Daedalic Entertainment, the developer responsible for the disastrously reviewedThe Lord of the Rings: Gollumgame released this week, already has its next project lined up. Some gamers might be surprised to learn that, despite the failings ofGollum,Daedalic’s next game is also set in theLord of the Ringsuniverse.
Daedalic is a game developer based in Germany that has published several point-and-click adventure games since the company was founded in 2007. Originally scheduled to release in 2021,The Lord of the Ring: Gollumwas Daedalic’s first game with a massively popular franchise IP.Gollumhas been met with scathing reviews. Critics have complained about the game’s abundance of glitches, uninspired writing, and its dull, unimaginative gameplay.
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Daedalic has since released a public letter to fans apologizing for the current abysmal state ofGollumand promised tofix its enormous number of technical failingsat launch. But that won’t be stopping it from diving back into theLord of the Ringsuniverse. According to the website of Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, Daedalic has received €2 million from the German government to develop a second game set in theLord of the Ringsuniverse. The game appears to center around the wizards of Middle-Earth, hence its codename: “It’s Magic.”
The website of Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action contains a brief and somewhat vague description of the project. The page claims that Daedalic’s next project takes players to “a lush world” of creatures and magic. It then suggests that “It’s Magic” will, likeGollumbefore it, tell its story from the perspective of a previously establishedLord of the Ringscharacter who has never had a story told from their point of view. Finally, the description promises that “It’s Magic” will see the player discovering “completely new regions.” This makes “It’s Magic”one of fiveLord of the Ringsgames that will be releasedwithin the next two years.
Reception toThe Lord of the Rings: Gollumhas been dismal. According to reviews,Gollumnot only seems poorly designed in a way that cannot be fixed with updates, but it is also a technical disaster that, for some reason,requires a preposterously beefy PC to playit properly. It will be interesting to see if Daedalic can, at the very least, release “It’s Magic” in a stable state by its current projected release date sometime in the second half of 2024 considering how much work the developer has left ahead when it comes to patchingGollum’s numerous issues.
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