Yesterday, Daedalic Entertainment and Nacon confirmed that The Lord of the Rings: Gollum has officially reached the coveted gold status. The game will now be printed on physical disks in the lead up to the May 25th launch, leaving close to no chance of a further delay. Pre-orders are also said to begin shortly.

　　That's certainly music for the ears of the many fans of Tolkien's work. The Lord of the Rings: Gollum has been a long time coming, having been announced in March 2019 when Daedalic Entertainment was still targeting a 2021 launch. In early 2021, the studio delayed it to a generic 2022 date while also revealing the partnership with Nacon. About six months later, the window was narrowed down to Fall 2022, though that target couldn't be met either.

　　Powered by Unreal Engine technology and scheduled to hit all major platforms (although the Nintendo Switch version will be released later, at an as-of-yet unspecified time), The Lord of the Rings: Gollum will be the first game adaptation of Tolkien's magnum opus focused on the famous sneaky character. It will attempt to shed light on some parts of his pivotal journey that weren't quite realized in other adaptations, such as the movies.

　　Genre wise, The Lord of the Rings: Gollum can be classified as an action/adventure game with a focus on stealth. As fans already know all too well, Gollum is no fighter, but he can still be deadly when striking from the shadows. The developers are also planning to feature his dual personality, allowing players to make some choices either as Sméagol, the well-meaning and rather innocuous hobbit, or Gollum, the vicious creature transformed by the One Ring.

　　Ule Lopez was able to check out the game as part of a recent remote press event and had this to say:

　　Overall, I was pleased with the way The Lord of the Rings: Gollum was made. While the graphics had some minor issues, the game was still in an early beta phase at that point, so I expect the developers to fix them before the full product releases. The adventure itself seems like it will build up to a great story that fans of Lord of the Rings can sink their teeth into, and you don't even necessarily have to be a fan of the series to enjoy this entry as well. There was a lot of love put into this game, and I was happy to see characters like The Candle Man and other background details that stood out as I walked through the environments.

　　On PC, the game should support ray traced reflections and shadows as well as NVIDIA DLSS.