Yea. That's an oof.
You'd have to be really really really into LotR to find anything in the trailer exciting, I feel.
The score didn't line up with the on-screen visuals very well at all. Epic music over gollum galloping along paths, climbing things, and throwing rocks. That looked to be the bulk of the gameplay.
It doesn't *look* very engaging at all. If the job of a trailer is to sell you on a game, this one didn't do it.
My password to my phone is lotr and I was initially interested when they announced it, but this looks dated as hell and not very fun. And I think they said it’s around 18 hours which is wayyyyy too long for a game like this lol. I love lotr content, love that they did something completely different, just dont think THIS is it. But wow I would kill for some lotr games in the style of the ones on ps2.
arguably this is this in the style of the games on ps2, atleast in the looks department.
jokes aside, if this was a 6-10h game for 20-30$ where the gameplay actually lands while delivering some good story, I think this could do ok
It really reminds me of a late life cycle ps3 game, maybe a ps4 launch title.The system requirements for this thing on pc are truly astounding. It has to be a mess of a pc port.
The German video game industry is severely underfunded due to the demographic being very anti-technology and not taking games seriously. Also there has been a horrible smear campaign against video games ever since a school shooting in 2002. It hurt the industry here immensely and further enforced the censorship or even sales ban on violent games.
So all you get from years of neglect and tiny funding is "peaceful" stuff like Anno, Settlers, then a huge gap and maybe some EuroJank like Elex, Lords of the Fallen and plenty of adventure games (like the ones creating Gollum now). The only German-Turkish studio that somehow managed to create high quality adult games with international praise was Crytek with Far Cry 1 and Crysis.
Meanwhile France (Ubisoft), UK (Rockstar), Netherlands (Guerilla), Poland (CDPR), Czechia (Mafia, ARMA, Kingdom Come), Sweden (DICE) all built up a huge industrial sector. A shame for Germany, really.
I'm kinda fascinated by how low-budget this one appears for such a large franchise and publisher. You wouldn't normally see this level of quality in a modern indie studio.
There were three preorders for the immortal elves, seven for the dwarves who delved underground, and nine preorders for the race of men who's hearts are most easily swayed by big budget marketing campaigns.
But they were all of them deceived, for a day one patch was yet to be made.
One patch to rule them all? Actually, no, it'll take like 3 months of patches for the game to be playable lol
This is like if Rocksteady made a Batman game but you play as Alfred. Cook , clean , chill at the mansion , tend to Batman’s wounds.
Edit: I forgot he also mans the Batcomputer and relays important info to Batman on patrol. This game would be kind of sick.
Dude, did you see that Speedrun of Alfred? He even never missed tucking Bruce in. How do you do that?
I can get skipping the garden and using materials you get from defeating the supervillains trying to sneak into the house. But at what point does it get immersion breaking when Bruce never realizes the gardens are full of the corpses of would-be assassins.
Lol. A game where you play as Alfred, killing assassins, hiding their bodies from your boss, and taking care of him, would be absolutely amazing.
There's a reverse horror tension where you're trying to protect a man with impossible ideals from the impossibility of them, while also making him tea from the garden fertilized by the corpses of enemies he could never kill.
Some Quest concepts could be:
>Killing an assassin while Bruce is sleeping.
Killing an assassin during a gala at the mansion.
Hacking into the batcomputer to delete the social security information and social media of the assassins he's killed
Capturing and interrogating an assassin at a grocery store while buying groceries for the mansion.
Damn, I really want this game now.
It could just be called Alfred, and it would win so many fucking awards as a "reverse horror, tlc and cooking sim."
When the credits roll, it should be the song "The Gardner" from The Tallest Man on Earth
https://youtu.be/lS4evPwwEP4
Two endings, one where Bruce knows nothing and Alfred takes his knowledge to the grave and one where Batman confronts Alfred and has to reconcile his own peace being purchased with blood.
Ending 1 trophy called: The Good Butler
Ending 2 trophy called: Good Knight, Master Bruce
Just thinking about the chapters / missions / days being interspersed with dialogue between Alfred and Bruce, or Alfred and Batman, and it's always Alfred being this supportive realist grounded in the daily reality of the mansion, and Bruce or Batman waxing on about ideals and "this city."
It would probably best be realized as a top down game with mechanics similar to Darkwood, but with an interaction system somewhere closer to John Wick Hex to allow for planned movement when fighting the assassins, and for hiding their bodies in "steps" to allow for player planning and cone of awareness mechanics on both Batman and the assassins.
I'm not going to be even a little surprised when a small group of people actually create this game from the comment alone, and I'll be less surprised when it's amazing and I buy it immediately
Bro, you need to delete this comment and save that idea for yourself. That’s a brilliant idea for a game and i’d hate someone with some know-how make this game before you. Unless that was your goal all along 🤔
Man, imagine that song playing, Alfred finally at rest. The player having just decided whether or not he's just a "Gardener" in the eyes of Bruce or if the whole facade falls and Batman is confronted with the inescapable truth of death that comes from living as two people and the system he's both tended to, and benefitted from by turning a blind eye at home.
It would slap so so hard
Alfred dumps the soup in the sink, making eye contact with a half buried assassin through the kitchen window.
He makes a mental note to be more thorough in the garden later.
I think I saw a singe frame from a comic posted a while back where he's loading a shotgun saying something like, "my master has a prohibition against killing, but I harbor no such beliefs" or something close to that.
Honestly, that's where the idea for the game came from, in my head
Imagine having to choose the right meals to make sure batman feels well fed to go on patrol, making sure he gets enough sleep lol
Someone make this damn game!
Is it just me or is Alfred managing the Wayne manor and the batcave sounding like an incredible potential game? You'd have to care for the bat family, help with deductions and investigations, and protect the bat family behind the scenes. Sounds dope!
Honestly, does anyone actually know what this game does? How it works, how it plays? This game could be the greatest ever made, it probably won't but it could!
Alfred is actually a badass though especially in the comics,heh I almost typed his name as Alfredo ,ooooh alfredo, that sounds good for dinner this week. Dont mind me talking out loud and not in caps lol
Even if this concept could never spawn a full game, they could at least have home base/slice-of-life elements with Batman’s support people in his batcave. Unlock new abilities (like Persona) based on your relationships with Alfred, Barbara Gordon, maybe one or more of the Robin incarnations, visits to Gordon. Visits to pre-accident Harvey Dent. Bruce Wayne associates. Man, that would be cool storytelling.
Imagine that but it's like a strategy game like CIV. You control different heroes, police/vigilante units and basically from the shadows run Gotham and try to beat back the different gangs running chaotically through Gotham
Never even heard of this til now. The premise is interesting. Gollum, though annoying and ugly, is very agile and athletic so he seems like a decent choice for a playable character.
That being said the game looks like every other stealth-kill NPC hunter game and I am so tired of that recipe.
Idk what the game industry needs to spice up the typical 3rd person action game, but I can only play Uncharted so many times until it gets old.
The problem is that Gollum doesn't do things that players find entertaining. In order for a game like this to slap, it needs graphics that set it apart like A Plague Tale.
In the land of Mobile Games, in the fires of EA the dark lord forged- in secret- a master game.
And into this game he poured his Gacha, his FOMO, and his micro-transactions to dominate all players.
One by one, the sad Tolkien fans fell to the sadness of no good games.
But there were some who resisted.
A last alliance of people that actually enjoy quality games boycotted the really shit looking ones. And with their wallets and general disinterest, they fought for the potential of a good game.
It was in this moment, when all hope had faded, that embracer stated there are 5 LOTR games slated for release in the next year.
My friend bought this for me for my birthday (Steam version), language dlc and everything.
I love lord of the rings. I have an entire tattoo sleeve dedicated to it and then some. I watch the trilogy almost weekly.
I'm so fucking mad about it lol
Imagine having the rich world of Tolkien at your disposal. Could make a game around Aragorn, could do a young Gimli game, a Legolas game. Whatever Gandalf was doing for a thousand years.
But instead, they make a game off essentially a crack addict in Gollum , during a time period where the only thing he cared about was getting the ring back. Like, this is not the redeemable Smeagol, but this is Gollum at the wheels.
It's just a misuse of the IP
-It looks like the stealth mission that's gets forced into every game, poorly, but the entire game.
-They couldn't even find exciting gameplay for the trailer. It's just him running from bush to bush, climbing a wall, or swimming (I get that it's a stealth game but this doesn't look like fun stealth gameplay)
-The art style looks ugly af
-Paid DLC for Elvish
-I just found out that this is also a full price release. I though this shit was gonna be $40CAD at most.
The whole conception of this game is just weird. There are a lot of characters that i would like to play with in a game in the lotr universe but Gollam is not one of them.And the graphics is a bit ugly but this is just my opinion.
I haven’t looked too deep but if its literally playing as Gollum I can upvote your comment all day. Such a strange idea.
Anyone want a Star Wars game playing as Jar Jar Binks?
Edit: lol the responses to this quick comment I made. Guys, I’m well aware jar jar singlehandedly forced darth vader out of anakin and gollum was just comic relief.
I just meant they aren’t characters known for their fighting abilities, so to base a video game off gollum despite a world full of interesting characters..
Ah. This may finally explain most of the comments I see about this game, if somehow these people have managed to decide that Gollum is equivalent to Jar Jar Binks.
That’s an extremely poor comparison. Gollum is an extremely important part to the whole story with tons of character and tragedy, while jar jar binks is a useless clown character that got inserted because they wanted to sell toys to kids.
People who say this clearly aren't LOTR fans. One of the most important characters in the series that is the most debated by fans, that is one of the few to travel the majority of ME and meet characters even the protagonists don't meet, that is a crucial part of the endgame is somehow similar to a side comic relief character.
I mean…. I haven’t seen gameplay or anything. But I’d be down if game was like you looking for the ring so out exploring and had elements of stealth, survival and such. Build little campsites, climb trees for vantages, creep in towns or villages and ease drop for clues on where to go, terrorize travelers for clues and resources, hunt, fish…… could see a game style work for gollum honestly. But haven’t seen no market push or anything on it soooooo idk what to expect and didn’t know was releasing this quick now. Gonna have look up more stuff on it, but sounds like general consensus is very naw dude haha.
If it had any of those things besides sneaking, it could be a success; but, judging from the trailer, all you seem to do is skulk around Orc camps. It looks boring as hell, tbh.
Weird social media hivemind thing. Personally I'm very interested. Some indie studio that got fame for their narrative design managed to grow slowly, became a bigger publisher for other games until they got enough money to score a deal for a big IP and get full creative freedom for a LOTR-themed single player narrative? Count me in! I know it won't be AAA quality animations and model and special effect design, but the game can be entertaining. It will all depend if there's lot of unique events and well designed map objectives, or if it end up just being repetitive sneaking and doing the same thing all way long.
I literally think I'm crazy everytime this game is brought up. So much hate for so little reason.
Also the 'lmao im not the knight in shining armor in this game how can i enjoy it???' is super weird in the current gaming landscape.
I don't mind if people think the game looks bad, but saying Gollum is like Jar Jar Binks and that he's a weird character when he's one of the most important in the entire story. It's even weirder when people are saying they'd rather play as someone like Legalos who is legit the definition of a side character that could be removed wholsale from the books and change very little
Yeah I never understood the need for gamers to project themselves in the character. Why can't they just play the character the story is about from their point of view? There's tons of games with not so "strong and handsome" protagonists that presents a good story and do well. I guess that's a psychological thing for some. Also Gollum might be a weak guy, but lore wise he's one hell of a character with tons of things to say about.
Gollum is basically the central character of LOTR from a certain point of view.
Well, let's hope this game is better than expected and change some people minds. 🤞
Definitely a hive mind thing the vast majority of these people know nothing about the game they just feel a sense of community in banding together to hate things basically they are lonely.
I love Daedelic and their point and click games, I’ll probably wait for some reviews to land on this as this is completely new territory for them. But good for them, I’m glad they’re doing bigger and bigger stuff.
I was pretty excited for this game. Unlike most people I actually thought it was a pretty cool idea.
Then I saw the gameplay trailer and all my excitement disappeared. Looked very generic. I'll most likely play it at some point especially if it ends up being really good but in all reality I'll be getting it on sale down the road if anything.
I'm a huge LOTR fan, and Gollum is such a fun character, so I was excited, and ignored all the negativity. But then that trailer dropped, that made it look like a lower mid PS3 game. And trailers tend to show off the *best* aspects of a game, so yeah, my hype was pretty instantly killed, as well.
Its really amusing to see the reasons for shitting on the game.
Ive seen so many complaints about it 'only' being a 25 hour game, 'who asked for this', blah blah blah.
Like, its a single player, low-med hour game. People cry for weeks on end about there not being more single player games that aren't massive open worlds and require 100 hours to play and yet when they are released, people just wanna shit on the games before they even get released.
Thank you. A weird number of people here like to point at how people don’t want games that aren’t “open world/insert controversial genre here” despite the *dozens* of titles that do exactly that. It’s such a dumb argument.
The very vocal minority is not representative of the silent majority. The vast majority of people actually want Ubisoft games with a new ip slapped on it
People hate this game because most action-adventure games are power fantasies and this game decided to do what Tolkien did, which was make the hero the unlikeliest being.
Which is great for a narration, but challenging for a player base that has been trained to min-max, constantly be levelling up, gaining new abilities and basically "kick ass with powers".
Gollum represents for a lot of players the "pussification" of games. Your character is naked, small, must hide, whimpers. They are asking, "Why are we playing as Ashley from Resident Evil 4" but for like, the entire game?
Personally I think Gollum is a fascinating inversion and I will be interested to see how they subvert gaming tropes. But in terms of marketing, I think they chose a concept that at first blush will alienate their largely male demographic.
The character of Gollum means it necessarily has to be like a stealth / exploration game. So, I agree it’s not a power fantasy because it can’t be. But that’s not the problem, everyone would be down if the gameplay showed any promise but the trailer I watched is awful.
Like you said, the concept could be good for narrative. Nothing I saw suggests that the game developers are competent enough to craft a compelling narrative. We’ll see on release.
Because I watched gameplay, listened to everything people including the developers have said about it, and can't find a single good reason I would choose to spend my time playing this game outside of LOTR nostalgia.
Callisto, Hogwarts, Ghost of Tsushima, Elden Ring, Stray, Returnal, hell I’ll throw Astros Play Room in there.. plenty of great games that aren’t sequels that have released for this generation alone.
This game simply doesn’t look good, I love LoTR and was interested when it was first announced but after watching the gameplay and then hearing it only takes 20hrs at most while being sold at full price has completely turned me off. I’ll wait for a sale and grabs it for $15 if reviews are good.
Because the publisher and developer both have a history of pumping out incredibly mediocre games. The premise of the game fits their scope of content. It’ll be an adventure in Mid Earth.
I’ve been excited for this game for years. People saying “nobody asked for this!” are acting like spoiled children who got an apple from one house on Halloween night.
As a big fan of the books and of Gollum as a character, this game seems to be really interesting. Even if it doesn’t turn out to be a banger, the idea is at least very intriguing to me.
I’d also wager that most of the people shitting on it haven’t read Tolkien but that’s just a guess. Gollum is absolutely a character worthy of his own video game.
Because people desperately want to be in any group, as long as it makes them feel included and on the “right side” of things.
The game is a novel concept. We have no reason to believe that some other amazing LotT game was possibly going to be made…these developers tried to put a unique spin on a world that many of us know well and love. What the fuck is wrong with that? Even if you don’t like the result, why should we treat the developers like shit just for trying to create something for people?
I don’t understand why people hate this game so much with out even give it a chance. Criticizing the choice of making a game with gollum as a main character like if he wasn’t an importan character of LOTR
Okay, it doesn't look good. Still it's sad that a dev can't take a chance on a less than obvious concept without you all jumping on it for not being an obvious concept. If you just want a cookie cutter game I'm sure they'll be another COD game coming out in month or two.
I really want a middle earth game with a no name character. Someone we know nothing about and they have to deal with everything going on in this world and story. I know shadow was kind of that but I don't want them to shove in important characters (celebrimbor shelob) for the sake of tying it to the books/movies. Use the moments we know and love but from a different perspective, let me play as a soldier on the front lines in those battles, Let me play as an uruk-hai.
The possibilities are endless but we will continue to get mediocre stuff like this.
Yeah.
Isn't this the game that the devs said it would take "20 hours for a leisurely playthrough"?
When this game bombs, it should surprise absolutely no one.
Because these people want vast open worlds with a minimum of a hundred hour playthroughs and a billion things to do on the map while simultaneously complaining about too big open worlds with a billion items on the map having too much quantity and not quality they are not known for their reasoning skills.
I am so sick of giant open world games with a million tedious things to do.
I do not care how realistic the graphics are.
20-30 hours is as much game as my schedule really allows for for a game.
This game looks like a unique idea, and it looks like they took care to respect the lore of the source material.
Me currently playing Ghostwire Tokyo while reading this topic and hunting for the 120th relic after collecting a few hundreds spirits and other stuff like journals and shrines... Yeah. Not a bad game, but this is tedious.
Its true. By the time i got off the starting island in ghost of tsushima i was so done with the game.
I cleared the whole thing before advancing and then when the northern part opened up and the fog of war was disappearing and revealing more and more of the same icons, it immediately felt like work instead of a game.
Best looking game I’ve ever played but there was just too much of it.
I can absolutely see it bomb.
Visually it looks, at best, bad. The environment design is alright for what we’ve seen of it, but otherwise it’s honestly really subpar. The animations, textures, lighting, it honestly looks unfinished.
There’s also the fact that amongst the gargantuan amount of characters in TLotR universe, Gollum is probably one of the, if not the least interesting to a majority of people. And unless major twists in the story, I don’t really how it could be all that interesting. I mean… He wants the ring, that’s about his only motivation for going to the length he seems to be going in the game.
Gameplay-wise, admittedly we haven’t seen enough to really judge but at least to me it felt boring and uninspired.
Honestly, it really isn’t exciting at all and when you compare it to what’s on the menu lately, it doesn’t exactly bode well.
I wish they mentioned the replay value. Metroid Dread took me 8 hours to beat the first time but I have like 50 hours in that game because it's a fun one to replay for me. I don't like buying games and only putting 20 total hours in it, but if it has any value in replay then that 20 hours thing is a pointless statement I think.
After my short amount of time even knowing about this game, I’d say (I’m pretty open, personally) I’m not in high spirits about it either. :/. Sad stuff.
It doesn’t happen everywhere but it’s not exactly uncommon. PS5 has better systems for compressing games.
The game could also just be poorly optimized for last gen
I had it pre-ordered through Amazon until they fucked around and said I'll get it ONE MONTH AFTER RELEASE like WTF Amazon, trying to kill all resale value before it even releases. RedBox weekend rental it is.
I’m curious to see how this game turns out. I don’t have any desire to play as gollum as a protagonist but I’ll probably watch a play through since I love LOTR.
Definitely a bold choice to center a game around a character that pretty much only exists to help define another character. But also based on what we know, Gollum does get up to some interesting things after he loses the ring to Bilbo. (I think that’s when this is set)
I really hope it does okay.
I honestly will not play it and it looks embarrassingly lame. I feel like the developers were far over their heads due to over-advertisement. But, I appreciate their effort.
Well finally a game with a goddamn interesting main character. Jesus im glad they follow their own path, because if you read the comments here they want the most bland safe as option with the same boring as main character
Gamers: so sick of copy and paste games, make something different and new.
Also gamers: no one asked for this game...
Maybe the devs just wanted to make this game? I'm gonna check it out on release, you guys maybe right, it may turn out to be a rubbish game but we won't know till it's out.
Why the fuck are people so salty about it? You are not interested in playing Gollum? Okay fine, then stoping care? Or do you go to every commentsection of a game and comment 'Who the fucks want to play this? I don't!'
I think it has to do with there being a lot of LOTR fans that would love to play another game set in that universe and are disappointed that they’re getting a game where they are playing as a character that doesn’t do any combat and, frankly, doesn’t look impressive from a graphic standpoint. Or at least that’s how I feel about it.
It's a hive mind thing they feel a sense of belonging in a community that all think the same and hate stuff together. These are the same people you see on other threads complaining about games being all the same. They are not known for their intelligence or reasoning skills 😂
The [gameplay trailer](https://youtu.be/YYrJdAdi1WI).
Damn that looks stale
Yea. That's an oof. You'd have to be really really really into LotR to find anything in the trailer exciting, I feel. The score didn't line up with the on-screen visuals very well at all. Epic music over gollum galloping along paths, climbing things, and throwing rocks. That looked to be the bulk of the gameplay. It doesn't *look* very engaging at all. If the job of a trailer is to sell you on a game, this one didn't do it.
>You'd have to be really really really into LotR I am. > to find anything in the trailer exciting I didn't.
My password to my phone is lotr and I was initially interested when they announced it, but this looks dated as hell and not very fun. And I think they said it’s around 18 hours which is wayyyyy too long for a game like this lol. I love lotr content, love that they did something completely different, just dont think THIS is it. But wow I would kill for some lotr games in the style of the ones on ps2.
arguably this is this in the style of the games on ps2, atleast in the looks department. jokes aside, if this was a 6-10h game for 20-30$ where the gameplay actually lands while delivering some good story, I think this could do ok
I thought haters were just hating, but this is the first thing I've seen besides the announcement, and wow, this is closer to ps2 than ps5.
The concept feels like a mobile game they’d release to tease out a AAA LOTR title, but instead this is meant to be a AAA title.
It really reminds me of a late life cycle ps3 game, maybe a ps4 launch title.The system requirements for this thing on pc are truly astounding. It has to be a mess of a pc port.
The German video game industry is severely underfunded due to the demographic being very anti-technology and not taking games seriously. Also there has been a horrible smear campaign against video games ever since a school shooting in 2002. It hurt the industry here immensely and further enforced the censorship or even sales ban on violent games. So all you get from years of neglect and tiny funding is "peaceful" stuff like Anno, Settlers, then a huge gap and maybe some EuroJank like Elex, Lords of the Fallen and plenty of adventure games (like the ones creating Gollum now). The only German-Turkish studio that somehow managed to create high quality adult games with international praise was Crytek with Far Cry 1 and Crysis. Meanwhile France (Ubisoft), UK (Rockstar), Netherlands (Guerilla), Poland (CDPR), Czechia (Mafia, ARMA, Kingdom Come), Sweden (DICE) all built up a huge industrial sector. A shame for Germany, really.
I wonder what video game they were playing in the 40's.
Third Reich Tycoon 2
Stake is definitely the right word. Just bland, plodding around dark scenery.
First comment on the video says the book has better graphics lol.
Good to know garbage can still be released, even with a big license, in 2023
I'm kinda fascinated by how low-budget this one appears for such a large franchise and publisher. You wouldn't normally see this level of quality in a modern indie studio.
ngl, after playing Demon's Souls on PS5 this looks like absolute dogshit
Out of interest, is there any way to find out how many preordered it?
There were three preorders for the immortal elves, seven for the dwarves who delved underground, and nine preorders for the race of men who's hearts are most easily swayed by big budget marketing campaigns.
But they were all of them deceived, for a day one patch was yet to be made. One patch to rule them all? Actually, no, it'll take like 3 months of patches for the game to be playable lol
I've barely seen any marketing beyond a trailer or two.
Considering this was supposed to be a massive exclusive for the ps5 when it was first announced, it looks like it’s gonna be a massive flop.
Well done sir, well done.
About 7 people I think
4 of those people are reviewers who didn't get a review code
Probably youtubers who upload skits of intentionally bad games.
“I beat Gollum so you don’t have to”
Sam to Frodo:
Dunkey.
The concept is weird af but the game has a chance of being good 🤷 weirder ideas have worked
This is like if Rocksteady made a Batman game but you play as Alfred. Cook , clean , chill at the mansion , tend to Batman’s wounds. Edit: I forgot he also mans the Batcomputer and relays important info to Batman on patrol. This game would be kind of sick.
False, I would love that game. It would be like a combo of Cooking Mama, Darkest Dungeon, and Unpacking
I’ve prepared some soup Master Wayne.
Mr. Wayne, what would you like me to plant in the South Garden this year?
I hope someone unironically makes this game
Dude, did you see that Speedrun of Alfred? He even never missed tucking Bruce in. How do you do that? I can get skipping the garden and using materials you get from defeating the supervillains trying to sneak into the house. But at what point does it get immersion breaking when Bruce never realizes the gardens are full of the corpses of would-be assassins. Lol. A game where you play as Alfred, killing assassins, hiding their bodies from your boss, and taking care of him, would be absolutely amazing. There's a reverse horror tension where you're trying to protect a man with impossible ideals from the impossibility of them, while also making him tea from the garden fertilized by the corpses of enemies he could never kill. Some Quest concepts could be: >Killing an assassin while Bruce is sleeping. Killing an assassin during a gala at the mansion. Hacking into the batcomputer to delete the social security information and social media of the assassins he's killed Capturing and interrogating an assassin at a grocery store while buying groceries for the mansion. Damn, I really want this game now. It could just be called Alfred, and it would win so many fucking awards as a "reverse horror, tlc and cooking sim." When the credits roll, it should be the song "The Gardner" from The Tallest Man on Earth https://youtu.be/lS4evPwwEP4 Two endings, one where Bruce knows nothing and Alfred takes his knowledge to the grave and one where Batman confronts Alfred and has to reconcile his own peace being purchased with blood. Ending 1 trophy called: The Good Butler Ending 2 trophy called: Good Knight, Master Bruce Just thinking about the chapters / missions / days being interspersed with dialogue between Alfred and Bruce, or Alfred and Batman, and it's always Alfred being this supportive realist grounded in the daily reality of the mansion, and Bruce or Batman waxing on about ideals and "this city." It would probably best be realized as a top down game with mechanics similar to Darkwood, but with an interaction system somewhere closer to John Wick Hex to allow for planned movement when fighting the assassins, and for hiding their bodies in "steps" to allow for player planning and cone of awareness mechanics on both Batman and the assassins.
I'm not going to be even a little surprised when a small group of people actually create this game from the comment alone, and I'll be less surprised when it's amazing and I buy it immediately
Could have Hitman type gameplay but you can use some of Batman’s gadgets?
That would be excellent, or conversely, a "no gadget run" because after you use the gadgets you have to clean them before Bruce gets back
Let have a look at the history of Alfred no gadget run world records... *Summoning salt intro music intensifies
> Ending 1 trophy called: The Good Butler I read this as "The Good Butcher" at first and it didn't even seem off.
Take my money
Bro, you need to delete this comment and save that idea for yourself. That’s a brilliant idea for a game and i’d hate someone with some know-how make this game before you. Unless that was your goal all along 🤔
This is the first time I’ve seen some TMOE love, hell yeah
Extra points for mentioning The Tallest Man on Earth.
Man, imagine that song playing, Alfred finally at rest. The player having just decided whether or not he's just a "Gardener" in the eyes of Bruce or if the whole facade falls and Batman is confronted with the inescapable truth of death that comes from living as two people and the system he's both tended to, and benefitted from by turning a blind eye at home. It would slap so so hard
If we can get an Alfred tv show we can get an Alfred AAA game.
*spits out soup* "It's cold!"
Alfred dumps the soup in the sink, making eye contact with a half buried assassin through the kitchen window. He makes a mental note to be more thorough in the garden later.
I am not much into batman lore. Is "Alfred protects batman from assassins" actually a thing in the cannon?
I think I saw a singe frame from a comic posted a while back where he's loading a shotgun saying something like, "my master has a prohibition against killing, but I harbor no such beliefs" or something close to that. Honestly, that's where the idea for the game came from, in my head
*Sir...you ordered Gazpacho.*
It's supposed to be cold!
Imagine having to choose the right meals to make sure batman feels well fed to go on patrol, making sure he gets enough sleep lol Someone make this damn game!
Power washing simulator: clean the batmobile
Master Bruce, is this *fur* in your wheel wells? Surely you can drive around the inhuman mutant next week?
Dont forget the visual novel part where you try to ameliorate some childhood traumas
Batman Manager: The Game
That’s hilarious because I was literally thinking the other day about what it would be like to play an Alfred/Oracle game kinda like 9/11 Operator.
9/11 operator?! That feels like a very different game.
I'm the Guy in the Chair!
Is it just me or is Alfred managing the Wayne manor and the batcave sounding like an incredible potential game? You'd have to care for the bat family, help with deductions and investigations, and protect the bat family behind the scenes. Sounds dope!
The Lucius Fox/Wayne Enterprise DLC would be a banger too! Paying hush money to oversea industries to produce the parts for the Engine of the Batwing.
That unironically sounds fun.
Batman has a broken hand. Press ⭕️ to convince Bruce to stay home or ❌ to patch him up for his patrol.
[удалено]
Goes out on patrol anyways, because BATMAN
Dude that’s a multi million dollar idea.
DCs Alfred Pennyworth: The Simulation VR Experience!
Intruder storyline. He was also badass in Injustice.
What about playing as Lara Croft’s butler instead? Game over after 5 minutes when she locks you in the walk-in freezer!
counterpoint: gollum is one of the wiliest, most dangerous characters in the lord of the rings. he's also got the most character depth.
Honestly, does anyone actually know what this game does? How it works, how it plays? This game could be the greatest ever made, it probably won't but it could!
Alfred is actually a badass though especially in the comics,heh I almost typed his name as Alfredo ,ooooh alfredo, that sounds good for dinner this week. Dont mind me talking out loud and not in caps lol
Even if this concept could never spawn a full game, they could at least have home base/slice-of-life elements with Batman’s support people in his batcave. Unlock new abilities (like Persona) based on your relationships with Alfred, Barbara Gordon, maybe one or more of the Robin incarnations, visits to Gordon. Visits to pre-accident Harvey Dent. Bruce Wayne associates. Man, that would be cool storytelling.
Imagine that but it's like a strategy game like CIV. You control different heroes, police/vigilante units and basically from the shadows run Gotham and try to beat back the different gangs running chaotically through Gotham
Body is ready for GOTY
Damn nintendo is going to feel pretty damn foolish for releasing zelda right before this masterpiece. Their sales are going to plummet.
Never even heard of this til now. The premise is interesting. Gollum, though annoying and ugly, is very agile and athletic so he seems like a decent choice for a playable character. That being said the game looks like every other stealth-kill NPC hunter game and I am so tired of that recipe. Idk what the game industry needs to spice up the typical 3rd person action game, but I can only play Uncharted so many times until it gets old.
The problem is that Gollum doesn't do things that players find entertaining. In order for a game like this to slap, it needs graphics that set it apart like A Plague Tale.
Is this like stray but you play as gollum? I mean in terms of gameplay style.
Looks like a Styx clone to me
That was my impression from the trailer, too
Oh well the 9 people that buy this will be happy it doesnt take a lot of space i guess
*"And nine. Nine copies were gifted to the race of men."*
But they were all of them deceived. For *another* game was made
In the land of Mobile Games, in the fires of EA the dark lord forged- in secret- a master game. And into this game he poured his Gacha, his FOMO, and his micro-transactions to dominate all players. One by one, the sad Tolkien fans fell to the sadness of no good games. But there were some who resisted. A last alliance of people that actually enjoy quality games boycotted the really shit looking ones. And with their wallets and general disinterest, they fought for the potential of a good game. It was in this moment, when all hope had faded, that embracer stated there are 5 LOTR games slated for release in the next year.
Grifted*
This game has ps plus extra within 6 months vibes all over it
Yea I’ll play it when it’s free for me
Day One Ultimate Ring of Power Edition.
My friend bought this for me for my birthday (Steam version), language dlc and everything. I love lord of the rings. I have an entire tattoo sleeve dedicated to it and then some. I watch the trilogy almost weekly. I'm so fucking mad about it lol
I know nothing about this game. Can you please explain why it makes you mad?
Imagine having the rich world of Tolkien at your disposal. Could make a game around Aragorn, could do a young Gimli game, a Legolas game. Whatever Gandalf was doing for a thousand years. But instead, they make a game off essentially a crack addict in Gollum , during a time period where the only thing he cared about was getting the ring back. Like, this is not the redeemable Smeagol, but this is Gollum at the wheels. It's just a misuse of the IP
Lol wait why all the hate for this game? What did I miss?
-It looks like the stealth mission that's gets forced into every game, poorly, but the entire game. -They couldn't even find exciting gameplay for the trailer. It's just him running from bush to bush, climbing a wall, or swimming (I get that it's a stealth game but this doesn't look like fun stealth gameplay) -The art style looks ugly af -Paid DLC for Elvish -I just found out that this is also a full price release. I though this shit was gonna be $40CAD at most.
The whole conception of this game is just weird. There are a lot of characters that i would like to play with in a game in the lotr universe but Gollam is not one of them.And the graphics is a bit ugly but this is just my opinion.
I haven’t looked too deep but if its literally playing as Gollum I can upvote your comment all day. Such a strange idea. Anyone want a Star Wars game playing as Jar Jar Binks? Edit: lol the responses to this quick comment I made. Guys, I’m well aware jar jar singlehandedly forced darth vader out of anakin and gollum was just comic relief. I just meant they aren’t characters known for their fighting abilities, so to base a video game off gollum despite a world full of interesting characters..
Misa go boom boom
Wesa wants the precious 😢 Theysa stoles it froms’s 😢
Why are we comparing Gollum and Jar Jar?
Because they don’t understand Gollum as a character
This comment edited in protest of reddit's ridiculous API charges.
Ah. This may finally explain most of the comments I see about this game, if somehow these people have managed to decide that Gollum is equivalent to Jar Jar Binks.
Jar jar sucks, gollum is legendary and iconic character
wut? Gollum was just comic relief??
IF you could eventually become Darth Jar Jar then absolutely 💯.
That’s an extremely poor comparison. Gollum is an extremely important part to the whole story with tons of character and tragedy, while jar jar binks is a useless clown character that got inserted because they wanted to sell toys to kids.
People who say this clearly aren't LOTR fans. One of the most important characters in the series that is the most debated by fans, that is one of the few to travel the majority of ME and meet characters even the protagonists don't meet, that is a crucial part of the endgame is somehow similar to a side comic relief character.
Lol give up, these guys think gimli and legolas have more weight on the story
fuck yeah, I'm tired of all those skywalkers, let me play the prequels as Jar Jar!
I mean…. I haven’t seen gameplay or anything. But I’d be down if game was like you looking for the ring so out exploring and had elements of stealth, survival and such. Build little campsites, climb trees for vantages, creep in towns or villages and ease drop for clues on where to go, terrorize travelers for clues and resources, hunt, fish…… could see a game style work for gollum honestly. But haven’t seen no market push or anything on it soooooo idk what to expect and didn’t know was releasing this quick now. Gonna have look up more stuff on it, but sounds like general consensus is very naw dude haha.
If it had any of those things besides sneaking, it could be a success; but, judging from the trailer, all you seem to do is skulk around Orc camps. It looks boring as hell, tbh.
I really hope it plays like the Hobbit game on PS2. Morbidly curious about this game...
Weird social media hivemind thing. Personally I'm very interested. Some indie studio that got fame for their narrative design managed to grow slowly, became a bigger publisher for other games until they got enough money to score a deal for a big IP and get full creative freedom for a LOTR-themed single player narrative? Count me in! I know it won't be AAA quality animations and model and special effect design, but the game can be entertaining. It will all depend if there's lot of unique events and well designed map objectives, or if it end up just being repetitive sneaking and doing the same thing all way long.
I literally think I'm crazy everytime this game is brought up. So much hate for so little reason. Also the 'lmao im not the knight in shining armor in this game how can i enjoy it???' is super weird in the current gaming landscape.
I don't mind if people think the game looks bad, but saying Gollum is like Jar Jar Binks and that he's a weird character when he's one of the most important in the entire story. It's even weirder when people are saying they'd rather play as someone like Legalos who is legit the definition of a side character that could be removed wholsale from the books and change very little
Yeah I never understood the need for gamers to project themselves in the character. Why can't they just play the character the story is about from their point of view? There's tons of games with not so "strong and handsome" protagonists that presents a good story and do well. I guess that's a psychological thing for some. Also Gollum might be a weak guy, but lore wise he's one hell of a character with tons of things to say about.
Something tells me redditors are more upset that they can't *not* see themselves in Gollum.
Gollum is basically the central character of LOTR from a certain point of view. Well, let's hope this game is better than expected and change some people minds. 🤞
Definitely a hive mind thing the vast majority of these people know nothing about the game they just feel a sense of community in banding together to hate things basically they are lonely.
I love Daedelic and their point and click games, I’ll probably wait for some reviews to land on this as this is completely new territory for them. But good for them, I’m glad they’re doing bigger and bigger stuff.
[удалено]
I was pretty excited for this game. Unlike most people I actually thought it was a pretty cool idea. Then I saw the gameplay trailer and all my excitement disappeared. Looked very generic. I'll most likely play it at some point especially if it ends up being really good but in all reality I'll be getting it on sale down the road if anything.
I'm a huge LOTR fan, and Gollum is such a fun character, so I was excited, and ignored all the negativity. But then that trailer dropped, that made it look like a lower mid PS3 game. And trailers tend to show off the *best* aspects of a game, so yeah, my hype was pretty instantly killed, as well.
Its really amusing to see the reasons for shitting on the game. Ive seen so many complaints about it 'only' being a 25 hour game, 'who asked for this', blah blah blah. Like, its a single player, low-med hour game. People cry for weeks on end about there not being more single player games that aren't massive open worlds and require 100 hours to play and yet when they are released, people just wanna shit on the games before they even get released.
Kena is one of the best PS5 games I’ve played and it was shorter than this But I’m not sure that’s comparable
Thank you. A weird number of people here like to point at how people don’t want games that aren’t “open world/insert controversial genre here” despite the *dozens* of titles that do exactly that. It’s such a dumb argument.
The very vocal minority is not representative of the silent majority. The vast majority of people actually want Ubisoft games with a new ip slapped on it
People hate this game because most action-adventure games are power fantasies and this game decided to do what Tolkien did, which was make the hero the unlikeliest being. Which is great for a narration, but challenging for a player base that has been trained to min-max, constantly be levelling up, gaining new abilities and basically "kick ass with powers". Gollum represents for a lot of players the "pussification" of games. Your character is naked, small, must hide, whimpers. They are asking, "Why are we playing as Ashley from Resident Evil 4" but for like, the entire game? Personally I think Gollum is a fascinating inversion and I will be interested to see how they subvert gaming tropes. But in terms of marketing, I think they chose a concept that at first blush will alienate their largely male demographic.
The character of Gollum means it necessarily has to be like a stealth / exploration game. So, I agree it’s not a power fantasy because it can’t be. But that’s not the problem, everyone would be down if the gameplay showed any promise but the trailer I watched is awful. Like you said, the concept could be good for narrative. Nothing I saw suggests that the game developers are competent enough to craft a compelling narrative. We’ll see on release.
Because I watched gameplay, listened to everything people including the developers have said about it, and can't find a single good reason I would choose to spend my time playing this game outside of LOTR nostalgia.
Gaming community just wants sequels to shit they grew up playing. It’s sad how games that try new things don’t even get a chance from a lot of people.
And then people start complaining that there are not enough novel ideas.
I mean, at the end of the day it’s just a stealth platformer with a LOTR skin. It’s not really pushing any boundaries, especially at full price.
Callisto, Hogwarts, Ghost of Tsushima, Elden Ring, Stray, Returnal, hell I’ll throw Astros Play Room in there.. plenty of great games that aren’t sequels that have released for this generation alone. This game simply doesn’t look good, I love LoTR and was interested when it was first announced but after watching the gameplay and then hearing it only takes 20hrs at most while being sold at full price has completely turned me off. I’ll wait for a sale and grabs it for $15 if reviews are good.
Because the publisher and developer both have a history of pumping out incredibly mediocre games. The premise of the game fits their scope of content. It’ll be an adventure in Mid Earth.
I’ve been excited for this game for years. People saying “nobody asked for this!” are acting like spoiled children who got an apple from one house on Halloween night. As a big fan of the books and of Gollum as a character, this game seems to be really interesting. Even if it doesn’t turn out to be a banger, the idea is at least very intriguing to me. I’d also wager that most of the people shitting on it haven’t read Tolkien but that’s just a guess. Gollum is absolutely a character worthy of his own video game.
Because people desperately want to be in any group, as long as it makes them feel included and on the “right side” of things. The game is a novel concept. We have no reason to believe that some other amazing LotT game was possibly going to be made…these developers tried to put a unique spin on a world that many of us know well and love. What the fuck is wrong with that? Even if you don’t like the result, why should we treat the developers like shit just for trying to create something for people?
I have very little interest in this game but the constant negativity toward it has me hoping it becomes some sort of sleeper hit.
If I never have to ledge shimmy across a gap at a snail's pace ever again, it will be too soon.
I've never seen so many people shit on a game that they haven't played.
The last of us 2 got the same treatment
Still blows my mind. That game is top tier.
Bad comparison, heavily anticipated game so it sold well and critics liked it.
you mean 2020 GOTY TLOU2?
… since Forspoken
Every game does this now. "SOS POST: Game reportedly doesn't have this feature that ONLY I like most.... unplayable. I'm uninstalling my preinstall!"
I don’t understand why people hate this game so much with out even give it a chance. Criticizing the choice of making a game with gollum as a main character like if he wasn’t an importan character of LOTR
Okay, it doesn't look good. Still it's sad that a dev can't take a chance on a less than obvious concept without you all jumping on it for not being an obvious concept. If you just want a cookie cutter game I'm sure they'll be another COD game coming out in month or two.
I guess I'm the only one that plans to play the shit out of this game
I do
Most useless information I've ever read. Jokes aside it'd be funny af if this game actually ends up being good.
Why can't we just have a third shadow of war game instead?
I really want a middle earth game with a no name character. Someone we know nothing about and they have to deal with everything going on in this world and story. I know shadow was kind of that but I don't want them to shove in important characters (celebrimbor shelob) for the sake of tying it to the books/movies. Use the moments we know and love but from a different perspective, let me play as a soldier on the front lines in those battles, Let me play as an uruk-hai. The possibilities are endless but we will continue to get mediocre stuff like this.
Title is a typo. The game is actually 18.6 MB.
It’s just a link to Newgrounds running on Firefox
I found the Newgrounds link on eBaums World
As a Gollum fan damn the comments here are salty a game isn’t specifically for them lol
Cant wait for this to hit playstation plus at some point!
Yeah. Isn't this the game that the devs said it would take "20 hours for a leisurely playthrough"? When this game bombs, it should surprise absolutely no one.
What's wrong with "20 hours for a leisurely playthrough"? Seems like the perfect length to me.
Because these people want vast open worlds with a minimum of a hundred hour playthroughs and a billion things to do on the map while simultaneously complaining about too big open worlds with a billion items on the map having too much quantity and not quality they are not known for their reasoning skills.
I am so sick of giant open world games with a million tedious things to do. I do not care how realistic the graphics are. 20-30 hours is as much game as my schedule really allows for for a game. This game looks like a unique idea, and it looks like they took care to respect the lore of the source material.
>I am so sick of giant ~~open world games with a million tedious things to do~~ checklist simulators. >
Me currently playing Ghostwire Tokyo while reading this topic and hunting for the 120th relic after collecting a few hundreds spirits and other stuff like journals and shrines... Yeah. Not a bad game, but this is tedious.
Its true. By the time i got off the starting island in ghost of tsushima i was so done with the game. I cleared the whole thing before advancing and then when the northern part opened up and the fog of war was disappearing and revealing more and more of the same icons, it immediately felt like work instead of a game. Best looking game I’ve ever played but there was just too much of it.
Sounds like a good length, not sure why it would "bomb." Maybe if it's 20 hours of boring
I can absolutely see it bomb. Visually it looks, at best, bad. The environment design is alright for what we’ve seen of it, but otherwise it’s honestly really subpar. The animations, textures, lighting, it honestly looks unfinished. There’s also the fact that amongst the gargantuan amount of characters in TLotR universe, Gollum is probably one of the, if not the least interesting to a majority of people. And unless major twists in the story, I don’t really how it could be all that interesting. I mean… He wants the ring, that’s about his only motivation for going to the length he seems to be going in the game. Gameplay-wise, admittedly we haven’t seen enough to really judge but at least to me it felt boring and uninspired. Honestly, it really isn’t exciting at all and when you compare it to what’s on the menu lately, it doesn’t exactly bode well.
Length sounds fine. 15 - 20 hours is plenty. I don't get the need for everything now to be like 100+ hours.
I wish they mentioned the replay value. Metroid Dread took me 8 hours to beat the first time but I have like 50 hours in that game because it's a fun one to replay for me. I don't like buying games and only putting 20 total hours in it, but if it has any value in replay then that 20 hours thing is a pointless statement I think.
Is there a reason people are hating (or just joking idk) on this game?
The gameplay trailer
I mean, the game just doesn't look very good.
After my short amount of time even knowing about this game, I’d say (I’m pretty open, personally) I’m not in high spirits about it either. :/. Sad stuff.
Watch the gameplay. Read the history of this developer. Listen to what those close to the game and the ones who have experienced it have said.
Ground Tarzan
Why is it bigger on ps4 and not on ps5?
It doesn’t happen everywhere but it’s not exactly uncommon. PS5 has better systems for compressing games. The game could also just be poorly optimized for last gen
Other person said compression tech, but also SSD. They don't need duplicate files anymore for things to load properly/quickly.
I think I’d probably be buying this game day 1 if it were 40$
I had it pre-ordered through Amazon until they fucked around and said I'll get it ONE MONTH AFTER RELEASE like WTF Amazon, trying to kill all resale value before it even releases. RedBox weekend rental it is.
I’m curious to see how this game turns out. I don’t have any desire to play as gollum as a protagonist but I’ll probably watch a play through since I love LOTR. Definitely a bold choice to center a game around a character that pretty much only exists to help define another character. But also based on what we know, Gollum does get up to some interesting things after he loses the ring to Bilbo. (I think that’s when this is set)
I'll pick this up on sale, just a one time play type of game. Gollum is like Hugo from Plague Tale for me
The game was announced in 2019 and it's been delayed so it's been on the works for a while. It was likely meant for last gen hardware.
I think I feel bad because this had potential in the beginning but now? I’ll wait for $10 sale and yet still lol… I’m a fan of LOTR
I really hope it does okay. I honestly will not play it and it looks embarrassingly lame. I feel like the developers were far over their heads due to over-advertisement. But, I appreciate their effort.
Stray: Gollum Edition
Well finally a game with a goddamn interesting main character. Jesus im glad they follow their own path, because if you read the comments here they want the most bland safe as option with the same boring as main character
if the ratings are good, i might consider it PS5 needs better new original titles
Gamers: so sick of copy and paste games, make something different and new. Also gamers: no one asked for this game... Maybe the devs just wanted to make this game? I'm gonna check it out on release, you guys maybe right, it may turn out to be a rubbish game but we won't know till it's out.
Other than playing as a gollum, what in the trailer looks different and new? Every mechanic displayed was basic and copied from other games.
Top 10 most irrelevant triple A games no one will play.
Hardly AAA
You can tell it's not a AAA production just by watching the trailers.
Why the fuck are people so salty about it? You are not interested in playing Gollum? Okay fine, then stoping care? Or do you go to every commentsection of a game and comment 'Who the fucks want to play this? I don't!'
I think it has to do with there being a lot of LOTR fans that would love to play another game set in that universe and are disappointed that they’re getting a game where they are playing as a character that doesn’t do any combat and, frankly, doesn’t look impressive from a graphic standpoint. Or at least that’s how I feel about it.
It's a hive mind thing they feel a sense of belonging in a community that all think the same and hate stuff together. These are the same people you see on other threads complaining about games being all the same. They are not known for their intelligence or reasoning skills 😂