Thoughts on the Upcoming Lord of the Rings: Gollum Game
As a lifelong fan of Tolkien and enjoyer of video games, something I’ve always dreamed of seeing (or creating) is a Skyrim-esque open world game set in Middle Earth. We have Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor and Middle-Earth: Shadow of War, but that’s not really what I’m looking for. I want to play as an elf, hobbit, or dwarf, and be able to ride from Hobbiton to Bree to Rivendell. A game set right in the places I know from the Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit books, maybe even a game set during the events of the Lord of the Rings. My thirst for this was somewhat quenched when I played LEGO The Hobbit (which is an absolute joy and a shame it was never finished — but that’s another ramble for another day), but I want realistic landscapes and stellar graphics along with a story I’m not familiar with.
This brings me to the real topic of this article: Daedalic Entertainment’s upcoming game, Lord of the Rings: Gollum. Not at all what I expected to see for the next game set in Middle Earth, and definitely not what anyone asked for, but I think it’s a brilliant idea. The game is set to arrive sometime in 2022 and is said to take advantage of the PS5 DualSense haptic feedback ability. Lord of the Rings: Gollum is going to be set during the events of the Lord of the Rings (obviously) and will follow the books more than the movies, so I’m excited to see the original designs for all the locations. Apparently we will be seeing Gollum’s journey starting from being held captive in Barad-dûr, to where he meets Frodo and Sam.
Daedalic Entertainment has said that the game will feature a vast open world. Playing as Gollum will introduce some interesting mechanics, as the player will likely have to use a lot of stealth while climbing and crawling through different areas. Apparently there will be a huge focus on Gollum’s stamina, so you have to pay attention to his stamina gauge before doing certain tasks like climbing or jumping far distances.
It’ll be really interesting to see the world of Middle Earth from Gollum’s perspective; Daedalic has spoken about how the player will be taken to places like Mirkwood, and that we’ll see lots of the characters we know and love. Gollum is a solitary character so it’s unlikely that there will be any sort of companions or friends to make along the way, so I’m interested to see how Gollum will be able to interact with the world and other characters.
I played Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice last year, and was blown away by its use of voices and sounds to assist the player with combat and directions. Since Daedalic’s CEO Carsten Fichtelmann told the Hollywood Reporter that there will be the inner conflict between Gollum’s two personalities — Gollum and Smeagol — I think it would be so cool to implement the feature of having those two personalities talking to each other a lot and hearing one or the other whispering things while you’re sneaking or making decisions. This game has the potential to be bordering on horror, but for marketability it will probably be more of a dark game with some intense and scary elements, but just enough balance with fun and adventure.
I look forward to seeing how Daedalic’s writers deal with branching narratives, Gollum and Smeagol’s clashing personalities, and showing how tragic Gollum’s inner battle is. With an open world, I think having consequences or rewards for certain choices and paths you take with Gollum will make for a more exciting game, rather than taking him on a linear path to meet Frodo and Sam. The gameplay trailer that was released 4 days ago doesn’t show us much, but it teases at the dark look and feel of the game, and it’s gotten me more excited for the release. What I’m really excited about, however, is that if Lord of the Rings: Gollum, does well, then more of these side stories from Middle Earth could be turned into awesome games in the future.
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