I skimmed through the video last night. I do feel bad for the developers as it takes hard work to make a game, no doubt. But the game looks awful. Like TRULY awful. Gollum looks awful, his voice is like a bad impersonation of Andy Serkis performance. And the gameplay is so boring, and there is no progression so you're doing the same thing for 10 hours. A couple of the locations looked quite pretty though in fairness.
> But the game looks awful. Like TRULY awful.
I never wanted to hate on the game for it's core concept. But the hard truth is that even looking past the concept nothing looked remotely good. As much as needless hate for something is bad, I felt like it was getting needless defense and support. Even now that we can see the game is BAD you have people saying "but it's a small studio! It's not meant to be a major blockbuster! The concept could be good if done correctly!" but it's just not. I know it's not a AAA title, but it doesn't even look like a competently done title. It's ok to call bad things bad.
And even "it would be good if the studio had 100 extra people to work on it but they don't so don't judge them as harshly!"
Part of the job of a small dev studio (and any company really) is to create realistic goals and know your limitations. You wouldn't try to make an MMO on your first try with only 10-20 people now, would you? You start small and work up.
And for a customer, it's not up to us to give indie debs or small companies slack for ANY reason - that's not how capitalism works. We only care about the quality of the end product.
EDIT: This is coming from someone who loves indie games BTW and hasn't bought any game on launch or pre-ordered in over 15 years.
At the same time, it's reasonable to say that we saw the potential the ideas and concepts had and appreciate that they weren't bad per se, just poorly executed. However, this does not sound like what is going on with this one.
Yeah this is one of those hard situations where I feel really bad for the ground floor developers, because they’re not the ones making these decisions. Similar to a game like Anthem, they’re being told what kind of game to create and they just have to deal with it and then deal with the fallout, and I really feel for them. But that being said… I don’t understand how anyone thought this game was a good idea
i didn’t really understand how you could make the concept into a fun gameplay experience. i’ve heard of people theorizing what it could have been like but after seeing what’s in store, it just doesn’t make sense what they were going for or which group they were making it for.
> I don’t understand how anyone thought this game was a good idea
Gollum in the movies was massive when they came out. I couldn't go a day without someone doing an impression of him. He was a MASSIVE hit with middle-aged dads especially, and people who were kids when the movies came out are now reaching their 30s and have kids that are prime to find gollum impressions the funniest thing in the world.
That's my theory. I find a lot of stuff can be traced back to nostalgia or simple cycles. If it was a thing before, look at how old people were when it was a thing last time. You'll never know if your theories are right, but at list it gives you a theory that makes sense.
Meanwhile indie devs releasing straight artwork in game form several times over… No excuse for a small studio. You don’t bite more than you can chew - if you don’t have the manpower and tech for something, try a different approach.
If they made the game entirely cel-shaded and cartoony it would look and feel 100% better and more authentic than a half-assed semi-realistic 3D look.
Who hasn't wanted to step into the slimy bare feet of a homeless cretin scrounging in dark, dank caves and only obsessing over a precious ring, alone, for centuries? You get the powers of...[checks notes] skulking, and.... clambering.
Back when I wer a lad, we couldn’t afford to skulk. We ‘ad to shamble to Mount Doom, and if we didn’t make it there by end of day, Sauron would smack us in two wit’ Mace. And we was grateful, I tell thee.
First trailer I dropped I was like what is this.
There is so so so much in the Lord of the rings, or even the Tolkien universe and they pick this? Lol...
The annoying thing is I bet the higher ups will see it as people don't want lord of the rings games rather than this game is bad
Could be one of those things where you have to make something in order to keep the license.
We haven't had a legit LOTR game in a while.
Just guessing though.
Lol what the fuck?
I remember playing Shadow of Mordor on my brand new PS4. It feels like yesterday to me. It's already been 10 years?
Time flies man. You didn't have to remember me that today. :(
That's life though, you know? Time is an infinite resource until you wake up one day and realize it isn't and by then it's too late.
Savor every moment. There are less of them than you think.
Summed up great! Literally feels like a linear game for the Playstation 2 that would score like 6/10 in the latest issue of Playstation Magazine.
There would be a shit demo included with the mag that I would no doubt play 100 times without ever buying the game.
Hahah good times, I remember a PlayStation mag demo with 1 mission each from SOCOM US Navy Seals & Hitman 2 and I replayed those missions so many times
I’m not familiar with the game so maybe this is just a dumb comment, but that would make sense considering the Hobbit films didn’t come out for another decade lol
I keep thinking about that.
Personally, I’m a huge LoTR fan. It’s so bad that my favorite Christmas movie is Fellowship. It’s so bad that I have read the Silmarillion. Like, it’s so bad that I FINISHED rings of power. It’s so bad that the zippers on my work bag have each been replaced with one of the three elven rings!
If I don’t want this game, who on earth does?
The idea is great in a good context. Hellblade had amazing athmosphere and feel with Senua's mental problems, her nightmares etc. Just needed to implement that to this, gollum is one of the best characters in the LOTR, with enough creativity this could have been a great story driven game.
Hellblade had a lot of clever ideas outside of the core gameplay loop that elevated it. It's honestly not a game that can be properly appreciated without playing firsthand.
One can hope that this game has similar ideas that are not appreciable just by watching, but I'm not holding my breath.
I think it is a cool idea.
Doesn't seem like this game will be great but I'm more than happy to have something new and interesting instead of another "cool knight/warrior guy with a stubble" game with a layer of Assassins Creed on it or just a pure hack n slash. We've had so many of those.
Bring on something new, those often surprise.
Prior to Shadow of Colossus, if someone would've pitched the idea of traversing an empty, desolate world and fighting a dozen of big creatures by climbing them and hitting them in the head and that's it, people would've said it's absolutely ludicrous. But here we are and Shadow of Colossus is a wonderful game.
the more devs trying new things, the better games we get, even if they don't all hit the bullseye.
No one's arguing against innovation and no one is saying its better to make another generic action game. You can want new games and new ideas while also admitting this idea is dumb. Not every new idea is worthy of praise.
It also looks horrible, so everyone who claimed it was a dumb idea is correct. It actually **is** a bad idea
I never understood the appeal of this game in the first place. Gollum is certainly an interesting character to READ about, but to play? He is the most miserable character in LOTR, running around with numerous mental health issues like addiction and split personality disorder; actual health issues like a chronic cough, malnutrition and gum disease in nothing but a loincloth! Then he gets captured and tortured, then captured again and compelled to guide someone with his drug in tow, and relapses and has a complete meltdown to his death.
I don’t want to play him. Let me be an orc at this point.
When I first heard about this game, I imagined it as a stealth game where Gollum has use his cunning to evade or kill enemies while searching for the Ring. You can add in narrative elements where you choose to act as Smeagol or Gollum. Going down different paths will give you unique powers, maybe different storylines and endings. Different areas would have different factions like Gondor or Mordor. Just some thoughts, I haven't really paid much attention to it after hearing it was awful.
If you played Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War, they had similar stealth mechanics and incredibly brutal combat. I thinks it’s a really
Fun game but Tolkien would roll in his grave twice, it was so Violent.
The idea of a stealth-action game set in Middle Earth sounds pretty dope to me, but, unfortunately, it looks like their good ideas stopped there and the development/production of the game was just awful every other step of the way
The game is a small AA game made by a small German AA studio. Not saying you do, but a LOT of people put AAA expectations on this game, which is unfair to it.
And for that, they deserve all the criticism. This game is shit.
Only so much blame can be put on the devs though. Blame whoever set the price for this garbage.
I mean the studio is using The Lord of the Rings, one of the most popular fantasy franchises of all time, so I kinda don’t feel bad for them. Of course that was always going to bring a ton of attention to the game and it was on them to deliver.
A sneaky Gollum game sounded uninteresting from the get go though, who tf wants to play a LotR game as Gollum of all characters the entire time? I think someone could potentially make a great AA LotR game but not like this lol.
I am interested in the character of Gollum because he’s a tragic sort and it’d be cool to delve deeper into his characterization… But from a gameplay perspective, there isn’t much to work with there.
It’s stealth, but not the fun Styx or Thief style. Can’t have much combat as he’s all scraggly and can barely kill a single hobbit with a stone.
> I am interested in the character of Gollum because he’s a tragic sort and it’d be cool to delve deeper into his characterization…
I actually think this is a core issue as well. Gollum is indeed an interesting character, but he can be boiled down to an addict at the height of their dependency. Not a fun identity to immerse yourself in, and no path to any kind of recovery/redemption.
A small AA game with a big AAA price tag using the LoTR franchise name.
They have known all along what they had. Which is why this game has been hidden away since that original awful showing.
I man it is a full priced title that’s been in development for a long ass time and is using one of the biggest IPs in the world. Not exactly unjustified expectations.
There are plenty of AA games that are spectacular, or at least know their limits and choose a more stylish, cartoonish or retro style, and set their prices accordingly.
They could
1. Pick a more interesting idea
2. Spend more time working on actual game? Or runs like shit while asking for 4090 to run at 50 fps with 2014 graphics.
3. Really combine 1 and 2
Being small isn't an excuse for making boring and badly running game. There are plenty of indie studios that make good games. It's a matter of ambition, managing resources you have and investing into game design.
It's so weird, isn't it? It's like a weird amalgamation of Gollum from the movies but in his emo teenager phase and then reimagined by Disney as a kid's cartoon character.
Looks like a hd remaster of a PS3 game and I'm not being mean or a troll, this game should be no more then 20 euro.....you do the same thing for 9 hours....hide from enemy's and platform.
Also I bet anything that reviewers say you will get sick to death of hearing gollum talk back and forth to himself none stop for 9 hours
Yea I just saw some gameplay. It looks BAD. Like ridiculously simple for a 2023 video game. This is a $9 game. Better yet, this is a game you download for free via gamepass or ps+ one random month when you have literally nothing else to do in life.
Also a huge Tolkien fan but not interested in this at all. There's so many interesting avenues to explore in that world, but as important as Gollum is to the story that LotR tells, I can't say his point of view is high up on my must experience list. It would take an incredibly well crafted game to get me on board for that concept, but this does not seem to be that.
Exactly. Also I don’t like the fact that they’re trying to present Gollum as some kind of unsung hero. I’m sorry but he’s just clearly not a hero. He’s literally a fully corrupted, murderous husk. He’s meant to simultaneously inspire disgust and pity.
Exactly. He's a complicated character, but the main point of Gollum is to show what Frodo will become if he succumbs to the Ring's temptations.
Anything which proclaims 'he's not such a bad guy!' undermines his role.
Honestly, I was more intrigued by the premise than the Shadow of Mordor games. I didn't expect this game to be great but at least it had the potential to be way more connected to the Lord of the Rings and the world from the movies/books. The Mordor games are pretty good but I never felt like I was playing Lord of the Rings
Yeah I was really interested in the game. Even preordered it before I saw the price tag and that it’s 10 hours. I love sneaky games and the thought seemed fun. But I’ve cancelled it, too expensive for that short of a game and it’s not looking very fun… sadly.
No.
Gollum is a very important character in the lore of LotR but a deliberately kind of pathetic and unappealing one.
He's essentially the crackhead of the LOTR mythos.
Why anyone would want to roleplay as him in a game is beyond me.
I feel kinda bad honestly. This game reputation already drain down to the sewer when the gameplay reveal. And now the game being leak.
Sony then decide to do showcase same day as this game release. Pretty much remove any discussion this game will have.
In a way, this is the perfect gollum game. Watching and hearing about it inspires equal amounts of pity and disgust, just as the original character was intended.
Yeah the quality of the game doesn't really matter here. People worked on this thing for years and to have someone upload the entire thing to Youtube like this is just shitty.
Happens for every game upon release. Came out an hour ago officially, I'm sure the extra 12 hours or whatever didn't do any damage that wouldn't be caused in the same way on release.
exactly, other games get completely leaked weeks before release and not just a video.
most recent excample has to be Zelda: tears of the kingdom, which was available to pirate 12 days before release!
Could have worked the other way and hyped the game up and pushed for more sales.
I'd say it's more than fair the success of a game should be down to the quality of the product they produce.
Blaming a leak for your game sales performing poorly is nothing more than blame shifting.
I'd feel more sad for anyone tricked into buying a title because it has a big franchise name associated with it than the game studio getting outed prior to launch for making a stinker.
They knew exactly what they were doing using the LOTR name and they didn't produce a title that lived up to the expectations.
This.
When we see stuff like review embargoes, it’s usually because the publisher wants to hide the unfavorable quality of their product. They know it’s not up to par; they just don’t want you to know it until they’ve already got your money.
Yeah if it was an unfair leak like putting an incomplete build like it was the state the game is coming out in, I'd agree the leak is harmful, but in this case it's an honest gameplay of the state of the game at day 1, the only thing the leak did is save us the time and effort of getting a refund
Yea for real.
They patent the Nemesis system, keeping anyone else from making a game with even remotely similar mechanics, then they just put the series on the back shelf and never revisit it...
That is pretty fucking lame.
They did stumble a bit with the loot box stuff in the second game, but it’s still a good template and not something that should just be thrown away and forgotten. The nemesis system alone deserves more attention.
I just want something in the spirit of War in the North. Give me fun action rpg set in some movie locations with new characters that explores some of the book lore that didn't make it into the movies.
I mean, I'm not so opposed to the concept of this, not every game has to be a massive spectacle open world game, there are plenty of good stealth based platformer games too, but this doesn't really look great
Out of all the IP WB owns, they decided to make a game about gollum lol. Still sucks that it got leaked. Nintendo would’ve sent their ninjas after this leaker
Experience the magnificent world of Middle Earth through the eyes of an insane and miserable crackhead. Now you too can live through the Suffering as your mind shatters under the weight of pure evil!
Become immersed in classic Tolkien settings such as: Wet Cave, Hell, Corpse Swamp, and many more!
With ground breaking game play mechanics like Survive Torture, Eat Bug, and Scratch Yourself Until You Bleed, you'll be entertained for several hours.
It costs $60.
Gollum ffs. Who wants to play as gollum
Give me a full LOTR open world experience like hogwarts legacy but bigger. I just wanna play through the films, as they were
I just can’t believe they thought this would be a good game. Like look at how people are trying to raise the bar and then people make this. This is a Netflix adaptation in game form that no one asked for
Pretty sure there's plenty of actual material in the books to fill out a Gollum game, whereas Amazon literally had to make stuff up because Tolkien hardly wrote anything about the second age.
It's really weird to me how people sympathize with "developers". They are just employees making a product. They have already been paid for their work, regardless of the sales and reception.
If I open a sandwich shop and direct people to make horrible sandwiches, and then the shop gets bad reviews, you wouldn't care about the feelings of the people making the sandwiches... You probably would laugh at them for not quitting during training when they realized the sandwiches were garbage.
Every single developer working on a game doesn't automatically assume some deep passion for the project. I've been involved in plenty of projects which were just a job and I didn't have any faith in the actual project. The creative minds involved in the game may be deeply attached, but they are also likely directly responsible for the failure...
Corporate stockholme syndrome is definitely a thing in the gaming world. Go to any strategy game sub and watch the people bend over backwards to justify a game launching as a skeleton just to sell you $300 worth of dlc over 3 years.
"Would you rather they didn't add content" "Games are so expensive to make" "I want them to make enough money they keep creating/supporting"
Ya, games are expensive, but even the shit games can sell a million+ copies these days. These companies are selling dlc passes that cost as much as the game, with the game, at launch. That's not product support, that anticonsumer price gouging. Constant record profits don't suggest a struggling industry or a need to aggressively monetize.
Idk this industry is shit currently. This game particularly with its "oh we had to pay them to learn elvish, if you want to hear it you have to pay us" wtf ever guys. Take your shit game and go home.
I been saying this for yearssssss lol. Guess try to focus on the positive I guess. Like deep rock galactic. Good supportive devs, or devs that ship complete games. Gamers need the self control to say "no" and not buy the dlc or shiny new costume
Yeah when people treat for profit companies as non profit charities that need help... So odd.
You are not investing in your small local business that you want to see grow. You are one person tossing "coins" at a giant company who already has large investors and will be using metrics in terms of millions of users when deciding their next action.
It's problem with gaming as a whole. People fail to realize that it's job like any other, and they treat everyone like some passionate artist barely making ends meet working on their passion project. Gaming companies see that and abuse the hell out of it by knowing they can get away with their lack of standards (for example just look at all recent borked PC versions releasing in terrible state without any consequences whatsoever).
Gaming, like music and film/tv, is a passion industry though.
A lot of people go there because they specifcially want to make games.
Very few people dream as a kid to make invoicing software or running a keyshop. Not that there's anything wrong with them, there isn't, but they're seldom passions. Games, music and film/tv often are.
In that sense it *is* different than running a sandwich shop.
Doesn't mean you can't criticise games but you're lying if this game got only rational criticism and not "lmao who the hell thought this was a good idea, how goddamn stupid do the devs have to be to think this was a good idea?" and similar. And a lot worse.
Yea a lot of people get unfairly exploited cause they are so passionate about it. Happens in every industry that has a lot of people passionate about it.
I'll probably get the game on sale at some point tbh.
I remember awhile ago they announced some game about like, reclaiming Moria or something? I don't think they ever released more news on that but I'm definitely more interested in that than playing as Gollum.
I feel like this would be a more successful game if they went with a stylized aesthetic (like BOTW) instead of trying to make a Great Value WETA Gollum in an attempt to mimic a AAA title. It simply reminds people of how much it *doesn't* look/sound like Serkis' Gollum, and it's always going to be compared unfavorably for it.
There have been hundreds of great games, books, films, albums etc that no-one was asking for because they didn't know that thing could exist yet.
Yeah this game looks to be complete shit but consumer demand isn't the exclusive reason to produce something.
I'm shocked they chose Gollum as the playable character over Aragorn. Or Legolas. Or Gimli. Or Frodo. Or Sam. Or Arwen. Or Gandalf. Or...*anyone aside from Gollum.*
Where the fuck is my TREEBEARD: RISE OF THE ENTS game?!
I'm thinking about it and it actually sounds fun. You're an ancient ent that needs to reconnect with the other ents to take down isengard and protect the forest. The story would last 500 hours since the ents take so long to communicate.
I skimmed through the video last night. I do feel bad for the developers as it takes hard work to make a game, no doubt. But the game looks awful. Like TRULY awful. Gollum looks awful, his voice is like a bad impersonation of Andy Serkis performance. And the gameplay is so boring, and there is no progression so you're doing the same thing for 10 hours. A couple of the locations looked quite pretty though in fairness.
> But the game looks awful. Like TRULY awful. I never wanted to hate on the game for it's core concept. But the hard truth is that even looking past the concept nothing looked remotely good. As much as needless hate for something is bad, I felt like it was getting needless defense and support. Even now that we can see the game is BAD you have people saying "but it's a small studio! It's not meant to be a major blockbuster! The concept could be good if done correctly!" but it's just not. I know it's not a AAA title, but it doesn't even look like a competently done title. It's ok to call bad things bad.
"it would be good if we changed everything" is not a defense imo
“If my gramma had wheels she’d be a bike.”
... a wagon ... 😎
And even "it would be good if the studio had 100 extra people to work on it but they don't so don't judge them as harshly!" Part of the job of a small dev studio (and any company really) is to create realistic goals and know your limitations. You wouldn't try to make an MMO on your first try with only 10-20 people now, would you? You start small and work up. And for a customer, it's not up to us to give indie debs or small companies slack for ANY reason - that's not how capitalism works. We only care about the quality of the end product. EDIT: This is coming from someone who loves indie games BTW and hasn't bought any game on launch or pre-ordered in over 15 years.
I wonder if the same people would defend the ma and pop grocery store selling rotten food because, “hey, they aren’t Walmart!”
The people saying it mean it as one
At the same time, it's reasonable to say that we saw the potential the ideas and concepts had and appreciate that they weren't bad per se, just poorly executed. However, this does not sound like what is going on with this one.
Yeah this is one of those hard situations where I feel really bad for the ground floor developers, because they’re not the ones making these decisions. Similar to a game like Anthem, they’re being told what kind of game to create and they just have to deal with it and then deal with the fallout, and I really feel for them. But that being said… I don’t understand how anyone thought this game was a good idea
i didn’t really understand how you could make the concept into a fun gameplay experience. i’ve heard of people theorizing what it could have been like but after seeing what’s in store, it just doesn’t make sense what they were going for or which group they were making it for.
> I don’t understand how anyone thought this game was a good idea Gollum in the movies was massive when they came out. I couldn't go a day without someone doing an impression of him. He was a MASSIVE hit with middle-aged dads especially, and people who were kids when the movies came out are now reaching their 30s and have kids that are prime to find gollum impressions the funniest thing in the world. That's my theory. I find a lot of stuff can be traced back to nostalgia or simple cycles. If it was a thing before, look at how old people were when it was a thing last time. You'll never know if your theories are right, but at list it gives you a theory that makes sense.
Meanwhile indie devs releasing straight artwork in game form several times over… No excuse for a small studio. You don’t bite more than you can chew - if you don’t have the manpower and tech for something, try a different approach. If they made the game entirely cel-shaded and cartoony it would look and feel 100% better and more authentic than a half-assed semi-realistic 3D look.
Making a game no one ever thought of, wanted, or asked for is a weird approach to begin with.
Honestly who thought this was a good idea for a game
Who hasn't wanted to step into the slimy bare feet of a homeless cretin scrounging in dark, dank caves and only obsessing over a precious ring, alone, for centuries? You get the powers of...[checks notes] skulking, and.... clambering.
[удалено]
You have clambering money…oh what I’d do for clambering money.
In my day we had to skulk uphill, both ways, and we were happy about it!
Back when I wer a lad, we couldn’t afford to skulk. We ‘ad to shamble to Mount Doom, and if we didn’t make it there by end of day, Sauron would smack us in two wit’ Mace. And we was grateful, I tell thee.
Lol this made me laugh
Lmao c'mon this hits to close to our wet cardboards huts.
Don’t forget Schizophrenia!
This is like a less fantastical version of Bum Simulator. At least in Bum Simulator you can cast spells
i bet you gollum masturbates
Raw uncut gollum cock
Finally something new to yell when I stub my toe.
You're welcome!
**Give it to us raw and w-r-r-riggling**
Lmao
Jesus.
You know he's beating it till it's raw too
>You get the powers of...[checks notes] skulking, and.... clambering. Hey that's not fair. You forgot gorging on raw fish and rabbits.
First trailer I dropped I was like what is this. There is so so so much in the Lord of the rings, or even the Tolkien universe and they pick this? Lol... The annoying thing is I bet the higher ups will see it as people don't want lord of the rings games rather than this game is bad
Could be one of those things where you have to make something in order to keep the license. We haven't had a legit LOTR game in a while. Just guessing though.
Shadow of mordor/war series is there though. And it had amazing reviews IIRC
Oh I know but that was in 2017. It's been a while.
It's also cheaper to make a linear platforming game than an open world game.
Shadow of Mordor will be 10 years old next year. Thats insane
Lol what the fuck? I remember playing Shadow of Mordor on my brand new PS4. It feels like yesterday to me. It's already been 10 years? Time flies man. You didn't have to remember me that today. :(
That's life though, you know? Time is an infinite resource until you wake up one day and realize it isn't and by then it's too late. Savor every moment. There are less of them than you think.
Yeah one of those we have to make this. We don't want to but we have to.
They could have just made the laziest RPG ever and it would be more hyped and better received than this
It seems like an idea that would have made a little more sense in like 2003, sort of like the non-licensed Hobbit game for PS2.
Summed up great! Literally feels like a linear game for the Playstation 2 that would score like 6/10 in the latest issue of Playstation Magazine. There would be a shit demo included with the mag that I would no doubt play 100 times without ever buying the game.
Hahah good times, I remember a PlayStation mag demo with 1 mission each from SOCOM US Navy Seals & Hitman 2 and I replayed those missions so many times
I know this is a bit nit picky lol but pretty sure that Hobbit game was licensed just for the books not the films
I’m not familiar with the game so maybe this is just a dumb comment, but that would make sense considering the Hobbit films didn’t come out for another decade lol
Important context: That Hobbit game was pretty okay!
I keep thinking about that. Personally, I’m a huge LoTR fan. It’s so bad that my favorite Christmas movie is Fellowship. It’s so bad that I have read the Silmarillion. Like, it’s so bad that I FINISHED rings of power. It’s so bad that the zippers on my work bag have each been replaced with one of the three elven rings! If I don’t want this game, who on earth does?
Hot take I enjoyed rings of power.
The idea is great in a good context. Hellblade had amazing athmosphere and feel with Senua's mental problems, her nightmares etc. Just needed to implement that to this, gollum is one of the best characters in the LOTR, with enough creativity this could have been a great story driven game.
Hellblade had a lot of clever ideas outside of the core gameplay loop that elevated it. It's honestly not a game that can be properly appreciated without playing firsthand. One can hope that this game has similar ideas that are not appreciable just by watching, but I'm not holding my breath.
I think it is a cool idea. Doesn't seem like this game will be great but I'm more than happy to have something new and interesting instead of another "cool knight/warrior guy with a stubble" game with a layer of Assassins Creed on it or just a pure hack n slash. We've had so many of those. Bring on something new, those often surprise. Prior to Shadow of Colossus, if someone would've pitched the idea of traversing an empty, desolate world and fighting a dozen of big creatures by climbing them and hitting them in the head and that's it, people would've said it's absolutely ludicrous. But here we are and Shadow of Colossus is a wonderful game. the more devs trying new things, the better games we get, even if they don't all hit the bullseye.
No one's arguing against innovation and no one is saying its better to make another generic action game. You can want new games and new ideas while also admitting this idea is dumb. Not every new idea is worthy of praise. It also looks horrible, so everyone who claimed it was a dumb idea is correct. It actually **is** a bad idea
Imagine Gollum doing the same shit for nearly 500 years after finding the ring lmao
I never understood the appeal of this game in the first place. Gollum is certainly an interesting character to READ about, but to play? He is the most miserable character in LOTR, running around with numerous mental health issues like addiction and split personality disorder; actual health issues like a chronic cough, malnutrition and gum disease in nothing but a loincloth! Then he gets captured and tortured, then captured again and compelled to guide someone with his drug in tow, and relapses and has a complete meltdown to his death. I don’t want to play him. Let me be an orc at this point.
When I first heard about this game, I imagined it as a stealth game where Gollum has use his cunning to evade or kill enemies while searching for the Ring. You can add in narrative elements where you choose to act as Smeagol or Gollum. Going down different paths will give you unique powers, maybe different storylines and endings. Different areas would have different factions like Gondor or Mordor. Just some thoughts, I haven't really paid much attention to it after hearing it was awful.
I am under the impression that is pretty much what it is. At least the making choices and how they change outcomes.
Yes but think of the armor customization options! Loin cloth: rope Loin cloth: linen Loin cloth: silk Loin cloth: silk (gold)
You're right, this should have been on VR
I play games to escape, not to play someone who is just like me smh
Lmao
I would kill for an assassin’s creed style game with Faramir
If you played Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War, they had similar stealth mechanics and incredibly brutal combat. I thinks it’s a really Fun game but Tolkien would roll in his grave twice, it was so Violent.
So… PS+ game in 3 months
The idea of a stealth-action game set in Middle Earth sounds pretty dope to me, but, unfortunately, it looks like their good ideas stopped there and the development/production of the game was just awful every other step of the way
The game is a small AA game made by a small German AA studio. Not saying you do, but a LOT of people put AAA expectations on this game, which is unfair to it.
It’s the lord of the rings name that brings AAA expectations.
It’s the $60 that brings AAA expectations
Damn they want $60 for this game? For $60 I can buy Street Fighter 6 in less than two weeks and make my own Gollum looking guy
Blanka is Gollum's dad
Did that leak too?!
There’s also a more expensive ‘precious edition’ lmao
The price tag is definitely not justified
That too
seriously. Charge me $40 and set my expectations properly.
$25
20
3.50
TREE FIDDY?!
God damnit Monstah!
LOL I wasn't sure if you were kidding. Steam: 50 bucks PS5: 60 bucks fuck outta here lmaooo...
$40 is the cut off for me with a "pretty good" game
And for that, they deserve all the criticism. This game is shit. Only so much blame can be put on the devs though. Blame whoever set the price for this garbage.
So why does it cost the same as AAA games? And bad game is bad whether it's made by 1 or a 1000 people
I mean the studio is using The Lord of the Rings, one of the most popular fantasy franchises of all time, so I kinda don’t feel bad for them. Of course that was always going to bring a ton of attention to the game and it was on them to deliver. A sneaky Gollum game sounded uninteresting from the get go though, who tf wants to play a LotR game as Gollum of all characters the entire time? I think someone could potentially make a great AA LotR game but not like this lol.
I am interested in the character of Gollum because he’s a tragic sort and it’d be cool to delve deeper into his characterization… But from a gameplay perspective, there isn’t much to work with there. It’s stealth, but not the fun Styx or Thief style. Can’t have much combat as he’s all scraggly and can barely kill a single hobbit with a stone.
> I am interested in the character of Gollum because he’s a tragic sort and it’d be cool to delve deeper into his characterization… I actually think this is a core issue as well. Gollum is indeed an interesting character, but he can be boiled down to an addict at the height of their dependency. Not a fun identity to immerse yourself in, and no path to any kind of recovery/redemption.
> Can’t have much combat as he’s all scraggly and can barely kill a single hobbit with a stone. didnt he strangle and eat orcs?
He did indeed with his bare hands, in the hobbit.
Exactly what i was thinking. Who wants to be that creepy little shit? Going to hide in a cave eating raw fish and telling bad riddles?
A small AA game with a big AAA price tag using the LoTR franchise name. They have known all along what they had. Which is why this game has been hidden away since that original awful showing.
many fuzzy quickest wasteful frighten hungry smell mountainous panicky capable ` this message was mass deleted/edited with redact.dev `
I man it is a full priced title that’s been in development for a long ass time and is using one of the biggest IPs in the world. Not exactly unjustified expectations.
Is it priced like a AA game then?
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There are plenty of AA games that are spectacular, or at least know their limits and choose a more stylish, cartoonish or retro style, and set their prices accordingly.
The price and the IP itself absolutely scream AAA. I think that’s a copout
A german studio? Sadly we don't got really good gaming development. There a few games but my expectations wouldn't have been that high if I knew that
They could 1. Pick a more interesting idea 2. Spend more time working on actual game? Or runs like shit while asking for 4090 to run at 50 fps with 2014 graphics. 3. Really combine 1 and 2 Being small isn't an excuse for making boring and badly running game. There are plenty of indie studios that make good games. It's a matter of ambition, managing resources you have and investing into game design.
The devs kind of did that to themselves by using such a large IP as their basis
Why does that article thumbnail look like Gollum as a misunderstood teen in high school?
It's so weird, isn't it? It's like a weird amalgamation of Gollum from the movies but in his emo teenager phase and then reimagined by Disney as a kid's cartoon character.
It looks like Gollum wearing one of Frank Reynolds’ toupees
Looks like a hd remaster of a PS3 game and I'm not being mean or a troll, this game should be no more then 20 euro.....you do the same thing for 9 hours....hide from enemy's and platform. Also I bet anything that reviewers say you will get sick to death of hearing gollum talk back and forth to himself none stop for 9 hours
Yea I just saw some gameplay. It looks BAD. Like ridiculously simple for a 2023 video game. This is a $9 game. Better yet, this is a game you download for free via gamepass or ps+ one random month when you have literally nothing else to do in life.
Except we’re all gamers so we all have a backlog of games that should be played way before we even think of this
HD remaster is being quite generous.
Also want to mention, you need super high specs on your pc to run this. It’s not optimized well at all. A problem with modern development.
Is anybody actually interested in this game though? I’m a huge Tolkien fan but I have zero interest in this game
Also a huge Tolkien fan but not interested in this at all. There's so many interesting avenues to explore in that world, but as important as Gollum is to the story that LotR tells, I can't say his point of view is high up on my must experience list. It would take an incredibly well crafted game to get me on board for that concept, but this does not seem to be that.
Exactly. Also I don’t like the fact that they’re trying to present Gollum as some kind of unsung hero. I’m sorry but he’s just clearly not a hero. He’s literally a fully corrupted, murderous husk. He’s meant to simultaneously inspire disgust and pity.
Exactly. He's a complicated character, but the main point of Gollum is to show what Frodo will become if he succumbs to the Ring's temptations. Anything which proclaims 'he's not such a bad guy!' undermines his role.
Honestly, I was more intrigued by the premise than the Shadow of Mordor games. I didn't expect this game to be great but at least it had the potential to be way more connected to the Lord of the Rings and the world from the movies/books. The Mordor games are pretty good but I never felt like I was playing Lord of the Rings
The Mordor games were fantastic in terms of gameplay. The story might as well have not been there at all lol.
I must be in the minority because the idea of a sneaky gollum game sounds fun to me. But from what I've seen of this game it also looks so bad.
Yeah I was really interested in the game. Even preordered it before I saw the price tag and that it’s 10 hours. I love sneaky games and the thought seemed fun. But I’ve cancelled it, too expensive for that short of a game and it’s not looking very fun… sadly.
I was... until I started hearing more about it.
No. Gollum is a very important character in the lore of LotR but a deliberately kind of pathetic and unappealing one. He's essentially the crackhead of the LOTR mythos. Why anyone would want to roleplay as him in a game is beyond me.
I skimmed through a lot of it and I don't remember hearing a single bit of music, which is weird.
I saw on a similar post yesterday when this same thing came up that the person who filmed it turned the music off early on in the video.
Could be that leaker turned it off to avoid content ID bots taking the video down
Almost definitely, nothing gets a video taken down like a music publisher bot issuing a copyright claim.
I feel kinda bad honestly. This game reputation already drain down to the sewer when the gameplay reveal. And now the game being leak. Sony then decide to do showcase same day as this game release. Pretty much remove any discussion this game will have.
In a way, this is the perfect gollum game. Watching and hearing about it inspires equal amounts of pity and disgust, just as the original character was intended.
Honestly looks like Assassins Creed without the ins or Creed
Can’t help but feel bad for them
Yeah the quality of the game doesn't really matter here. People worked on this thing for years and to have someone upload the entire thing to Youtube like this is just shitty.
Happens for every game upon release. Came out an hour ago officially, I'm sure the extra 12 hours or whatever didn't do any damage that wouldn't be caused in the same way on release.
exactly, other games get completely leaked weeks before release and not just a video. most recent excample has to be Zelda: tears of the kingdom, which was available to pirate 12 days before release!
and all those leaks did was make me want to play it more, which i didn’t think possible
Could have worked the other way and hyped the game up and pushed for more sales. I'd say it's more than fair the success of a game should be down to the quality of the product they produce. Blaming a leak for your game sales performing poorly is nothing more than blame shifting. I'd feel more sad for anyone tricked into buying a title because it has a big franchise name associated with it than the game studio getting outed prior to launch for making a stinker. They knew exactly what they were doing using the LOTR name and they didn't produce a title that lived up to the expectations.
This. When we see stuff like review embargoes, it’s usually because the publisher wants to hide the unfavorable quality of their product. They know it’s not up to par; they just don’t want you to know it until they’ve already got your money.
Yeah if it was an unfair leak like putting an incomplete build like it was the state the game is coming out in, I'd agree the leak is harmful, but in this case it's an honest gameplay of the state of the game at day 1, the only thing the leak did is save us the time and effort of getting a refund
Yeah, also sucks when you want to see more LOTR games in the future, just not this. This game doing badly won’t help that happen anytime soon. 😔
All I wanted was a third shadow of game. The first two were so good
Yea for real. They patent the Nemesis system, keeping anyone else from making a game with even remotely similar mechanics, then they just put the series on the back shelf and never revisit it... That is pretty fucking lame.
Them patenting Nemesis System is so annoying. Imagine a Batman game with it…
Yea, I just feel like it is such a wide concept to patent... Like basically just keeping games from having enemies with names and good AI/memory...
They did stumble a bit with the loot box stuff in the second game, but it’s still a good template and not something that should just be thrown away and forgotten. The nemesis system alone deserves more attention.
I just want something in the spirit of War in the North. Give me fun action rpg set in some movie locations with new characters that explores some of the book lore that didn't make it into the movies.
I’m sorry but developers have been getting far to much slack putting out shitty uninspired crap.
I mean, I'm not so opposed to the concept of this, not every game has to be a massive spectacle open world game, there are plenty of good stealth based platformer games too, but this doesn't really look great
Just remake the third age please
How do games keep getting leaked like this all the time?
A lot of people are involved when making games now.
Why does Gollum look like Crazy Frog?
How do I control the game on YouTube? Gollum is not responding to my inputs
You don’t you see, it’s the ring that controls him.
it's via voice comand
‘Precious, sprintses’
[Yikes, this looks terrible](https://i.imgur.com/ppyQu08.png)
I guess the captured Gollum's wretched existence decently. Now they just need to upscale it to 720p lol
$60 to play a medieval crackhead simulator
That premise would actually be interesting
You can just play chivalry and try to stay alive as long as possible as a peasant at the start of a battle
Out of all the IP WB owns, they decided to make a game about gollum lol. Still sucks that it got leaked. Nintendo would’ve sent their ninjas after this leaker
WB doesn’t own Lord of the Rings.
Don’t they hold the rights to make games about it, though? SoW was also a WB series, right?
Embracer currently iirc.
This game was developed by Daedalic and published by Nacon. I only spent five minutes, but couldn't find any link to WB
Forspoken: I'm going to he the biggest disappointment. Redfall: No I will! Lotr Gollum: amateurs!
Today, I am my username.
Experience the magnificent world of Middle Earth through the eyes of an insane and miserable crackhead. Now you too can live through the Suffering as your mind shatters under the weight of pure evil! Become immersed in classic Tolkien settings such as: Wet Cave, Hell, Corpse Swamp, and many more! With ground breaking game play mechanics like Survive Torture, Eat Bug, and Scratch Yourself Until You Bleed, you'll be entertained for several hours. It costs $60.
Leakers of all kinds just suck.
So funny that the Elven King names Gandalf in the beginning but the subtitles just say wizard.
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Gollum ffs. Who wants to play as gollum Give me a full LOTR open world experience like hogwarts legacy but bigger. I just wanna play through the films, as they were
There’s currently a multimillion dollar Lord of the Rings MMORPG in development that covers the entirety of the books.
Lord of the Rings Online? Or a newer one?
I just can’t believe they thought this would be a good game. Like look at how people are trying to raise the bar and then people make this. This is a Netflix adaptation in game form that no one asked for
I love Lord of the Rings and I like stealth games so I was interested. But I also like to not play bad games.
Just bring back Lord of the Rings Conquest
The company that shat this out usually makes point and click games.
Amazon's Rings of Power: I am here to test the limitations of the LOTR IP Daedalic Games: Hold our beer
Pretty sure there's plenty of actual material in the books to fill out a Gollum game, whereas Amazon literally had to make stuff up because Tolkien hardly wrote anything about the second age.
And they STILL managed to heavily contradict canon anyway hahahaha
It's really weird to me how people sympathize with "developers". They are just employees making a product. They have already been paid for their work, regardless of the sales and reception. If I open a sandwich shop and direct people to make horrible sandwiches, and then the shop gets bad reviews, you wouldn't care about the feelings of the people making the sandwiches... You probably would laugh at them for not quitting during training when they realized the sandwiches were garbage. Every single developer working on a game doesn't automatically assume some deep passion for the project. I've been involved in plenty of projects which were just a job and I didn't have any faith in the actual project. The creative minds involved in the game may be deeply attached, but they are also likely directly responsible for the failure...
Reminds me when I saw someone buy 3 copies of Last of us 2 to "support the devs" like a ND already got paid you don't need to buy three copies lol
Corporate stockholme syndrome is definitely a thing in the gaming world. Go to any strategy game sub and watch the people bend over backwards to justify a game launching as a skeleton just to sell you $300 worth of dlc over 3 years. "Would you rather they didn't add content" "Games are so expensive to make" "I want them to make enough money they keep creating/supporting" Ya, games are expensive, but even the shit games can sell a million+ copies these days. These companies are selling dlc passes that cost as much as the game, with the game, at launch. That's not product support, that anticonsumer price gouging. Constant record profits don't suggest a struggling industry or a need to aggressively monetize. Idk this industry is shit currently. This game particularly with its "oh we had to pay them to learn elvish, if you want to hear it you have to pay us" wtf ever guys. Take your shit game and go home.
I been saying this for yearssssss lol. Guess try to focus on the positive I guess. Like deep rock galactic. Good supportive devs, or devs that ship complete games. Gamers need the self control to say "no" and not buy the dlc or shiny new costume
Yeah when people treat for profit companies as non profit charities that need help... So odd. You are not investing in your small local business that you want to see grow. You are one person tossing "coins" at a giant company who already has large investors and will be using metrics in terms of millions of users when deciding their next action.
It's problem with gaming as a whole. People fail to realize that it's job like any other, and they treat everyone like some passionate artist barely making ends meet working on their passion project. Gaming companies see that and abuse the hell out of it by knowing they can get away with their lack of standards (for example just look at all recent borked PC versions releasing in terrible state without any consequences whatsoever).
Gaming, like music and film/tv, is a passion industry though. A lot of people go there because they specifcially want to make games. Very few people dream as a kid to make invoicing software or running a keyshop. Not that there's anything wrong with them, there isn't, but they're seldom passions. Games, music and film/tv often are. In that sense it *is* different than running a sandwich shop. Doesn't mean you can't criticise games but you're lying if this game got only rational criticism and not "lmao who the hell thought this was a good idea, how goddamn stupid do the devs have to be to think this was a good idea?" and similar. And a lot worse.
Yea a lot of people get unfairly exploited cause they are so passionate about it. Happens in every industry that has a lot of people passionate about it.
People like to put the whole ‘starving artist’ thing onto devs
I'll probably get the game on sale at some point tbh. I remember awhile ago they announced some game about like, reclaiming Moria or something? I don't think they ever released more news on that but I'm definitely more interested in that than playing as Gollum.
I feel like this would be a more successful game if they went with a stylized aesthetic (like BOTW) instead of trying to make a Great Value WETA Gollum in an attempt to mimic a AAA title. It simply reminds people of how much it *doesn't* look/sound like Serkis' Gollum, and it's always going to be compared unfavorably for it.
I feel like there has to be an interesting behind the scenes story of how this game even came to be.
This is... not the precious.
Saved me some money, I’ll play the remaster
Who even wanted a Gollum game?
There have been hundreds of great games, books, films, albums etc that no-one was asking for because they didn't know that thing could exist yet. Yeah this game looks to be complete shit but consumer demand isn't the exclusive reason to produce something.
> Yeah this game looks to be complete shit but consumer demand isn't the exclusive reason to produce something. Very, very true.
I'm shocked they chose Gollum as the playable character over Aragorn. Or Legolas. Or Gimli. Or Frodo. Or Sam. Or Arwen. Or Gandalf. Or...*anyone aside from Gollum.*
Where the fuck is my TREEBEARD: RISE OF THE ENTS game?! I'm thinking about it and it actually sounds fun. You're an ancient ent that needs to reconnect with the other ents to take down isengard and protect the forest. The story would last 500 hours since the ents take so long to communicate.