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The Lord Of The Rings: Gollum - stealth action game by Daedalic

someone else

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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Also, it's interesting that Sam seemed to be the most resistant to the power of the Ring, seemingly because he is a simple man.

lord_006.png


Trivia: IIRC Sam's willpower is the 2nd highest in the Fellowship after Frodo in the Interplay's adaptation.

Heard that the studio has plans to make other LOTR games.
 
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Machocruz

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I hope they go their own way with Gollum's design and not just dickride the movies'. The Rankin Bass animated or Frazetta version are closer to what I imagined the character to look like when I read the books, but I'd like to see something different from those too.
 

Beastro

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I hope they go their own way with Gollum's design and not just dickride the movies'. The Rankin Bass animated or Frazetta version are closer to what I imagined the character to look like when I read the books, but I'd like to see something different from those too.

Really? Movie one was pretty dead on for the books description.

Hobbit Gollum had more of a predatory vibe that evoked an alienness like a abyssal fish given his dull, indifferent tone. Like this eyeing you up.
iu
 

Machocruz

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Really? Movie one was pretty dead on for the books description.

Hobbit Gollum had more of a predatory vibe that evoked an alienness like a abyssal fish given his dull, indifferent tone. Like this eyeing you up.
iu

I read a very old copy of The Hobbit, where Gollum was described as having dark skin. Apparently, this was later revised by Tolkien. The films are more faithful to the final canonical version, except for the big blue Disney eyes, which is not what I pictured from the book's description of them being pale and protruding, and strikes me as going for easy-mode sympathetic-ness. Also I was a kid, so some nuances probably escaped me and I defaulted to familiar imagery of creepy crawlies and nasty things, like goblins/trolls/reptiles/amphibians, to visualize the character

Anyway, LoTR games have been aping the visual look of the films since they came out. Yes the films are popular and cherished, but we don't need to be in thrall to them forever. Looks like they aren't, from the art shown so far.
 

Viata

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I read a very old copy of The Hobbit, where Gollum was described as having dark skin
Tolkien describes Gollum as either dark, bone-white or sallow; at one point the Men of Ithilien mistake his silhouette seen from a distance for that of a tail-less black squirrel. In a manuscript written to guide illustrators to the appearance of his characters, Tolkien explained this by saying that Gollum had pale skin, but wore dark clothes and was often seen in poor light.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gollum#cite_note-ME-ref|RC|pg_447-18
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gollum#cite_note-ME-ref|RC|pg_447-18
 

baud

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I hope they go their own way with Gollum's design and not just dickride the movies'. The Rankin Bass animated or Frazetta version are closer to what I imagined the character to look like when I read the books, but I'd like to see something different from those too.

I don't think they got the license of the movies, just for the books, so they can't do a direct copy of what was shown in the movie, like what was done for Shadow of Mordor.
 
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RNGsus

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The movies took their look from Howe and Lee. Media since then have rightly stuck to their design, its endearing, but if their people can add something all the better.
 

Machocruz

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Well, I didn't read the article you posted above.
Doesn't matter. We believe what developers say now? Talk is cheap. Let's see what they actually do.

The movies took their look from Howe and Lee. Media since then have rightly stuck to their design, its endearing, but if their people can add something all the better.
Except for faggoty baby blue eyes. That's probably Jackson, who put a lot of cheesy, saccharine shit in these movies.
 

Hobo Elf

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Prequel ✔
Uninteresting character ✔

Gonna be a hit for sure.

Wut

Gollum's the most interesting character Tolkien created and the one with the most depth and complexity.

Makes you wonder what he witnessed, or experienced himself, for him to have that much psychological insight to create such a nuanced cretin that is both sympathetic and loathsome.

Gollum is a cautionary tale about dangers of immorality. He's Frodo's evil twin,

I think this is the most important thing to note in your post, which is why it just enhances my opinion that it's going to be a dull as shit game. Gollum alone is nothing. He only works as a character when he's there to be compared to Frodo and Sam. By himself he's nothing but a greedy troglodyte, which isn't much of a story, and that's pretty much how Tolkien viewed him as well since all he did was sit in a stinky cave until Bilbo stole his ring.
The devs are going to have to alter the character somehow to make him more interesting for their game, but anything they'll do will only work against what he's supposed to be in Lord of the Rings.
 

Beastro

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I was with everything watching that saying it was simple regional differences being expressed until Boromir.

Makes Bakshi's Viking-staereotype Boromir who sharpens his sword on whatever rock is laying about look positively sane.

I think this is the most important thing to note in your post, which is why it just enhances my opinion that it's going to be a dull as shit game. Gollum alone is nothing. He only works as a character when he's there to be compared to Frodo and Sam. By himself he's nothing but a greedy troglodyte, which isn't much of a story, and that's pretty much how Tolkien viewed him as well since all he did was sit in a stinky cave until Bilbo stole his ring.
The devs are going to have to alter the character somehow to make him more interesting for their game, but anything they'll do will only work against what he's supposed to be in Lord of the Rings.

It'll either be him alone being uninteresting or having companions thrust on him to enable him to do what you describe.

I can't see them being able to pull that off well, especially with original characters. I dunno if it would be wise either as it might turn the game into a simple interactive story, or worse, something of an escort quest game if only in places (scout out ahead of your group for danger and report back stuff before everyone mores on like he did with Frodo and Sam).

Oldmanpaco's prolly onto it and it should just be a baby eating simulator.

Now that I think about it, a game from the perspective of a mere bad guy in Tolkien's legendarium should be more Styx-ish. That is, you being in the perspective of a simple Orc trying to survive not being a causality of your enemies or your superiors.

There's room for that there in the books, like the scout-breed Orcs Gollum was suspected of being. You see one later when Frodo and Sam are in Mordor when ones paired with a soldier orc hunting them as they argue before the scout has enough and murders the soldier. That kinda backstabbing to survive crap isn't something you can do with Gollum.

That does on one thing from rereading the books lately, how entertaining the Orc dialogue sections are as you see them bicker and fight in ways the protagonists can't being decent people that Jackson captured well with the party hauling off Marry and Pippin.
 
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Thal

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There's room for that there in the books, like the scout-breed Orcs Gollum was suspected of being. You see one later when Frodo and Sam are in Mordor when ones paired with a soldier orc hunting them as they argue before the scout has enough and murders the soildier. That kinda backstabbing to survive crap isn't something you cant do with Gollum.

One of my favorite sections in the book, because that's when you get a real glimpse at the society Sauron was building. The soldier orc demands the scout to tell his ID number, so he can report him for subordination. Apparently they got them in Mordor, and probably not only soldiers but everyone. This conflict between organized and industrialized society and the one, where people had names and not numbers is one of the most glaring omissions of the Jackson films. In fact, in some cases they even invert it. Most of Sauron's army looks like bunch of cutthroats instead of a modern army and one-eyed Gothmog with his limp would have probably been euthanized at birth.

Tolkien elaborates in one of his letters, that Sauron, like all evil people, didn't think he was evil at all. From Sauron's point of view, his victory would improve the living standards of everyone and his enemies were just holding him back. And he wasn't entirely wrong either, things probably would be more efficient under Sauron's dominion. It's just that he missed that there is more to life than material things. But I suppose pointing this out isn't wasn't part of the intended message of the films. Because, in real life, Sauron won. We got our numbers too and spend our lives getting more of them.

And what was the message anyway? It kind of rubs me the wrong way when people praise Jackson films as brilliant movies, because they aren't. I like them a lot and went to theaters several times to watch them, but they not much more than excellent spectacles.
 

Beastro

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Tolkien elaborates in one of his letters, that Sauron, like all evil people, didn't think he was evil at all. From Sauron's point of view, his victory would improve the living standards of everyone and his enemies were just holding him back. And he wasn't entirely wrong either, things probably would be more efficient under Sauron's dominion. It's just that he missed that there is more to life than material things. But I suppose pointing this out isn't wasn't part of the intended message of the films. Because, in real life, Sauron won. We got our numbers too and spend our lives getting more of them.

The key difference between Morgoth and Sauron was one was arrogantly possessive in a Luciferian sense while the other was something of an ideologue committed to the other while maintaining his own outlook that was markedly different. Sauron may have believed Morgoth was the rightful Vala to rule the world and worshiped him, but was committed to ordering everything.

I find it interesting the similar dark, yet different outlooks there. A third is Ungoliant's, except hers was nihilistic hunger to consume everything and destroy it leaving her alone in a void (and possibly not even then being content as her supposed death implies).

It's why I think the solution to the problem of the Orcs as a race being all wicked and irredeemable can be explained by them all having their own designs and plans, but are rare strong enough to pull theirs off. They are like Gollum, too weak to do much, but if they had a bit of power, could be as ambitious as Morgoth and Sauron. Something that touches on their is the bit of the Silmarillion that alludes to their creation speaking of all Orcs inherently hating Morgoth in the fiber of their being for twisting their race into what they are, yet we always seem them loving to abuse and hurt others, even their own comrades.

They are symbolically a race of those who are always the servants of evil leaders. They follow them to enjoy the power they gain from that service while having in the back of their mind a desire to usurp and dominate even if they will never have a chance.

It's an interesting bit shown at Cirith Ungol about the two leaders there talking, how one hopes to get a chance to later escape together after the war and set up their own little group like the Misty Mountain Orcs have done. Being Orcs and what we're seen of how they are, you can infer that it's pretty much them simply wanting their own little domain to ruler over and abuse that will quickly come one or the other being murdered. Actually that bit echoes Saruman's tempting talk of Gandalf now that I think about it, that with the Ring they could rule together despite the fact the Ring cant be shared.

In that sense, the Orc's talk is but a petty version of the grand designs of great figures in the world and evil if not in scale.
 
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Beastro

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Makes me wonder: Which is better, Gollum speak or Thief Pagan speak?
 

Wirdschowerdn

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https://wccftech.com/daedalic-entertainment-hit-hard-lord-of-the-rings-gollum-trouble/

The background to these measures is the business development in the third quarter of the 2019/2020 financial year and high investments in a new proprietary development of Daedalic Entertainment, which was not accepted by the market. Thus, the previous business model is proving to be unsustainable.

This was followed by a direct statement from Bastei Lübbe's CEO, Carel Halff, stating:


The business model of our 51 percent financial participation is proving to be unsustainable. Together with the minority shareholder, we will therefore now examine all options for a repositioning of Daedalic Entertainment and its business model

Inb4 Gollum: The Card Game.

Or THQ Shovelware to teh rescue?
 
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Pika-Cthulhu

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How would they spark Smeagol out of that wretch? Wasnt he only coming to the fore because Frodo showed kindness and mercy and it appealed to Gollums better nature. If he is out on his own its going to be the nasty little neck twister 24/7, pretty sure Sauron burned fear into him and managed to interrogate both of his halves and the kinder one is going to be subservient to the one that hates the bastard hobbit that stole his precious and brought all the misery and woe upon him. Smeagol will only show up to ask if its better to twist the babies neck before eating it.
 

baud

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How would they spark Smeagol out of that wretch? Wasnt he only coming to the fore because Frodo showed kindness and mercy and it appealed to Gollums better nature. If he is out on his own its going to be the nasty little neck twister 24/7, pretty sure Sauron burned fear into him and managed to interrogate both of his halves and the kinder one is going to be subservient to the one that hates the bastard hobbit that stole his precious and brought all the misery and woe upon him. Smeagol will only show up to ask if its better to twist the babies neck before eating it.

Wouldn't his evil nature instead reappear because of the proximity with the ring, though? Or at least grow more malevolent/virulent? Also if I remember right, when he was a prisoner of the elves, they though he could 'improve' (not sure if that's the exact words), get less evil, so maybe they saw he wasn't fully evil at the time. And that was after he got captured. So I don't think it could much of a stretch to bring Smeagol for this.

Regarding how it would work in gameplay, perhaps they'll go for something like in Prince of Persia Two Thrones, where the character changes at different places during the (linear) levels, with each character having a different skillset/move list.
 

Child of Malkav

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Hmm, yeah maybe like in PoP 3 but instead of transforming into a different creature you get to make a choice on how to handle or respond to a situation, that will affect the ending. I don't see it going much deeper than this.
Regarding PoP T2T, bring back Kindred Blades. :argh:
 

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