The Lord of the Rings: Gollum scampered out yesterday, and the long-in-development game wasn’t exactly warmly received. Wccftech found the game to be merely mediocre, but it turns out we were one of the most generous outlets. Gollum currently sits at a 41 on OpenCritic, making it one of the worst-reviewed games of the year. Given the reception, you’d think the game’s developer Daedalic Entertainment would be barred from having anything further to do with the LotR franchise, but it seems that won’t be the case.

　　As picked up by various German websites, it seems Daedalic has received funding from the German government to the tune of around 2 million euros for another Lord of the Rings game. This one is codenamed “It’s Magic,” and “tells a story from a character's perspective that has never been told before.” The German government subsidy website provided the following description, which is all listed under a big Lord of the Rings banner, so we know what "lush world full of mythical creatures and magic" they're talking about...

　　“Daedalic is working on a new project that will transport the player into a lush world full of mythical creatures and magic. It tells a story from a character's perspective that has never been told before. The player discovers new regions and influences the events of the world within the scope of his role and his abilities. In his own way, he tries to influence the course of things and change the fate of the world. This project is aimed at avid fans of the fantasy story and 3D action-adventure genres around the world.”

　　Hmmm, kinda sounds like a Gandalf game to me. Or maybe another powerful magical character like Tom Bombadill, but I’m not sure he’s well-known enough to hang a full video game off.

　　The German government site says the project’s duration extends until the end of August 2024. So, perhaps the idea is to launch this thing sometime in 2024. Of course, given the withering response to LotR Gollum, there’s a very good chance this project gets delayed or canceled altogether. That said, given the game has received significant amounts of government funding, Daedalic and Focus Entertainment may be bound to release it.

　　The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is available now on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, and PS5. What do you think? Could this other Daedalic LotR game actually be decent? At the very least, it probably can’t be worse than the one they just released.