The Lord of the Rings: Gollum Is Looking Less Than Precious

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is being developed by Daedalic Entertainment. The game's main character, Sméagol, is not the most obvious protagonist for a video game. A battle between cowardice and vindictiveness could spin off into challenging choices.

The beta for The Lord of the Rings: Gollum was shown at Gamescom earlier this month. The game's first chapter is set in Middle-earth and takes place in Thranduil's Woodland Realm. It draws inspiration from the books rather than the movies for its environments.

The story sees Gollum desperately searching for his precious ring while attempting to stay out of Sauron's clutches. This scenario forms the framework of a stealth game in which you must avoid fights at all costs.

Gollum is made up of mostly confined environments, explored through a combination of stealth and climbing. There are sequences in which you can opt for your preferred approach.

As Gollum is outmatched in strength by even the lowest orc, combat is out of the question. Enemies that block your path must be dispatched with sneakier methods. This was clearly a scripted tutorial event, but hopefully later levels allow inventive use of distractions and traps.

But strangling unaware enemies drains your stamina meter, and if you don't have enough endurance to finish the job then it's game over. This raises concerns about how prevalent instant-fail stealth will be across the entire game.

Gollum uses predetermined paths to navigate its environments, rather than the 'climb anything' design of games like Zelda: Breath of the Wild and recent Assassin's Creeds. It's arguably better suited to the somewhat puzzle-adventure vibe Gollum is seemingly going for.

Gollum uses predetermined paths to navigate its environments, rather than the 'climb anything' design of games like Zelda: Breath of the Wild and recent Assassin's Creeds. It's arguably better suited to the somewhat puzzle-adventure vibe Gollum is seemingly going for.

Gollum uses predetermined paths to navigate its environments, rather than the 'climb anything' design of games like Zelda: Breath of the Wild and recent Assassin's Creeds. It's arguably better suited to the somewhat puzzle-adventure vibe Gollum is seemingly going for.

Vertical routes were covered in climbing vines that hung unnaturally, like thick carpets.

Rock formations had strangely flat surfaces and rounded edges instead of naturally craggy finishes