The Lord of the Rings: Gollum finally opened up for pre-orders today, and at the same time unveiled it’s “Precious Edition”, which includes a tantalizing feast of extra content for any Lord of the Rings fan. The digital Precious Edition comes with an “art exhibition” featuring over 100 sketches and other pieces of art, a lore compendium to deepen your understanding of Middle Earth, the game’s full 17-track soundtrack, and — perhaps most interestingly — a full voice-over pack for the Sindarin language (for the uninitiated: that means full voice-support for Tolkien’s original Elvish language).
All this makes for an enticing offer for Lord of the Rings fans, all for just $10 more. Since the regular edition of the game will be a $49.99, this puts the “Precious Edition” at $59.99 — still cheaper than many games being released nowadays. The Precious Edition will release at the same time as the regular edition, on May 25, for PC, PlayStation 4 and 5, and Xbox One and S|X. Pre-orders for either edition on any console will also give players access to 6 exclusive emotes for Gollum.
Truly, it seems that this Precious Edition goes above and beyond to appeal to fans of Tolkien, the author of Lord of the Rings, due to its focus on the world, art, and languages of the original work. This perfectly fits, considering Gollum’s narrative sensibilities (which we discussed here after we had a chance to play it at PAX East) and its demonstrable reverence for the source material. The art exhibition and lore compendium, especially, seem like boons for those who want to know and see more of the iconic Middle Earth. And, of course, the soundtrack is a nice benefit as well, especially if it can capture some of the magic from the sweeping orchestral scores that the Peter Jackson film adaptations managed.
But the most interesting addition that comes with the Precious Edition is the voice-over pack that they are offering with it. The language, Sindarin, is the language of the Elves in Middle Earth, and fans of Lord of the Rings will realize the importance of that immediately. Not only is the language one of the first (and best) invented languages in fiction, with its own complete etymology and surprisingly beautiful patterns of speech, but it is also the thing arguably at the very heart of the franchise. Tolkien fans will know (and the rest of you are about to find out) that most of Lord of the Rings, and Middle Earth more broadly, was created out of Tolkien’s love for languages, and that the first steps he took toward realizing the world in his books was to create Sindarin.
So, by including full Sindarin voice-over, the developers of Gollum are demonstrating their clear love and admiration of the source material, and are offering a very authentic experience to Tolkien’s intentions. This seems to align with their stated goal, to respect the books and use this game to explore more of the world set up by them. To “fill in the gaps” as it were. In other words, this Precious Edition is not only a fascinating offer on its own, but it demonstrates the values of the team, and only makes us more excited to get out hands on the game.
Gollum seems to spend a lot of time in Elvish lands, so that Sindarin VO is especially fitting
For those who aren’t aware, The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is an upcoming narrative stealth-platformer where you will play as the titular Gollum (/Sméagol) as he pursued the hobbit Bilbo Baggins in search of his precious stolen ring. It heavily features stealth gameplay, as well as a truly fascinating argument mechanic where you take control of either Gollum or Sméagol in order to convince the other of your plan. The world-hopping game has already shown off iconic characters like Gandalf and the Mouth of Sauron, as well as recognizable locations across Elvish lands and Mordor. You can see our impressions of the game here, but suffice to say we are quite excited.
Both the regular and the Precious Editions of the game went up for pre-order today, for $49.99 and $59.99 respectively. The game will release for PC, PlatStation 4 and 5, and Xbox One and Series X|S on May 25th, and pre-ordering will get you 6 bonus emotes to make Gollum more expressive. You can pre-order the game on Steam here, or on the console of your choice. We will certainly be adding it to our pocketses.
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Graves
Graves is an avid writer, web designer, and gamer, with more ideas than he could hope to achieve in a lifetime. But, armed with a mug of coffee and an overactive imagination, he'll try. When he isn't working on a creative project, he is painting miniatures, reading cheesy sci-fi novels, or making music.
