"The most anticipated work? Probably The Lord of the Rings: Gollum..."

The first young man interviewed was German, speaking with great enthusiasm:

"After all, It Takes Two really sparked my strong interest in platformer games. With CloudPower's massive investment this time, plus the licensing of the huge Lord of the Rings IP, I'm quite looking forward to it."

The German young man answered with a smile.

Hearing this, Tian Tian nodded and then asked:

"Since you rate It Takes Two so highly, what expectations do you have for Golden Wind's My World this time?"

"I hope it can truly deliver what was shown in the trailer,"

the German young man thought for a moment before answering:

"After all, this is a completely new genre of game, I don't even know what kind of expectations to have... but I'll definitely give it a try regardless."

As Tian Tian handed out small gifts to the interviewed young man, the chat barrage was also filled with discussion—

'This guy is clearly an experienced player, he really hit the nail on the head'

'Indeed, this [Sandbox Game] genre of My World is just too novel, ordinary people can't really judge it'

'Anyway, judging from the trailer, it does look amazing'

'But the question is whether they can actually deliver—trailer downgrades have happened before'

'The key is I still don't understand what that redstone means, how can it turn blocks into assembly lines'

'That's exactly the problem—we haven't played it, so our understanding of this creative gameplay is quite abstract'

'True, my impression of My World is still stuck at building houses and fighting monsters'

'You really need to experience it to understand, just like psychological horror—without PT as a benchmark, who could understand psychological horror just from description'

'No wonder CloudPower's The Lord of the Rings is so popular'

'A 3S with massive IP spending—they might as well write "rich" on their faces, something everyone can understand'

'Indeed...'

'...'

The chat barrage wasn't wrong.

Was the My World trailer stunning?

Of course it was stunning, that's beyond doubt.

But why was it stunning?

Because the game's freedom and creativity completely overturned their understanding of gameplay possibilities.

You can do anything you want in this blocky world!

This is Golden Wind's definition of "sandbox game."

But!

Specifically?

No one knows.

It's like the difference between assigned-topic essays and free-topic essays.

Are assigned-topic essays difficult? They seem quite challenging.

You need to analyze and discuss within specified themes, finally forming a complete essay—it definitely doesn't look easy.

In fact, this difficulty might even create an illusion—that limited-topic essays are much harder than unlimited free-topic essays.

But in reality!

If one day the college entrance exam essay really changed to "write an essay of no less than 800 words, topic unlimited," you'd understand how difficult free-topic essays really are.

What to write? How to write it? What style? What subject matter? What topic?

Fiction or prose? Argumentation or poetry?

If traditional games are like coloring books with pre-drawn outlines, just waiting for you to pick up brushes and fill in colors,

Then My World is a blank sheet of paper.

You can wield ink brushes on it to create an epic traditional Chinese ink painting.

You can pick up oil paints to create a richly textured impasto oil painting.

Or you can simply use a sketching pencil to draw a still life of the stainless steel bowl at home.

When all choices are placed in your hands,

People inevitably feel lost, even at a loss.

And now!

This is exactly how players feel about My World.

It's far less straightforward than The Lord of the Rings: Gollum!

I! Super IP! Five billion investment!

This direct impact is like—

I! Qin Shi Huang! Send money!

In fact!

The actual situation confirms this!

In subsequent interviews, Tian Tian found several other visitors to interview, and their answers were largely similar.

Undoubtedly, thanks to overwhelming marketing and the globally renowned Lord of the Rings IP boost, players generally had higher expectations for The Lord of the Rings: Gollum—

"I hope to see CloudPower present an unprecedented brilliant story within The Lord of the Rings universe..."

"I really like this perspective—Gollum as a character running throughout The Lord of the Rings story should lead to many exciting scenes..."

"The platforming + stealth assassination gameplay appeals to me more—I really like both aspects..."

"I find the blocky character design somewhat hard to accept, so comparatively speaking, I'm more optimistic about Gollum..."

...

"It's about to start—their opening is actually quite well done—"

As the exhibition started on time!

As the official experience streamer for Shark livestream platform at this Cologne Gamescom, Ayin also sat in the motion-sensing pod at CloudPower's exhibition hall!

That's right!

For such a focal battle, Shark, as one of China's largest streaming platforms, naturally wouldn't miss out.

Ayin, Cousin, and Liu Liu formed the Shark streamer team, leading viewers through this Cologne Gamescom.

And their first choice for hands-on gameplay experience was the next-generation 3S super IP derivative masterpiece developed by CloudPower—The Lord of the Rings: Gollum.

After all, it was the most discussed, most anticipated game with the highest player enthusiasm at this Gamescom.

Plus, with CloudPower being such a wealthy and powerful company, their booth was located in Hall 1, visible just steps after entering the venue.

So naturally, it became the first experience target for many streamers.

[CloudPower Games]

[Snow Leopard Studio]

[The Lord of the Rings: Gollum]

[...]

As the opening animation gradually appeared,

The noisy sounds outside Ayin's motion-sensing pod gradually faded away, replaced by the melodious and light sound of a harp slowly rising.

The chat barrage was filled with discussion—

'Damn... the opening has a bit of that Butter flavor...'

'Feels like it'll be a big production'

'After all, it's a The Lord of the Rings derivative work, can't go too wrong no matter how they make it, feels somewhat like cheating'

'A bit worried about Little Yellow—with a 3S of this quality, can a sandbox gameplay alone... win?'

'At least in terms of marketing, they've already lost one round'

'If they get beaten by Gollum, CloudPower will definitely add insult to injury'

'Can't help it—we got stuck in a tight spot, Little Yellow has to handle both the game and the engine, overwhelmed'

'CloudPower definitely seized this opportunity, coming out with a big move this time'

'After all, it's a 3S—this opening has something to it...'

'...'

As the screen entered a cave filled with rugged rocks, under faint light shining, a short, thin, even somewhat deformed figure was huddled in the corner, nervously muttering to himself:

"After I'm gone... eyes turn to stone... darkness unseen..."

"Face full of confusion... unaware of panic..."

"Joy has ceased... death holds no fear... death holds no fear... death holds no fear..."

"Time stands still... roses have no scent..."

Whispering sounds.

Dark, deep, obscure, with strong neuroticism, echoing through the dark and cramped cave.

And moments later!

The low perspective took Ayin away from a pile of rotten fish bones, scrambling onto a stone platform, looking at the meaningless painting on the wall:

"Rose, no no no, not rose my precious, it's lily..."

"Not lily... not rose... no no no! It's lily... it's lily..."

Tsk.

A barely audible clicking his tongue sound flashed through the livestream chat.

That came from Ayin.

He really couldn't hold back.

The game's opening symphony and logo display did have an epic feel.

But as the in-game screen advanced, things started to feel somewhat off.

For a full half minute, he had been listening to Gollum's monologue.

And this monologue was Gollum's chaotic, disordered, theme-less, meaningless whispering between his two personalities.

Ayin didn't understand the purpose of setting up this half-minute thing here.

Although he tried very hard not to view this game with prejudice, and didn't want to be overly critical about this CloudPower-produced game.

But!

Such a lengthy and meaningless opening still made him frown involuntarily.

And what made him even more uncomfortable was that in the next full three minutes, this kind of crazy-like monologue and schizophrenia-like inexplicable scenes actually ran through the entire opening animation.

At this point, Gollum had already been captured by Aragorn and imprisoned in the Elf King's dungeon.

And Gandalf came to the prison to question Gollum about the Ring's whereabouts, thus leading to Gollum's memories.

You could tell!

In this opening animation, the development team seemed to be working very hard to replicate Golden Wind's somewhat obscure and hidden opening approach from Sekiro.

Golden Wind's approach was to use story background as contrast, environmental atmosphere as rendering, creating a desolate atmosphere with winter snow breaking through cities and bleak scenes, finally focusing the perspective on Nagamasa's red paper umbrella in the heavy snow, using the line "Awake, Wolf, for your master" to open the story's curtain.

And what method did CloudPower's Snow Leopard Studio use?

They used numerous fixed screens depicting scenes like woodblock prints.

Using wind, thunder, rain, and some inexplicable rustling sounds to create atmosphere.

Then, using the dialogue between Gandalf and Gollum as background audio to reveal the curtain.

Actually, to some extent, these two methods shouldn't have inherent superiority or inferiority—both serve the purpose of obscure opening.

But the problem lies in—

Sekiro's obscure opening made players feel eerie and dark waves surging like undercurrents.

But Gollum's obscure opening relied entirely on Gollum's crazy-like split rambling:

Gandalf asks "What is your name?"

Gollum's response: Not listening not listening not listening... Gollum... go away my lily... rose flower...

Gandalf asks again "Have you heard a voice that leads you toward dark places?"

Gollum's response: Too bright! Too bright! Go away! It's too bright here Gollum Gollum... hiss hiss Sméagol...

This feeling was like talking to someone who was paranoid, split, crazy, stubborn, with extremely unstable mental state and who one hundred percent answered irrelevantly.

And this wasn't even the most extreme!

Next!

The character you would be playing was this sometimes wildly shouting, sometimes mumbling to himself, mentally extremely unstable deformed waste.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by lotustale.com