Many are familiar with the depiction of Gollum featured Peter Jackson's acclaimed Lord of the Rings film trilogy, and the actor behind him, Andy Serkis, netted accolades, like a "Best Digital Acting Performance" award from the Broadcast Film Critics Association, for his performance. However, Daedalic Entertainment has apparently decided to buck this well-known character design for its upcoming Lord of the Rings: Gollum.
Lord of the Rings: Gollum was announced in March 2019 as a venture by the German development studio that is known for publishing titles like the point-and-click adventure series Deponia. The goal with the game is to create a narrative-driven, action-adventure experience that fleshes out parts of Gollum's corruption and explores his subsequent journey through Middle-earth.
Details about the changes to Gollum's design are discussed in Edge magazine issue 341, which will be officially released in February. Its featured cover story is a discussion with members of Daedalic Entertainment, including Game Designer Martin Wilkes and CEO Carsten Fichtelmann (both of whom recently commented on the potential of next generation consoles), and this conversation indicates that the development team is looking to create a design for the game that is more closely inspired by J. R. R. Tolkien's original drawings.
That's not all the preview reveals, though, as the game's release platforms are also discussed. Specifically, it is stated that the new interactive adventure in the Lord of the Rings universe will be released for PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X in 2021, on top of the previously-announced PC version.
Lord of the Rings proves to be endlessly popular as time passes, and it has a long history both in its own series of video games and as references in others — such as an entire themed side-quest in Borderlands 3. One of the most recent endeavors to create a Lord of the Rings game came as Middle-Earth: Shadow of War from 2017, but Lord of the Rings: Gollum promises to be an entirely different experience than that action-focused RPG. It will reportedly have more of a focus on stealth gameplay and mechanics dealing with the character's dual personality, according to the Edge feature.
Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings adaptations have largely dominated the series' representation worldwide, but with games like Gollum and an Amazon Prime streaming show in the works, who knows what the future of Middle-earth will look like. Hopefully in the case of young Smeagol, it will at least be aesthetically pleasing.
Lord of the Rings: Gollum will be available in 2021 for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.
Source: Edge (via GamesRadar+ and wccftech)