The Lord of the Rings: Gollum won’t launch till April, on the soonest. In its newest earnings report, co-publisher Nacon confirmed that the much-awaited action-adventure title is eyeing a launch within the first half of fiscal yr 2023–24. This interprets to a launch window from April, stretching all the way in which into September 2023. Initially slated for a 2021 launch, this marks the third delay for the sport, with developer Daedalic Leisure beforehand claiming to have merely pushed again the launch by “a number of months.” This new improvement strikes the timeline even additional into 2023.
Daedalic’s most up-to-date replace was in September final yr — a delay to make sure The Lord of the Rings: Gollum was in one of the best technical state upon launch. Whereas not explicitly talked about, a part of this shake-up in all probability needed to do with the unsavoury fan response they obtained for the gameplay trailer — key factors of critique being the outdated graphics and textures. As for the gameplay itself, gamers might be plunged into previous Center-earth, in a tightly-woven story that explores Gollum’s journey after he loses the One Ring to Bilbo Baggins. Drawing closely from creator J.R.R. Tolkien’s unique materials, the sport basically serves as a prelude to Peter Jackson’s The Fellowship of the Ring.
A lot of the gameplay in The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is concentrated on stealth, which is a given for the reason that titular character is not precisely the strongest when it comes to physicality. That mentioned, Gollum is extraordinarily agile, which lets him crawl and climb onto surfaces with ease and with out drawing a lot consideration. Conserving along with his break up persona, his two sides, Gollum and Sméagol, turn into a mechanic throughout moments of battle, the place gamers should resolve whether or not to take the timid method or the cunningly evil route. “One thoughts, two egos — you resolve!”, reads the description on Steam. On the time, the footage additionally highlighted a swimming mechanic with an oxygen counter. Nonetheless, it was set in a first-person perspective, begging the query of whether or not one may swap digital camera views at will. All different gameplay footage was current from the third-person perspective.
Past The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, there are different Center-earth franchise video video games within the works. First up is a recent, unnamed title from Personal Division and Weta Workshop — the latter is understood for offering visible results and prop work within the LoTR and the Hobbit films. Extra particulars on the identical might be revealed in time. Then there’s The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria, a survival crafting and base-building title, through which gamers take management of an organization of Dwarves to reclaim the misplaced spoils from their homeland of Moria. It’s eyeing a launch someday this yr.
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum might be accessible to play throughout PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Sequence S/X, and Nintendo Swap.