Christmas has come early for us Lord of the Rings fans. Ahead of Amazon’s highly-anticipated LOTR sequel series, a new action-adventure game starring Gollum is set to release on September 1, just a day before the first episode of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power drops. 

The stealth-based video game will be available on all platforms bar Nintendo Switch, which will release the game later this year.

What’s more interesting though is the new Gollum video game will be based on Tolkien’s work, and not on the Peter Jackson trilogy. Most of the game will follow a sort of behind-the-scenes experience of Gollum, who will be travelling from the Misty Mountains to the dungeons of Barad-dûr and then to the realm of the Wood-elves in Mirkwood.

Developer Daedalic Entertainment GmbH has confirmed that players will also meet Gollum’s alter-ego, Sméagol, where players will be forced to make choices between what Gollum or Sméagol want on the treacherous journey. And yes, well-known characters from the books along with new ones will make an appearance on screen.

From the gameplay video trailer, we got last year, The Lord of the Rings: Gollum appears to take the Assassin’s Creed or Splinter Cell approach when it comes to stealth. It also appears to be more of an environment based game, with a fair amount of climbing and platforming involved. 

This will be the first triple-A video game set in Middle Earth after a five-year hiatus. The last title we saw was Middle-earth: Shadow of War, which in itself was a sequel to Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor. The two games while earning decent reviews were largely panned by fans for making some heavy lore changes. 

In an FAQ posted on Steam by the Daedalic, the developer answered some of the burning fan questions. When asked why they chose Gollum to be the focus of the story in the first place, the developer answered by saying “he is one of the most fascinating characters that Tolkien created.”

“A twisted Hobbit with two personalities, hundreds of years old; and with a rich knowledge of Middle-earth. Despite his looks he’s also an agile creature that can climb, leap, and grapple his way past dangers or into advantageous spots,” the studio added. “This makes for an epic adventure through exciting never-seen-before parts of Middle-earth, and leads the player to interesting moral choices, and varied gameplay, alternating platforming and stealth.”

(Image credits: Daedalic Entertainment)