During a recent interview published in EDGE magazine (February 2020 issue 341), Daedalic Entertainment finally revealed some information , which tells the story of Gollum from the novels “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit, or There and Back Again” by JRR Tolkien.
Interestingly, Gollum in the game will not look the same as we remember in the two trilogies of films created by director Peter Jackson. Daedalic executive director Carsten Fichtelmann noted: “To begin with, Tolkien did not give information about the size of Gollum. So in the first illustrations he was gigantic! He looked like a monster emerging from a swamp."
“We don't want to displease people who have only seen films. In short, he doesn't look like Andy Serkis. We started with the person he was and then expanded on who he was. Players will be able to see that he was once somewhat human before the Ring corrupted him. We have more opportunities to tell stories than films, and it was very important for us to show a different set of emotions. We need someone you could almost love, and on the other hand, someone you could actually fear. And at some point, believe me, you will be afraid of him,” added senior producer Kai Fiebig.
On the other hand, Gollum's dual personality is the perfect basis for an interesting mechanic. Players will also be given in-game choices that will influence events. Game designer Martin Wilkes explains:
“In a lot of games, it’s kind of weird when characters say to themselves, “Hmm, I can’t get through because there’s a lot of guards there.” We can give the player direct navigation guidance, because Gollum still talks to himself.
It's not just about choosing between Sméagol or Gollum, because for Gollum as a subject it's not that simple. Each personality is attacked by the other; everyone must protect themselves. You can have two, three or four conflicts in each chapter that lead to the final resolution. And at the moment of the final decision it will be more difficult to choose Sméagol, for example, if you have always fought on the side of Gollum before.”
Finally, some of the fearsome Nazgûl will be featured in the game, according to art director Mathias Fischer: “Working with these characters was quite interesting because they are well documented where they are in the larger narrative. We approached the question something like this: “Damn, can we use cool Nazgûl?” I think ours are less cool. They're like the drummers and bassists in a band. But we have a chance to make them more popular!”
Described as a stealth action-adventure game, The Lord of the Rings - Gollum has been announced for launch in 2021 on PC and next-gen consoles such as PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.
Source: 3dnews.ru