Gollum, the upcoming game on PS5 and Xbox Series X, is approaching, with a new trailer for the first sight and some new details from development studio Daedelic about the Lord of The Rings spin-off game (via IGN).
In an interview, lead story designer Tilman Schanen talks about the narrative choices between Gollum and his Sméagol alter ego, which both the player must control and use to navigate their way through the game.
“It’s not as simple as, ‘Choose Sméagol to be good, choose Gollum to be evil,'” Schanen says. “Our first rule is to stay true to the character (or our interpretation of him at least). Since you play two personalities in one character, choosing sides will give you some control. But it’s more than maneuvering a truck with two flat tires and try not to drive off a cliff. “
It is this description of the character’s internal conflict – and how it will affect a clever story – that gives us the most insight into the game, with the (rather boring) CGI trailer below not offering anything in terms of in-game levels, navigation, or combat. Sauron’s Eye also looks surprisingly pedestrian, more ‘telecommunication tower’ than ‘terrible lord’.
However, the idea of wrestling with Gollum’s warring psyches for different outcomes is somewhat undermined by the inevitability of the story, as Schanen reminds us: “In the end, of course, Gollum’s fate is pretty much determined by the books.”
Lord of The Rings meets Prince of Persia
There are many interesting comments in the interview, including comparison to the wall-running and verticality of Prince of Persia, and description of stealth-heavy gameplay that will involve for the most part occur combat – as opposed to, say, the superb Shadow of War or Shadow of Mordor games on today’s generation PlayStation and Xbox consoles.
With a TV series Lord of The Rings also coming to Amazon Prime Video, there’s a lot to go on in the coming years – although there’s nothing so far about Gollum that really makes it on the moment is like a next-gen must-buy at the moment. Let’s hope we’re more impressed when we get a better look closer to launch …
