The Lord of the Rings: Gollum has DLC that allows certain NPCs to speak in their native elvish language, angering fans. In a response to these criticisms, developers from Daedalic have defended the move, claiming it’s only for hardcore Tolkien fans.
According to the response sent to PushSquare, the paid DLC that adds the Sindarin language is worth the extra money. Daedalic says they went the extra mile and got actors who were trained in the elvish Sindarin language by their lore experts.
“While traversing through Mirkwood and other parts of middleearth Gollum will be able to listen to various dialogues between Elves. These dialogues add to the atmosphere and worldbuilding. Daedalic went the extra mile here and hired professional voice actors, who were trained in Sindarin by our lore experts It is a DLC for the real Tolkien devotees who want to immerse themselves even more into the world of Middle-Earth,” claim the Gollum devs.
Hiding this content behind a paywall is pretty mean when you consider how only “real Tolkien devotees” would find The Lord of the Rings: Gollum an interesting game. Gollum is an iconic character, no doubt about that, but only hardcore Tolkien fans would want to play him in a video game. Making them cough up more cash for some extra voice-acting just seems cruel.
Furthermore, the developer’s statement that the Lord of the Rings: Gollum Elvish language DLC adds to the game’s world building confirms that the game is lesser without the paid content.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen developers and publishers defend paid DLC for games. Mortal Kombat 11 defended blocking easy Fatalities with a paywall, Devil May Cry 5 did the same thing with DLC that unlocks all the game modes and abilities. It’s a bad cycle, especially since they could have already been added in at the game’s launch.
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Despite trashing the appeal of The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, we’re sure some gamers find the title intriguing, at the very least. For a licensed game, it’s been delayed multiple times, showing that they do care about the property. Hopefully, it pays off, but that doesn’t excuse making fans cough up more cash for some extra voice acting.