At the BigBen Week event in Paris, developers Daedalic Entertainment held a hands-off live demo of The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, which is set to release on September 1 on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC. A Nintendo Switch release for The Lord of the Rings Gollum is planned for a later date.
The Lord of the Rings Gollum is a AAA story-driven action-adventure stealth featuring the character Gollum during the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings books. The game follows Gollum’s untold journey behind-the-scenes of the trilogy, and his trek from Misty Mountains, Mirkwood, and more while avoiding dangerous threats through stealth, platforming, and puzzle-solving gameplay.
▍The Lords of the Rings Gollum Game Systems
■ Stealth Action Gameplay
In the live demo, they showed off the tutorial section of the game with Gollum sneaking around Orcs and knights. Because Gollum has been living in a cave for over 500 years, he has developed certain skills that can help him avoid enemies. One of which is a sort of “Gollum Sense” which allows him to outline living beings behind obstacles. Think of the eagle vision from the Assassin’s Creed series.
Due to Gollum’s stature, he can also hide behind tall grass, fallen trees, rocks, and even in darkness. When the opportunity is right, he can pounce on enemies to take them down. Because of his size, however, taking down enemies consumes stamina so it seems players will need to think carefully about which enemies they wish to remove. Gollum also has the ability to summon the Spider Queen Shelob to take down certain foes, though this seems to also be another method of stealth takedowns.
■ Gollum vs Smeagol Moral Choices
The game will also feature diverging narratives depending on the moral choices proposed by Gollum and Smeagol. These decisions will have effects on the overarching story, and will supposedly also determine which of the two has control over their body. As the game still aims to be based on the Lord of the Rings canon, it is unknown how dramatically these choices will affect the trilogy’s story.
■ Platforming and Puzzle Solving
Towards the end of the demo, the game showed a chandelier hanging from Thranduil’s mansion. The player will need to find ways up these hard-to-reach platforms while solving certain puzzles that can create new platforms, and move certain objects. It is unclear if Thranduil himself will make an appearance, however, the devs did state that Lord of the Rings Gollum will feature many characters from the franchise.
▍About The Lord of the Rings Gollum
The Lord of the Rings Gollum is a stealth-action platformer, developed by Daedalic Entertainment and co-published with Nacon. Announced back in March 2019, the game was delayed from 2021 to 2022. The game says it will take players along a journey with Gollum’s journey behind-the-scenes of the lord of the rings’ story in an original telling. Fans of J.R.R. Tolkien’s work can expect a story that is faithfully based on the Gollum character while tieing him into the lore of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Daedalic Entertainment is a German-based development studio, their previous works include titles such as Shadow Tactics: Blade of the Shogun, Barotauma, and The Suicide of Rachel Foster.
