The Lord of the Rings: Gollum looks good. From a purely aesthetic standpoint, the character designs appeal to me, at lea🌸st for the most part. Some are interesting and original iterations of the characters we love, some are brand new characters full of intrigue, and others are a bit too similar to the Peter Jackson interpretations for my liking. But on the whole, the compel🃏ling art direction is pulling me in. I’ve always thought this, for what it’s worth, but the latest Gollum trailer looks better than ever.
Take Gandalf, for example. He really looks like a hermit who’s traveled Middle-earth in hunt of this piteous creature. His ic♍onic hat looks like it has been hewn from supple tree bark, his cloak feathered and warm for those cold Angmar winters. His eyebrows have some work to do if they’re to match Tolkien’s descriptions, but I appreciate the departure from the McKellen-li▨kes that are so common in post-2001 Rings art.
The same goes for T♑hranduil, who wears ornate armour befitting his stature as Elvenking and a crown that seems at one with the forest he resides in. It reminds me of a passage in The Hobbit: “On his head was a crown of berries and red leaves, for the autumn was come again. In the spring he wore a crown of woodland flowers.” It’s unclear which season Gollum takes place in, but I’d love to see Thranduil’s headwear shift as time passes.
We’ve also seen glimpses of other side characters. Mell, the blind Elf who I found out about in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:my hands-off preview last year, makes an appearance, debuting a very non-Jacksonian, hippyish look. From orcs to emissaries, there are a lot of varying outfits and some great headgear, until it comes to the titu♌lar character.
Gollum himself is the only design I’m not sure about. He looks like the design that would be produced by an AI that Tim Burtonises whatever image you input, and you just popped in the Andy Serkis Gollum. I think it could have strayed further from the well-trodden path of the movies, but I understand🐠 why Daedalic☂ has played it safe.
The locations look great, too, especially Thranduil’s realm in Mirkwood. The volcanic wastes of Mordor will be difficult to keep interesting, but the variety and verticality of Thranduil’s realm will provide great relief. We’ve seen even more of the game’s charac♓ters and locations in last week’s trailer, but I’m still𝓀 worried the gameplay won’t hold up.
From what I saw last year – and take this with a pinch of salt, as development has continued since then – the gameplay looks dull. Remember the mission where you just avoid being seen by Gandalf and Thranduil as they prattle exposition at you for five minutes? The scene that you have to complete🐲ly restart if you’re seen, no matter how far through theꦕ conversation you are? Exactly.
Gollum’s parkour looks dated, and the whole Eagle Vision thing went out of fashion years ago. Or should have done, at least. Gollum’s been described as having an open world when it clearly has linear routes, albeit you can seemingly choose between stealthy and parkoury options through most levels. With the gameplay looking so uninspired, the game’s success might come down to its core mechanic: Gollum&rs🍌quo;s decision-making.
Gollum is both the protagonist of this game, and its antagonist. You’ll have plenty of decisions to make over the course of each level, and you’ll be able to choose between the Gollum option or the Smeagol option. The bad route or the good route. The negative, killy choice, or the positive, nicer choice. It seems a little trite at the moment, but depending on its implementation, it could make or b🥀reak the ﷽game.
We’ve only seen simple choices so far, whether or not to kill a little beetle and the like, but we’re promised plenty more. If the mechanic ha💯s depth, the more Gollum choices you pick, the harder it’ll be to make Smeagol decisions in the future. As Gollum descends into madness and depravity, it should be more difficult for him to see the light. And the same should go for the opposite, too.
I haven’t seen enough of the game to tell you whether this mechanic will be enough to make Gollum interesting or not, and no trailer will likely be enough to tell us, either. We’ll have to wait until we get our hands on it to know for sure. So, while the charming designs and interesting art direction pull me into Gollum’s version of Middle-earth, I’m still a little nervous about the finished game. Please don’t make🎉 me hide behind curtains as more important characters explain the plot to me, however cool they look.