![]() This was on my mind as I played The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, Daedalic Entertainment’s new Lord of the Rings-inspired action-adventure game. No orc shouted “ Meat’s on the menu, boys!” in the books, but Peter Jackson’s film trilogy was right on the mark. The generic orc of generic fantasy may be a hulking, dimwitted goon, but they were Tolkien’s chief way of injecting humor into the darkest moments of The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien’s orcs is that they lacked personality. It’s adequate but it pales in comparison to Andy Serkis, which it was always going to do and should have been reason #231 not to make the game in the first place.One thing you can’t say about J.R.R. You learn nothing new of note about Gollum and while the moments where he’s talking to his alter ego of Sméagol, trying to get him to go along with his plans, are the best parts of the game, they’re let down by the voice-acting. ![]() ![]() While the storytelling is the best element of the game, that’s really not a compliment, given this is not a story that needed to be told. As is the defining nature of his character, Gollum’s goals are not complicated and so you spend the whole game simply trying to catch up with Bilbo, to get your precious back. The game is set just before the events of The Fellowship Of The Ring (in which Gollum is only briefly referenced), long after he’s lost the One Ring to Bilbo Baggins and while he’s still in Mordor, initially as a prisoner. ![]() If anyone had ever ended up pitching game ideas to him though we feel this one probably would’ve had a better chance than most, since it’s not really an action game and does try to focus on Gollum’s dissociative identity. Tolkien would not have been a fan of video games, had he ever lived to see them (he died in 1973 but we feel we would’ve heard if he spent his final years addicted to Pong) and we’re sure he would’ve hated the Shadow Of Mordor games in particular, given their loose adherence to his canon. ![]()
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