Lord of the Rings fans has a new adventure coming next year with the upcoming The Lord of the Rings: Gollum. The adventure game, which is being developed by Deponia developer Daedalic, is set to come to PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X sometime in 2021. In an interview with Edge Magazine, more details on Gollum have been revealed. One of the biggest? The game will be working off of the books rather than the movies. In fact, the developers note that in the books, Gollum doesn’t actually have a size reference. One of the first illustrations depicts him as a giant swamp monster. The goal is to make a Gollum that is true to the books rather than Andy Serkis.
Senior Producer Kai Fiebig said,
We don’t want to displease the folks who have only seen the movies. But in short, he doesn’t look like Andy Serkis. We started with the person he was and then evolved him. You can see that this was once something like a human being, before the Ring corrupted him. We have more storytelling possibilities than the movies ever had, and for us, it was very important to show a different set of emotions. We need somebody you could almost love, and on the other hand somebody you can really be afraid of. And at some points, trust me, you will fear him.
Also in both the books and movies: the Nazgûl. The developers have said that the creepy riders will be present in Gollum’s plot. However, they had to make an exception: they can only get the “less cool” Nazgûl. Since most of the ringwraiths have pretty specific locations and timelines in the books, they had to resort to using the few that were not documented as thoroughly. Daedalic is eager to make the lesser-known “drummer and bass player of the band…more popular.”
As for one of the most important character traits of Gollum, his split personality will play an important role in the game. Throughout Gollum, you’ll have to make moral choices, with the decisions following the good “Sméagol” path or the evil “Gollum” path. The game will frame these decisions as battles between the two personalities, and as you side with one the game will make it more difficult to side with the other. Each chapter will end with a major decision, and the choices you make will affect how easy it is to actually make the final decision depending on which side you’ve chosen in other conflicts. Gollum’s split personality also makes for effective player guidance:
In many games, it’s unintentionally funny when characters say, “Hmmm, I won’t be able to get through there, it’s full of guards.” We’re able to give the player direct guidance about navigation because Gollum talks to himself all the time anyway.
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum launches next year on PC and next-gen consoles. Gollum is supposed to be the first in a series of Lord of the Rings adventure games, so fans of the series have quite a bit to look forward to.
[source: WCCFtech via Edge Magazine Issue 341]
