Coming out of left field is today’s announcement of a new, Gollum-focused Lord of the Rings adventure game from Daedalic Entertainment. Titled The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, it’s targeting a 2021 release, and is the result of a new partnership between the developer and Middle-earth Enterprises. It is only the first game to be created under the deal, as more will apparently follow.
Gollum’s video game will take place between when he discovered the One Ring and the events of The Lord of the Rings. Thus, it will be based on Tolkien’s books, as opposed to drawing its inspiration from Peter Jackson’s films, or even the upcoming Amazon series.
“You already have that big conflict in the character, two voices talking to you continuously, which means there is a good reason there are decisions to make in the game: the Smeagol decisions or the Gollum decision,” Carsten Fichtelmann, CEO and co-founder of Daedalic Entertainment, tells The Hollywood Reporter.
“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.”
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is billed as a narrative-focused adventure game, and is said to be targeting a 2021 release on PC, as well as “all relevant consoles at the time.” Does that mean it’ll be a next-gen release? We assume so.
“Since this is a game about Gollum, if you imagine gameplay, stealth is the obvious choice as opposed to combat with a sword,” Fichtelmann explained in an interview with Daily Star.
Stay tuned for more information.