The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is upcoming action-adventure title from Daedalic Entertainment. Described as a “Prince of Persia-like stealth action” game with “a branching narrative” set parallel to the events of the original books and movies, the game aims to tell the story of War of the Ring from the perspective of one of its strangest and most iconic characters.
Lord of the Rings: Gollum isn’t the only game coming out soon that’s based on a franchise best known for its books and big-budget movies. however. With two major franchises trying to reestablish themselves in narrative-driven next-gen experiences, there are a few different reasons to predict that one may come out on top over the other on the upcoming consoles.
Hogwarts Legacy is an upcoming RPG in development by Avalanche Software which will take players to the world of Harry Potter. Its visual style is very clearly based on the Harry Potter movies, with screenshots so far revealing that everything from the design of dangerous foes like trolls to the robes worn by students will take direct influence from the movie franchise.
This contrasts the less photo-realistic approach to the graphics in Lord of the Rings: Gollum. Though both games look great it is clear that Daedalic Entertainment is going for a more stylized and at times even cartoonish aesthetic which diverges more from the movies. In this sense, Hogwarts Legacy is banking more on people who want to roleplay in the Wizarding World as it appeared in the movies, whereas Gollum’s graphics market it as more distinct from the movie franchise despite the fact that Gollum takes place at least partially during the events of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
The story of Hogwarts Legacy, however, isn’t based on the movies or the books. Taking place almost 100 years before the main events of the Harry Potter series, the game will likely be able to take advantage of the freedom this affords the writers to give players more meaningful ways of affecting the world.
This is a tried and true method shown in games like BioWare’s Knights of the Old Republic, which took place long before the events of the Star Wars movies and was able to tell its own distinct story as a result. Like Star Wars, the Wizarding World also appears to be relatively unaffected by technological progress, allowing the writers to tell a story which feels like the original while avoiding having to deal with the set events of the books.
One of the biggest questions facing Lord of the Rings fans is how the new Gollum game will allow players to make meaningful decisions in a world where players know Gollum’s ultimate fate. It is possible that if players succeed in helping Smeagol win out over Gollum in the end, Gollum’s final act could be interpreted as a heroic sacrifice to stop Frodo taking the ring, but ultimately fans will go into the Lord of the Rings game with far more knowledge of the end of the story.
It will be a big challenge for Daedalic to create player choices which feel like they have meaningful effects without getting in the way of the main narrative from the books and movies. The game’s rival faces problems too. The developers of Hogwarts Legacy recently made statements on some of JK Rowling’s recent comments, and the strength of the Harry Potter brand hasn’t been tested as much in gaming. It remains to be seen which franchise will be able to get a stronger footing on the next-generation of consoles.
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum releases on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S in 2021.
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