the lord of the rings: gollum

[Alie865656]

[dcbone30]

Gotta see some gameplay before I can make an opinion. I love me some LoTR, but the IP has turned out some garbage games when they could kill it with a Dark Souls clone

[nkiritsis13]

What the hell even is this, though?

Spoiler!

Yeah, because we're totally not overflowing "stylizing" cartoon graphics that look like plastic.

Gotta see some gameplay before I can make an opinion. I love me some LoTR, but the IP has turned out some garbage games when they could kill it with a Dark Souls clone

Man, a Souls-like Lord of the Rings game would be incredible. If they somehow pulled a similar thing with Star Wars, it's practically inexcusable not to try with Lord of the Rings.

Because as it stands, it's hard to say what the IP actually is regarding games because since EA lost the rights to Warner Brothers, everything has been Great Value Lord of the Rings.

Take Shadow of Mordor/War for instance: It's one thing to have your own spin on designs compared to the films, but why do they never even allude to the existence of wargs or trolls in favor of their lousy Deviantart stand-in creatures? The game originally being some kind of Batman title isn't exactly a secret, either, and the attempt at creating an original story within LOTR while also directly tying into the world/lore struck me as obligatory and forced instead of a compelling, natural addition. This became distracting the more it went on, and I would have preferred a totally original fantasy IP over tacking on LOTR references and also inherently being restricted by what they could do creatively because it was tied to LOTR.

I also bring up that short lived series because the combat is night and day compared to what a Souls-like/action RPG could set out to do, especially with the number of options a proper RPG could offer, allowing for a ton of replayability.


Er, but yeah. Gollum. Sh*t's going to be a stealth-platformer, woo-hoo. I suppose some people can find Gollum endearing (in a weird-as-f*ck kind of way), but I can't imagine dealing with his annoying voice and mannerisms for an entire bloody game. His short cameos in Shadow of Mordor were bad enough.

[bongowongo]

^^ LOOOL yeah I saw the screens of that earlier, and they had a gameplay video too right? It looked super bad and rough





Give me a modern day reimagining of the PS2 The Two Towers ... .the goat LOTR game. Me and my cousin/friends had so much fun playing co-op together. Aragon crew.

[OttomanEmpire]

What's the difference this the shadow of Mordor/war series?

[Visel]

What's the difference this the shadow of Mordor/war series?

Shadow of War / Mordor series you play as a human Talion, formerly a militant captain, who had died alongside his family. A wraith of the name Celebrimbor revived Talion and began sharing the same body/being to take vengeance against Sauron. You kill orcs, take over territories, turn orcs onto your side, and engage in boss battles / help humanity along the way in various wars/battles.

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, you apparently play as Smeagol after he has undergone corruptive effects of the ring and is transitioning into (or is already) Gollum. It's a stealth game, as opposed to a fighting game, where you dodge orcs and try to find the ring I guess. This description comes from just watching the trailer and is probably inaccurate lol.

[Steavie]

What the hell even is this, though?

80 euros for a PS2 game. lmao

[Wazooty]

If they made a soul-esque game where you played as Aragorn during his time with the Dunedain or something, maybe setting it before the events of the movies, patrolling the wilderness of middle earth, hunting errant orcs, beasts, trolls, etc. You could team up with the likes of Legolas and Gandalf during your travels as they uncovered the plots leading towards the fellowship. Focus on baller arse swordplay, have the opportunity to really make a beautiful open rendition of middle earth, have some elements of survival, hunting and living in the wilderness...I'd get it.

[MadFury]

ded at comments

If I wanted a game where I play as a shriveled up goblin looking for jewelry I’d just play the Kim Kardashian mobile game

[wickedman]

If they made a soul-esque game where you played as Aragorn during his time with the Dunedain or something, maybe setting it before the events of the movies, patrolling the wilderness of middle earth, hunting errant orcs, beasts, trolls, etc. You could team up with the likes of Legolas and Gandalf during your travels as they uncovered the plots leading towards the fellowship. Focus on baller arse swordplay, have the opportunity to really make a beautiful open rendition of middle earth, have some elements of survival, hunting and living in the wilderness...I'd get it.

Yeah, crazy how much money something like this would print, instead they just make garbage.

[nkiritsis13]

Fukk, when you think about the potential behind the franchise then read about what they're actually doing...

"We have the story that we all know from the book, but everything that happens to him before he appears in the book are the main things we will see in our game," Fichtelmann says. "We will tell the story before he first appears in the books."

So, Smeagol fanfic.

For all my complaints about how Shadow of Mordor/War felt like extremely loose LOTR fanfic, at least they tried to come up with a character who isn't a schizophrenic junkie in a loincloth.

According to the Edge preview, the game will focus on stealth and not afford Gollum with too many abilities, focusing on platforming gameplay and subterfuge over skill trees and character progression.

How many games focused around stealth that are actually good and implement it successfully is a very small figure. Substitute platforming for parkour, and that's a worse off version of Shadow of Mordor in every way.

Oh, but don't worry - the developers have pretty much only made point and click f*cking adventure games before! Surely they can pull off some Metal Gear Smeagol.

Part of the gameplay will also focus on Gollum’s inner battle with his alter-ego, Smeagol. CEO Carsten Fichtelmann told The Hollywood Reporter that in Gollum “you already have that big conflict in the character… which means there is a good reason there are decisions to make in the game: the Smeagol decisions or the Gollum decision.” It’s unclear at the moment what form these flashpoints may take, whether it comes down to dialogue or physical choices that can change the narrative remains unclear.

Uh huh, because that doesn't sound annoying as fukk.

Let's just say this is an 8 hour game; that's almost like the entire theatrical Lord of the Rings trilogy... but all Gollum/Smeagol. That sounds like the pitch an insane person would make.

Escape from Mordor, because we haven't seen enough of f*cking Mordor, then chase after jewelry senpai for the rest of the game when you're not arguing with yourself over fish or rabbitses. Cripes, this is one hell of a stretched out premise.

Accordingly, the visual style that Daedalic is aiming for is set to skirt “the uncanny valley” and aim for bold style over true realism. Fichtelmann notes in the initial report that the team is trying to “produce something that is a statement.”

Nah, mate, that look is right in the worst part of the uncanny valley when we're talking about the "shift from empathy to revulsion" according to the original theory.

The film's portrayal could evoke empathy because they accomplished such a remarkable level of realism that still manages to hold up. Here, though, it looks like they used a Snapchat filter on the movie version. Really kind of hard to make an empathic story when anyone's first reaction to the main character is, "Kill it with fire."

Gollum’s descent into hunchbacked creature will no doubt be striking then - the game has a lot of wiggle room if it wanted to incorporate some elements of the horror genre given Tolkein’s rogue’s gallery of creatures. By seating the player outside of the shoes of the atypical hero, Daedalic would do well to drive home the imposing terror of some of Tolkein’s beasts when facing an unarmed, frail creature like Gollum and not say, an all-powerful wizard or warrior king.

Where the fresh hell are they getting any of that when the game looks like an ugly Dreamworks film? That's like saying you could get horror out of Trolls: World Tour.

The only horrifying element to any of this is that some twat greenlit this over literally every other imaginable pitch for a Lord of the Rings game. This would be like if EA only made a Moisture Farm Simulator with the Star Wars license after ages of sitting on the license to print cash. I swear, the people who own the LOTR games license would open up a Shake Shack and only serve salad.

Dammit, this is such a 2020 thing to do.

Spoiler!

^^ LOOOL yeah I saw the screens of that earlier, and they had a gameplay video too right? It looked super bad and rough



Give me a modern day reimagining of the PS2 The Two Towers ... .the goat LOTR game. Me and my cousin/friends had so much fun playing co-op together. Aragon crew.

Oh man, I played that and Return of the King to hell and back, they were so damn fun for the time. If you wanted to battle it out at Helms Deep, that was the only way, and damn was it awesome. Those games (plus the Battle for Middle Earth RTS titles) are why I have so much trouble getting into the Shadow of Mordor/War series, as the latter feel so disconnected to everything that makes the LOTR world. That and the combat is so brain dead once you get spoiled by better action games (not a high bar).

As for this Gollum mess, the only reason I even know about the developers is because their games were always slapped together in sh*tty, pity Humble Bundles. They really are like the European Dollar General of point and click games, so I haven't the foggiest clue what anyone was thinking here. Like I said above, good stealth games are few and far between, and it's not the sort of genre you just hand off to the point and click crowd.

80 euros for a PS2 game. lmao

Are they taking the piss or something? I seriously cannot believe 80 Euros (so probably 70USD) when games like Cyberpunk 2077 are going to cost less.

If they're really going for that big boy price range, then it has to be some kind of insurance scam.

If they made a soul-esque game where you played as Aragorn during his time with the Dunedain or something, maybe setting it before the events of the movies, patrolling the wilderness of middle earth, hunting errant orcs, beasts, trolls, etc. You could team up with the likes of Legolas and Gandalf during your travels as they uncovered the plots leading towards the fellowship. Focus on baller arse swordplay, have the opportunity to really make a beautiful open rendition of middle earth, have some elements of survival, hunting and living in the wilderness...I'd get it.

I'd buy that in a heartbeat, too.

The setting is ripe for a souls-like, right down to picking classes/races (*Gondor Soldier = Dark Souls Knight, Rohirrim = DS3 Warrior, Dunedain/Ranger = DS1 Wanderer/DS3 Mercenary, Elf = Archer, ect.), or even a more character-driven Witcher-style role playing game.

Hell, a Breath of the Wild-style Hobbits-going-to-Mordor game would have more potential.