Daedalic Entertainment finally shared its The Lord of Rings: Gollum game trailer today. The cinematic footage only spanned about 45 seconds of total screen time, but it set the stage for the story and certainly teased us. With dark caves and a trip into Mordor apparent, Gollum isn’t your uncle’s There and Back Again. We still don’t know when the stealth/action game is expected to launch, but it doesn’t seem like it will be anytime soon.
The trailer itself is very simple, and not much is made clear unless you are a hardcore The Lord of the Rings fan. The fade-in reveals Gollum lurking in the cave where he was first discovered during the events of The Hobbit. This explains the collection of bones and partially-eaten fish lying about on the ground before we spy the infamous creature perched upon some rocks.
The scene then smoothly transitions to a new cave, though this one is far from the previous location. Several cave paintings adorn the wall which reveal it is none other than Shelob’s lair. Shelob was a giant spider which guarded a hidden pathway into Mordor. She fed on orcs mainly, but not by choice. It was revealed during the events of the book trilogy that her and Gollum shared a history, which was why the sneakster led Sam and Frodo to her cave during the quest to destroy the ring. It’s likely we get to see the origins of that relationship, as Gollum is next seen entering Mordor.
Gloom and Doom
The fires of Mount Doom reflect in Gollum’s eyes in the next shot, but he seems determined to enter the morbid wasteland. Referencing the books again, we can determine this is likely the same journey where Gollum ventered into Mordor in a quest to discover what happened to his Precious ring.
There is sure to be plenty of sneaking going on if Gollum explores locations like Mordor and Shelob’s lair. These are some pretty dark and dangerous locations with plenty of “enemies” as he likes to simply call them. The terrain is far from forgiving too, but the climbing options may play into Gollum’s advantage given his cowardice. At any rate, it sounds exciting to explore these locations and climb things like the hidden stairs next to Cirith Ungol. If we’re lucky, we might even see the Witchking on the way in.
Precious details
This is actually a very interesting period of time that developer Daedalic has chosen to explore. Gollum’s ventures lead up to the events of The Fellowship of the Ring in a sense. It’s known that he revealed critical information to Sauron’s servants after being imprisoned in Barad Dur. We may see some grizzly stuff. If Gollum does align with what we know from the films, it will explore the world in an interesting time. A great lore opportunity like this should please many fans. The Gollum game trailer didn’t reveal much, but we know it’s not all doom and gloom near Mordor. There should be some vibrant scenes as well, though it’s hard to say how it will play into stealth gameplay.
Published: Aug 25, 2020 10:30 am