Back in March of last year, Daedalic Entertainment revealed that they are working with Middle Earth Enterprises to create new game set in the Lord Of The Rings Universe that focuses on Gollum. According to IGN, Daedalic Studio’s key developers were interviewed by Edge for the February 2020 issue and they revealed several interesting pieces of information concerning Lord of The Rings: Gollum. Daedalic Entertainment stated in March of last year that the game would be coming to PC and “all relevant console platforms at the time.” Gamers speculated that this meant that it would be releasing for Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 and it has now been confirmed that the game will be releasing for both next-gen consoles.
The Edge interview with Kai Fiebig, the Senior Producer at Daedalic, revealed that the game intends to portray Gollum in a way not seen in the films with the titular character conveying “a different set of emotions than those seen in the films so that he’s more sympathetic and relatable.”
Kai also stated that this portrayal would be very important and that players will be spending “20 hours or so” with Gollum. This seems to imply that the game will have around 20 hours, however, this has not been confirmed.
The Art Director Mathias Fischer also revealed that players will be able to encounter the Nazgûl in the game. Fischer stated: “They were an interesting challenge, because it’s so well documented where they are in the wider narrative. It was like, ‘Shit, can we use the cool Nazgûl?’” He also revealed that he has a rather interesting opinion on this portrayal of the Nazgûl. “I think ours are the less cool ones. They’re the drummer and bass player of the band. But we have a chance to make them more popular!”
Lord Of The Rings: Gollum will also reportedly feature stealth gameplay, huge levels, and a dual personality mechanic. The dual personality mechanic will reportedly take a large role in the game because, according to the gamer designer Martin Wilkes, “It’s not just choosing to be Sméagol or Gollum, because for Gollum as an entity it’s not that easy. Each personality is being attacked by the other; each has to defend himself.” This could imply that the choices are meant to reflect the struggles that Gollum/Sméagol goes through every day with every choice he makes and could be a part of the way the game intends to portray Gollum in a more sympathetic light.
No new information is currently available regarding Lord Of The Rings: Gollum but it is likely that more information will be released at a later date. Lord Of The Rings: Gollum will be releasing for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, PC and any other “relevant consoles” in 2021.