]

I guess this is aimed at people who like to do ghost runs in stealth games where you don't interact with the enemy at all and just sneak past them?

 

[Graciaus]

Sunk cost fallacy.

Seriously though, I have no clue how the Lord of the Rings license has suffered so much when it comes to game adaptations. The last good games were the movie tie ins for the second and third game a long ass time ago (on PS2/GC/Xbox). Shadow of Mordor was garbage, and I'm sure Shadow of War was too (didn't play it, since the first game was extremely repetitive and had awful level design).

The Third Age was a pretty fun FFX rip off. The two Battle for Middle Earth games were great.

 

[RPSleon]

If we dont get to murder deagol at the start i dont wanna know.

 

[ShakenG]

Big hobbit, LOTR fan.. not touching this.

 

[lh032]

This looks and plays very good for a PS3 launch game!!!