The Lord Of The Rings: Gollum – What We Know So Far

“The old world will burn in the fires of industry. The forests will fall. A new order will rise.” — Saruman

First thing’s first, I am super amped for this. The Lord of the Rings series is one of the best movie series out there and the games follow suit.
LOTR: Gollum was originally set for release in 2021 but was delayed until 2022 (with no other specified release window) but with this delay, developers Daedalic Entertainment announced that they were going to be working with French video game publisher, Nacon. LOTR: Gollum will be released on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S & Series X, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum – Teaser

What Is It About?

Based on the masterpieces written by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is an upcoming action-adventure game that throws you into Endor (Middle-Earth), more specifically into Ered Hithui (the Misty Mountains) where Gollum lives.
In case you aren’t familiar, in a nutshell, Gollum is a Stoor Hobbit who originally went by the name Sméagol (or Trahald), who was corrupted by the power of Isildur’s Bane (the One Ring).

“One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.”

—The Ring’s inscription, translated.

The story of this title follows our precious Gollum in the times before the events of the novels and films, after Sméagol had uncovered the One Ring and leading up to everything else that we do know by filling in the gaps of the mythos (or at least expanding on what’s already there, depending on how big of a fan you are of this otherworldly series). With Gollum already having somewhat of a split personality, having you delve into his being and becoming one as you traverse across the lands living out his story, really isn’t that big of a deal; quite a smooth transition I’d say.

According to CEO and co-founder of Daedalic Entertainment, Carsten Fichtelmann, the game will “tell Gollum’s story from a perspective never seen before, in any storytelling medium, all the while staying true to the legendary books of J.R.R. Tolkien.”

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum – Sneak Peek Trailer

The Whispered Titbits

Okay, so in all honesty, there really isn’t all that much known about this upcoming title. Daedalic have kept this pretty quiet and it feels like our version of searching for the Precious. What is very possible is that it will make an appearance in one of the upcoming gaming events as 2022 approaches, or at least in one of the early 2022 events (also a quick side-note for anyone who does keep up to scratch with the LOTR games – The Lord of the Rings MMO that was underway with Amazon and Tencent has been cancelled due to a “dispute” between the two).

To start this exhilarating journey, in the days of yore before the novels, we’ll be scurrying around the depths of Barad-Dur, also known as the Dark Tower, the fortress of the Dark Lord Sauron.
Rest assured, Daedalic has noted that there will be loads more exploration into other regions of Middle-Earth and encounter various characters thereof.

What we do know which Daedalic has confirmed is that this will be a very stealth-focused and platformer-type game. There won’t be majorly detailed action abilities for Gollum but given his stature and general lurker-characteristics, stealth really is the way to go; although being able to absolutely thrash and viciously maul Endor fiends would be great. Despite not having that as a likely option (which I’m kind of thankful for because the lack thereof will maintain the character and environmental feel that we’re hoping for), there will be elements of parkour, “feeling sounds” and “seeing in the dark” which will work very much in your favour over enemies. Do note though that using Gollum’s abilities like freestyle climbing, jumping, and fitting into tight spots will use up stamina, so keep an eye on that gauge before making your next move.

A cool little aspect is also the choices that you’ll be able to make which will be split between Gollum’s split personalities. There is heavy focus on the inner battle that Gollum/Sméagol continually has within himself. You know that whole “you have two wolves within, the good and the bad, make the choice of which one you’ll feed”? Yeah, that’s basically what this is. You will have the relative choices and actions displayed around your character in bubbles, from which you’ll need to decide and be able to tip the scale between Gollum and Sméagol.

We’re not quite sure as to how in-depth this choice system will go; will it have a much larger ripple effect throughout the game and into the ending? Or will it only make a few minor adjustments to the smaller aspects of the game without having any actual purpose to it? I’m hoping that there will be a little more to it, even if it doesn’t necessarily affect the ending all that much.

Of course, you will also come across familiar faces, some friendly and some not so friendly; included in this list will be the Nazgûl and Thranduil. We can also expect to very likely encounter Aragorn, as one of the confirmed locations that we will be exploring is Mirkwood and I’m also really hoping that somewhere along the lines we’ll encounter (however briefly) Arwen and Legolas.

Technicalities

Of course with the availability of next-gen consoles, the experience will be loads better on the PS5 thanks to the DualSense controller. Features such as the haptic feedback will allow for ultimate immersion by having the triggers link to Gollums stamina. By this we mean as his stamina depletes, the more resistance will be applied to the triggers.
Now the next question is, will this feature be purely for the heck of it, or will thereby be more to it that has an effect on the gameplay?

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum will also show off impressive ray tracing. This could be both a blessing and a curse to help and hinder your stealth throughout the game. You could either be well hidden in shadowy crevices or illuminated by an inconveniently set stream of light while sneaking past the Nazgûl.

“Clean, ray-traced shadows allow for maximum effect in player guidance in building stealth passages while dynamic and moving light sources bring in the extra challenge when Gollum is roaming through the darkness. All these things, of course, have the nice side-effect of making the game feel vast, and such free-roaming environments we are creating a look as spectacular as Middle-earth deserves.” – Daedalic art director, Mathias Fischer.

thranduil- King of the eleves of Mirkwood

The usual aim for photorealism also isn’t going to be a thing this time around, the developers are going for a more cartoonish (but not too much so) yet realistic graphic take.

Predicted PC Specification Requirements

MINIMUM

OS: Windows 7 64-bit

Processor: Intel Core i3-560 3.3GHz / AMD Phenom II X4 805

Graphics: AMD Radeon R7 360X or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti

RAM: 4 GB

HDD: 40 GB

DirectX 11 Compatible Graphics Card

RECOMMENDED

OS: Windows 7 64-bit

Processor: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz / AMD FX-8370

Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 580 8GB or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060

RAM: 8 GB