The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, Daedalic’s long-awaited game about the world’s most dedicated jewellery aficionado, finally has a new (and hopefully solid) release date. After multiple delays, the most recent of which pushed it into mid-2023, it’s now set to go live on Steam on May 25.

Gollum isn’t the most obviously appealing videogame protagonist, but the game aims to give the character some complexity by portraying the Gollum/Smeagol dichotomy raging in his head: Decisions made by players at various points in the game will be driven by one perspective or the other, with outcomes varying as a result. The more a player leans in one direction or the other, the harder it will be to take the other side in future dialogues.

That can be a real complication, because one of the more interesting (and unusual) aspects of Gollum is that consistently rolling as Smeagol, nominally the “good guy” personality, isn’t necessarily the good move: Survival in the bowels of Mt. Doom is a rough business, and sometimes you have to play dirty if you don’t want to get hosed.

It’s been a long haul to get here. Gollum was announced in 2019 with a 2021 release target, but was eventually pushed into 2022 and then 2023. With the new release date just a couple months away, this one will hopefully hold. The Lord of the Rings: Gollum will be available for PC on Steam and the Epic Games Store. 

Here’s an extended look at Gollum gameplay from a recent developer showcase: