Gollum Is A Powerful Little Weasel In Guardians of Middle Earth MOBA Game
Not a lot has been stirring about the Guardians of Middle Earth MOBA game based on the Lord of the Rings series since its announcement. Monolith has stepped out of the shadows to shed a little more light on the game, including some information that has us a bit surprised. It looks like Gollum, the sniveling rat himself, has been beefed up to do some major damage in the game. In fact, Gollum’s damage outweighs even that of Gandalf himself.
Guardians of Middle Earth is a multiplayer online battle arena game that mimics the gameplay of fan favorites such as DotA and League of Legends. Players will be able to play as their favorite characters from the LotR series and team up to take down opponents. The way things work in GoME is simple: destroy the opposing team’s base and win the game.
Each character has three distinct bars that dictate their power level. You’ve got Survivability, Damage, and Difficulty. Survivability governs health and “squishiness,” while Damage is pretty straightforward. Difficulty relates to the characters skills and how experienced the player needs to be to use them. This is where things get a little weird. When it comes to Gollum, he’s got a low Survivability bar due to his very low amount of health and resistance. He does, however, have an extremely high Damage bar. Seriously, it’s almost full. This makes him one of the more difficult characters to run.
Gollum is made to play with “hit and run tactics.” In fact, he’s been “finely tuned” for them. In a recent gameplay video released by Monolith we get a short demo of Gollum’s abilities. First off we see “We Are Starved,” which is effectively a snare that roots characters in place and siphons their health. Next up is “My Precious,” a swarm of attacks that gets no cooldown if it gets a kill. Finally there’s “Coward” which cleanses Gollum of harmful effects and buffs his speed as he runs away.
Next we’ll look at Gandalf. In comparison to Gollum he’s a little soft. He can wear an Elven Ring of Power, and he’s an enchanter. Of course he wields his staff and sword, which makes him a formidable melee fighter. Gandalf’s Survivability bar is very high, meaning he’s got a lot of health and resistance. His damage bar is considerably less than Gollum’s, but it’s nothing to scoff at. From what we’ve seen, Gandalf makes a great character to play against large groups of foes. He has some AOE damage in the form of “Fireworks” and his “Flame of Anor” shield can help him tank through waves of enemies.
Guardians of Middle Earth will be releasing this fall for the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade. There hasn’t been any word of a PC port, but I’d love to see one. What’s better than playing as Gimli, hacking through hordes of enemies? Nothing, I tell you, nothing.
