Why LOTR: Gollum's Delay Is A Bad Sign For Tolkien Fans

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Daedalic Entertainment's Lord of the Rings: Gollum has been delayed to allow for further polish, which might end up hurting the game more than it helps. Little information accompanied the delay announcement, which didn't specify a revised released date. With the game's release timeline now up in the air, Tolkien fans have reason to be concerned.

In Lord of the Rings: Gollum, players will take control of the titular character as they sneak and platform their way across Middle-earth. The game looks to be quite expansive, with its preview taking Gollum from Mordor to Mirkwood, the home of Woodland Elves. Telling the story of Gollum in this medium was a choice that surprised many fans, but it looked to be a competent, if not unusual, action-adventure game as more details were revealed. Unfortunately, this delay could detract from the anticipation that LOTR: Gollum had managed to garner.

Related: When LOTR: Return To Moria Takes Place On Tolkien's Timeline

While delays can have positive impacts, on games as well as the developers working on them, the balance between a delay's benefits and detriments is a difficult one to strike. Since Gollum is such an unusual subject, Tolkien fans were already divided on the necessity of this game to begin with. After LOTR: Gollum's surprisingly sparse gameplay trailer a few weeks ago, those doubts were reinvigorated. Now, any hype still associated with the game is likely to begin dropping, resulting in it potentially having a less substantial launch than it deserved. Lord of the Rings: Gollum's uneasy showing thus far compounded with delays of unspecified length isn't likely to instill fans with much confidence.

This delay isn't the first one that Lord of the Rings: Gollum has experienced,