Gollum: Daedalic’s Stealth Adventure Coming September 1st

Hamburg-based game company Daedalic wants to launch its adventure “Lord of the Rings: Gollum” on September 1st. The game will be released for PC, Playstation 4, Playstation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch.

In “Gollum” you control the hobbit of the same name, which has already seen better days due to its many years of ring-bearer activity. In terms of gameplay, “Gollum” is basically a hidden adventure, as Daedalic explained in an online presentation of his game before the release was announced. Part of the presentation to the press members was a 20-minute gameplay clip that revealed a lot of work to be done: the animation, facial expressions, character models, and stories seemed immature. Deadalic wants to make improvements here in the next three months.

According to Daedalic, the levels for the game “Gollum” are completely linear. Gollum crawls through the tall grass to hide from his opponents. In addition, players can activate a detective sense to highlight enemies and useful items in the environment. Gollum can’t really fight, but orcs can be eliminated from behind.

sneaking and climbing

“Gollum” is similar to titles like “Styx” in its game mechanics. In turn, Gollum’s kit is very small: he can throw stones to distract opponents and turn off light sources. The developers explained in their demo that it is not possible to unlock new skills during the course of the game. When Gollum doesn’t sneak up, he mostly scrambles. With climbing puzzles, these lanes are somewhat reminiscent of the “Prince of Persia” or early “Assassin’s Creed” games. Players should also pay attention to Gollum’s stamina when climbing – if the hobbit strains himself, he will fall to the ground.

Build 1 phone 8

Daedalic licensed the book The Lord of the Rings for The Lord of the Rings: Gollum. The development studio in Hamburg is almost based on the well-known story of the trilogy, but the studio does a few tricks. While imprisoned in the halls of the Elven King Thranduil, Gollum forges an alliance with a magical dwarf who can talk to the hobbit about water – by the way, Gollum can also swim and dive.

The “human” side of Gollum

In the context of the linear story, players must occasionally be able to choose between two alternative courses of action: Gollum occasionally quarrels with his alter ego Sméagol. In the presentation, Daedalic showed a strange scene in which players were asked to determine the fate of a flying bug by hosting the character’s inner monologue. Is the evil ladybug a spy? Or is he just looking for pollen? For this, Daedalik created an individualistic system in which the various Gollums’ identities contradict each other with arguments. Scenes like this are supposed to humanize Gollum, but still look pretty awkward in the presentation. While Gollum’s story always has the same ending, the tone of the ending is meant to adapt to the choices that are made.

“The Lord of the Rings: Gollum” is the largest production to date by the Hamburg game company Daedalic, which has experienced turbulent years. In 2014, the publishing group Basti Lobe acquired a majority stake in the company. After the publisher questioned the studio’s future in 2020, the founders repurchased their shares. At the beginning of February 2022, Bastei Lübbe finally gave up its remaining shares. Earlier this year, French company Nacon bought Daedalic for $53 million.

(Doha)