New game. The Lord of the Rings:Gollum

[Altair6]

Introductory video for the new Gollum game. Combines stealth and parcour apparently.

https://youtu.be/6_kDxUpGdy4

[PatasdoLeao]

It seems to have a good environment, perhaps the gameplay still an mistery.

[Pontin_Finnberry]

Here's the story trailer released. I like the Art style, something different and looks good, I do wonder though why Gandalf is Dark beard, but still interesting style.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAoFO31YVF0

[TesalionLortus]

Thanks for posting this. Wow, yeah, art style seems good, gravitating more towards the likes of Witcher 3 or Ghost of a Tale. As in: have an art style, don't just be the same "filmic grading plus as realistic as possible" like everything else.






Very vibrant color, picture and immersion with some amazing shots. Very painting-like too, so kinda like LOTRO. Except this is exactly what I mean when I say LOTRO colors suck and are sooo 2007... Other than some lightning improvements to enrich the scene, the magic lies in having well-calibrated vibrant colors for your day scene and your *visibly darker* night scenes, so you have an actual difference between daylight/dark, with picture able to get dark (like in caves) but still very vibrant, with nice fires illuminating the dark. In LOTRO the color basis seems to be Ambient Light slider to the max, which is still not as rich, but that outright illuminates everything whether dark place or night. Make the slider at 10% and you gain some darkness/immersion for darker spaces but your colors go down terribly, things become unclear. And all of that applies to reshade tweaks too so it's terrible to work with. If LOTRO managed to actually come up with a fix for this, and up its colors, some of its scenes would actually have HD-like live in them rather than be stuck in 2007 destined for old 4:3 non-HD monitors :P




Btw, I like their approach to Nazguls and their steads. A bit different. Though their Mordor occult/Black Numenorean HQ? seems a bit strange? Or are they Easterlings? Oh nevermind... I guess they'll have their own Stout-axes and such... since based on that map on the wall in the trailer seems like we'll go East of Mordor to another shore... maybe... or at the very least it's incorporated into their worldbuilding. VERY interesting. Daedalic doesn't disappoint, finally something different for LOTR that can stand shoulder to shoulder with LOTRO in some way




Oh, that shot I find funny



Skulls and hanged corpses. Seems familiar, like a scene LOTRO devs could have built xD

[Radhruin_EU]

Here's the story trailer released. I like the Art style, something different and looks good, I do wonder though why Gandalf is Dark beard, but still interesting style.

The environments look nice for the most part but some of the outfits are very high fantasy. Like they're going for an exaggerated fairy-tale look which might work if it was the context of The Hobbit but doesn't if you bring LOTR's more serious take into it and this is all very much in the realms of LOTR. Things that stuck out for me:

- a younger-looking Gandalf with a dark beard just ain't right in any context. Dude's meant to look old.
- Orcs with crossbows... meh, probably easier to animate but lazy. (But on the plus side, the Orcs are the right sort of size for once)
- a Nazgul on a flying beast... meh, way too soon for that, lazy callback
- the Elves look weird, thin and wasted. Like they're from some other fantasy.

Strikes me as your typical exploration / traversal / avoidance / light stealth game which is borrowing LOTR's name and 'furniture' for marketing purposes, but using the sort of visuals that go with typical mainstream fantasy games.

[TesalionLortus]

The environments look nice for the most part but some of the outfits are very high fantasy. Like they're going for an exaggerated fairy-tale look which might work if it was the context of The Hobbit but doesn't if you bring LOTR's more serious take into it and this is all very much in the realms of LOTR. Things that stuck out for me:

- a younger-looking Gandalf with a dark beard just ain't right in any context. Dude's meant to look old.
- Orcs with crossbows... meh, probably easier to animate but lazy. (But on the plus side, the Orcs are the right sort of size for once)
- a Nazgul on a flying beast... meh, way too soon for that, lazy callback
- the Elves look weird, thin and wasted. Like they're from some other fantasy.

Strikes me as your typical exploration / traversal / avoidance / light stealth game which is borrowing LOTR's name and 'furniture' for marketing purposes, but using the sort of visuals that go with typical mainstream fantasy games.

Dude, the visuals are nothing like "typical mainstream fantasy" - the fact that I've seen so many commenting on how "bad" the graphics are (because they just want the same kind of graphics = artstyle over and over again) makes me even more convinced of that, so will gladly try it and I bet it's going to be far better than anything lotr we've gotten in the last decade or more.

Black bearded Gandalf and how elves appear to be are a bit strange yeah, though it makes me wonder whether they have some more "nefarious" purpose behind it, like the good guys appearing... wasted and vilified in Gollum's psyche in a game played from Gollum's POV and seen through his eyes? Nah, they went undercover to grab the ring which is when they used horses, but they've always had those flying mounts clearly.

[Radhruin_EU]

Dude, the visuals are nothing like "typical mainstream fantasy"

There's the usual saturated colour palette, and typical fantasy tropes for locations (like the tower with the big eyeball on top), war-gear (like the armour the Orcs are wearing) and the bizarre costumes some of those characters are wearing.

The flying beasts weren't used earlier because they were being kept for the war as a nasty surprise for the Free Peoples (which you can plainly tell that they were from how people reacted to them), and Sauron only had a few of them (one last brood from the creature that had birthed them, and which he'd caused to grow to that size). So no, they hadn't always had them, the original creature had apparently been a souvenir of his travels in some dark corner of the world.

[TesalionLortus]

The fairy colorful palette is not really usual outside of cheaper abstract art styles and maybe some Japanese fantasy. The usual is toned down filmic realism

The flying beasts weren't used earlier because they were being kept for the war as a nasty surprise for the Free Peoples (which you can plainly tell that they were from how people reacted to them), and Sauron only had a few of them (one last brood from the creature that had birthed them, and which he'd caused to grow to that size). So no, they hadn't always had them, the original creature had apparently been a souvenir of his travels in some dark corner of the world.

So they haven't been using them in the West before the war, no one said it's in the west, the footage was of Mordor

[DavidmeetHal]

Strikes me as your typical exploration / traversal / avoidance / light stealth game which is borrowing LOTR's name and 'furniture' for marketing purposes, but using the sort of visuals that go with typical mainstream fantasy games.

If the game mechanics are well designed, it's ok with me.

[Radhruin_EU]

The fairy colorful palette is not really usual outside of cheaper abstract art styles and maybe some Japanese fantasy. The usual is toned down filmic realism

We're talking about a game, not movies. There are a ton of fantasy games with a more colourful palette than that.

So they haven't been using them in the West before the war, no one said it's in the west, the footage was of Mordor

It's an obvious memberberry ('member the Nazgul? 'member the fell beasts?) and rather over-dramatic for chasing down a wizened midget, don't you think? Typical game conceit, up the stakes to the N'th degree which normally makes sense for an action set-piece but here you're playing Gollum.

[TesalionLortus]

We're talking about a game, not movies. There are a ton of fantasy games with a more colourful palette than that.

Any titles? Maybe I'll play. Assuming you mean something less bizarre, not the usual Japanese-styled massive swords fest, oh and not AC, or Witcher, those are obvious.

[Radhruin_EU]

Any titles? Maybe I'll play. Assuming you mean something less bizarre, not the usual Japanese-styled massive swords fest, oh and not AC, or Witcher, those are obvious.

To clarify, I meant a certain sort of Western fantasy that likewise falls into that bracket of relatively brightly coloured and flashy with markedly fantastical locations and equally fantastical costumes and armour, outsized and/or exaggeratedly fantastical weapons and so on. The sub-D&D stuff that's commonly associated with popular fantasy in general. Examples would include (off the top of my head):

EQ franchise
The entire Warcraft franchise
Guild Wars 1 & 2
Torchlight and its sequel
Baldur's Gate 3
Dota franchise
League of Legends
Trine franchise
Might & Magic franchise
Bastion

- and assorted indie dungeon crawler titles

Now all that's fine in itself but I have a distaste for tropes from that coming back to haunt other fantasy when people adapt it, so if I see (for example) that more brightly-coloured palette, bizarre costumes, a stereotypical 'fantasy' look to armour (impractical, there for effect or to look 'cool' with, pointlessly asymmetrical or with gaps or umpteen extraneous belts and things, huge pauldrons etc.) and bizarre locations (like, say, a tower with a huge eyeball on the top or impossibly spiky Obviously Evil mountains) then I can't help but notice.

[TesalionLortus]

To clarify, I meant a certain sort of Western fantasy that likewise falls into that bracket of relatively brightly coloured and flashy with markedly fantastical locations and equally fantastical costumes and armour, outsized and/or exaggeratedly fantastical weapons and so on. The sub-D&D stuff that's commonly associated with popular fantasy in general. Examples would include (off the top of my head):

EQ franchise
The entire Warcraft franchise
Guild Wars 1 & 2
Torchlight and its sequel
Baldur's Gate 3
Dota franchise
League of Legends
Trine franchise
Might & Magic franchise
Bastion

- and assorted indie dungeon crawler titles

Now all that's fine in itself but I have a distaste for tropes from that coming back to haunt other fantasy when people adapt it, so if I see (for example) that more brightly-coloured palette, bizarre costumes, a stereotypical 'fantasy' look to armour (impractical, there for effect or to look 'cool' with, pointlessly asymmetrical or with gaps or umpteen extraneous belts and things, huge pauldrons etc.) and bizarre locations (like, say, a tower with a huge eyeball on the top or impossibly spiky Obviously Evil mountains) then I can't help but notice.

Ah, okay, I get it. I meant more like third person/first person fantasy with some exploration going on, at the very least LOTRO's level of visuals and ideally the type without overgrown swords and weapons in wide usage, though I don't mind a "cool" factor sometimes. From this list only GW2 would fit that bill. So see, that's why I said this: it's actually not typical to use that kind of palette in such titles, like this Gollum game. It's possible to miss some titles in a vast avalanche of things that get released though, that's why I asked. I guess Avowed may fall into that category (if doesn't try too hard to make itself look and feel like Elder Scrolls), but we know next-to-nothing about visuals yet.

[Radhruin_EU]

Ah, okay, I get it. I meant more like third person/first person fantasy with some exploration going on, at the very least LOTRO's level of visuals and ideally the type without overgrown swords and weapons in wide usage, though I don't mind a "cool" factor sometimes. From this list only GW2 would fit that bill. So see, that's why I said this: it's actually not typical to use that kind of palette in such titles, like this Gollum game. It's possible to miss some titles in a vast avalanche of things that get released though, that's why I asked. I guess Avowed may fall into that category (if doesn't try too hard to make itself look and feel like Elder Scrolls), but we know next-to-nothing about visuals yet.

This game does look like what you might call Saturday morning cartoon Tolkien though, as The Hobbit seems strong in this one stylistically (Orcs resembling fairy-tale goblins, Elves looking fay) and we've got cartoonish villains (akin to the way the three trolls and the Great Goblin were) but on the other hand we've got LOTR things (Ring-wraiths, Shelob) which ought to be terrifying, so it seems like it could be a bit of an odd mixture (or else do the scary things a disservice in some way to make them fit in with the rest).

Anyway, the point is that mainstream popular fantasy has no shortage of games which are that more 'colourful' take on fantasy as well as the semi-realistic looking stuff you were thinking of. Avowed looks like an ARPG, giving the PoE setting the Elder Scrolls treatment so it'd fall into that bracket you were thinking of, but games like that trace their ancestry back to RPGs, which aren't everyone's cup of tea. There's a big market for stuff that's just 'fantasy' and this Gollum game appears to be likely to be player action-driven mechanically, so it won't take the setting as seriously as an RPG-derived game might as it's trying to appeal to a different crowd. (Not us, in other words).

[TesalionLortus]

There's a big market for stuff that's just 'fantasy' and this Gollum game appears to be likely to be player action-driven mechanically, so it won't take the setting as seriously as an RPG-derived game might as it's trying to appeal to a different crowd. (Not us, in other words).

That something is action-driven doesn't mean it'll be bad quality, I suspect I may be enjoying this one narratively etc. Might be the first such lotr-based in "a while." I did enjoy Shadow of Mordor too but you know... Nemesis system, and having fun with orcs, all it came down to. Hardly for anything else.

[Radhruin_EU]

That something is action-driven doesn't mean it'll be bad quality, I suspect I may be enjoying this one narratively etc. Might be the first such lotr-based in "a while." I did enjoy Shadow of Mordor too but you know... Nemesis system, and having fun with orcs, all it came down to. Hardly for anything else.

I didn't say bad quality and I've got absolutely no problems with it being action-driven (I've played a lot of games of that general sort), I just think that in chasing that audience they'll make changes to better suit that audience's sensibilities. Kind of like SoM/SoW did but obviously in different ways and for different reasons, but as with those the end result may be a bit generic (rather like the art style is). Obviously we can't see what the writing will be like but every time I see a trailer say things like 'a story untold' now it gives me bad vibes.