But does it stick the landing as well as I’d have liked? Probably not, but there’s still a lot to compliment in the way The Occultist presents and executes its ideas. As a debut effort from the studio, this one had me quite impressed with its visuals and story, even as certain gameplay elements left me frustrated and wishing they were done a tad better.

"It’s a chilling tale of a callous disregard for the consequences of one’s actions."

Beginning with the story on offer, you take control of Alex, an occultist who comes to an island in search of his father, who just up and vanished prior to the game’s beginning. Armed with only a magical pendulum, his trusty notebook, and a gravelly voice that immediately spoke to the Witcher fan in me, he sets out to explore the island and find some answers.

But things aren’t as simple, considering that all of the island’s inhabitants are long dead, and most of the only sentient forms around aren’t too prone to having meaningful conversations. Relying on only his wits and the ability to run away from danger fairly quickly, Alex quickly uncovers evidence of a ritual gone wrong and how it affected the lives of the residents.

It’s a chilling tale of a callous disregard for the consequences of one’s actions that had me hooked well enough to power through some of the more annoying parts of the gameplay loop as I wanted to know what went wrong almost as much as Alex did.

"The cramped spaces of the hospital and orphanage often have you walking around on high alert, waiting for a jump scare that you know is coming."

As for the game’s visuals, I’d say that the island is definitely well-designed and rendered. Each of the areas you explore as part of your investigation is quite impressive, with level designs that make sense while managing to create a sense of unease as you make your way through them.

The cramped spaces of the hospital and orphanage often have you walking around on high alert, waiting for a jump scare that you know is coming. They’re there, and they always managed to catch me off guard. Later areas in the game are more open but manage to be scary enough to let a sense of imminent danger seep into the moment-to-moment gameplay.

With solid visuals and a superb story, you’d expect The Occultist to be a hit. Sadly, its gameplay does let it down just enough to deny it a place among the horror genre’s greatest hits. You progress mainly through exploring levels and using the art of deduction to get past obstacles that stand in your way.

Your magic pendulum is a huge asset on that front, allowing you to see through it to find clues that are otherwise hidden, reverse time in applicable scenarios, and even summon ethereal creatures to help you out. It’s all done really well, and the game remains opaque enough to make navigating its obstacles a challenge.

"With solid visuals and a superb story, you’d expect The Occultist to be a hit. Sadly, its gameplay does let it down just enough to deny it a place among the horror genre’s greatest hits."

However, I’d say that the lack of any ability to dispel hostile ghosts using the pendulum is a missed opportunity. It doesn’t make sense for Alex to come to a place such as this island without any means to protect himself. The fact that the island had remained ominously quiet for a very long time before he decided to visit should have been reason for an occultist to consider that things could be very badly wrong within it.

Of course, there are ghosts, both hostile and friendly, for you to encounter. The friendly ones are a helpful bunch, giving you snippets about the events that led to the island’s current state while pointing you in the direction of your next objective, displayed ominously in red every time you uncover them. It’s all a little on the nose, but it works in the context of the story.

The hostile ones, however, are probably the weakest part of the experience. They’re locked away until you let them loose, and then just swoop past you to patrol fixed paths that they absolutely do not deviate from. This makes staying out of their way as absurdly easy as just ducking into the nearest room, where they simply stand and watch you stare at them before reverting to their fixed routes.

That those routes are often ones you need to take to find important pieces of the puzzle you’re meant to be solving makes them more of an annoyance than a threat. I’d have loved to see a mechanic where a mechanic was using the pendulum in conjunction with a few spells to perhaps freeze them in place, but alas, all you can do is run from them.

Of course, there are a few moments where the ghosts act in clever ways, like an early game moment where the one chasing me lurked at a window and grabbed onto my arm as I walked by, but they’re so few and far between that they fail to create any fear or panic. It doesn’t help that Alex remains unperturbed by their presence, his dour voice never wavering even in the face of a presence that other mortals would be screaming at.

The puzzles themselves are quite intricate and well implemented, aside from a few ones that required very precise drawings for them to register as complete. My playthrough included a lot of time spent trying to put makeup on a decomposed skeleton, only for the game to stoutly refuse to acknowledge that I was right. It almost felt like a bug, but the developers have since assured me that it wasn’t, and that they’re working on making it more accessible.

But moments like that break the illusion of a well-crafted narrative thriller, reminding you that you’re indeed in a video game and bound by its eccentric rules. However, I must complement how the puzzles are woven into the environments you explore, and the way in which they’re challenging but not impossible. It’s a good balance overall, and one that was quite entertaining when everything worked as it should.

"I’d say that the lack of any ability to dispel hostile ghosts using the pendulum is a missed opportunity."

The audio design, always an important part of the experience, is serviceable and does a good job of setting the scene and keeping you on edge for the most part. I’d have liked more immersive dialogues, but the cast does fairly well with what’s been given to them. Performance on a base PS5 was quite good, and I didn’t have any noticeable frame drops, pop-in, or other graphical issues while the loading times were quick enough to keep me from doom scrolling.

With all that’s been said, would I recommend you dive right into The Occultist? That’s a tricky one. On the one hand, its story and world-building are immersive enough to make it a great title to play over the weekend. But with its gameplay being as bland as it is, it probably is not going to be high among my list of the best horror titles around.

If you’re looking for a game that challenges your brain over brawn, and you don’t mind a lack of compelling action, this is a story that’s worth your while. But if you’re looking for a game that has you reaching for a light switch, you’re not going to get that here. Either way, I’d recommend waiting for a sale on this one, but it does deserve a place on your wishlist if that’s the case.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.

Hosted by Evil Empire, which is developing Belmont’s Curse, the inclusion of the latter makes sense, but there’s much more to look forward to. Dead as Disco, Risk of Rain 2, Windrose, Alkahest and Alabaster Dawn will also appear while sunset visitor (1000xRESIST), tinyBuild, Daedalic Entertainment, 11 bit studios, Klei, Outersloth and Devolver Digital are confirmed.

Overall, you can expect eight world premieres and gameplay reveals alongside release dates for already-announced titles. If that wasn’t enough, the “zero fluff” showcase will feature deep dives on select titles in the post-show.

At this point, release dates for titles like Dead as Disco and Windrose, both of which received overwhelmingly positive responses during their respective Steam Next Fests, seem a given. Radical Fish Games also promises a big announcement, which could mean an early access release date for Alabaster Dawn (previously slated for last year). Stay tuned for all the updates and announcements when the show rolls around.

Barotrauma: Home & Harbor was announced with a trailer during PC Gaming Show 2025. While we didn’t really get a look at the trailer, we did get a glimpse at the new faction that will also be coming to the game with the expansion – the Descendents.

The Descendants are a body-modified and technocratic faction that make use of alien technology. Thanks to the addition of the faction, players will also ultimately be able to get their hands on strange new tools and weapons to use.

Along with trying to build out an outpost, players will also need to manage NPC inhabitants and even establish industry to ensure the prosperity of the base. New technologies can also be researched through a dedicated technology tree.

Barotrauma: Home & Harbor will be coming to PC in 2026.

Standalone expansion Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun – Aiko’s Choice released for PC back in December 2021, introducing a new set of missions, environments, and more, and soon, it will also be making its console debut. Publisher Daedalic Entertainment has announced that Aiko’s Choice is releasing for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S on December 6, exactly three years on from its PC release. Pre-orders are open now. Check out the announcement trailer below.

In our review of the standalone expansion upon its original release, we awarded it a score of 8/10, saying, “Aiko’s Choice is utterly unconcerned with critics of the base game, and instead focuses entirely on giving fans a more intense version of its concepts.” Read the full review through here.

Unlike the Shadow Tactics base game, Aiko’s Choice is not available on PS4 and Xbox One, though it remains to be seen whether that’s something that publisher Daedalic Entertainment will address at some point in the future. 

In Reveil, you play as Walter, a man who runs a circus with his wife, his begins the game getting out of his bed and complaining about a headache. Walking through his house, he realizes that neither his wife nor his daughter are anywhere to be found, and from there, things quickly take a turn, as you find yourself walking through surreal, fragmented versions of Walter’s house and his circus and living through memories of his life, which often contradict what he remembers himself in key ways. It’s not necessarily a unique setup, and if you’ve played enough games like this before, it’s very likely that you’re going to have a good understanding of how things are going to go.

"In many ways, it treads on ground that has become so familiar by now that it has started losing most of its impact, but in others, it puts its own unique twist on things to breathe new life into them."

From the story it tells to the way it tells it, Reveil doesn’t do an awful lot to break the mould, and that predictability does take out a lot of the bite from the story it’s trying to tell. The quality of the storytelling is dragged down further by an unfortunate combination of poor writing and voice acting. The dialogue feels a bit too on-the-nose at times, and often comes in at times where silent, environmental storytelling would have been much more effective, especially in a game like this one. The issue is exacerbated further by the way dialogue is voiced- pretty much all the time, Walter sounds either too casual or too content, which just completely clashes with the atmosphere, the things the story reveals, and the increasingly bizarre environments you find yourself in.

What does help a little bit is the whole circus angle, which is one area where the game carves out a little but of its own identity. Reveil sees you walking through repeated loops of a handful of environments that shift and change each time in different ways, and a lot of the time is going to be spent in Walter’s circus. Even in their mundane, regular form, which you see a little bit of in the game’s earlier sections, just walking through a circus and taking in the environments is fun, but as the environments start twisting and becoming more and more surreal as you progress further, things get even more interesting.

There’s some really good, striking imagery in Reveil. The way the environments twist and loop and distort around you deserves a lot of praise, even if it’s not necessarily something that we haven’t seen before in similar games, simply because of how well those well-trodden ideas are executed here. One particular section throws you into a mirror maze and tasks you with finding your way out, with things getting increasingly creepier and more unsettling as you progress further. Reveil has some really effective tricks that it consistently keeps using to disorient you as you walk through its environments.

"There’s some really good, striking imagery in Reveil. The way the environments twist and loop and distort around you deserves a lot of praise, even if it’s not necessarily something that we haven’t seen before in similar games, simply because of how well those well-trodden ideas are executed here."

That adds a great deal to the atmosphere as well, an area where the game by and large sticks the landing. Again, the general feeling of tension or horror is dampened severely by fact that Walter never seems to shut up, and that his writing and voice acting tend to miss the mark every time he speaks. But the environments themselves do a solid job of unsettling you in some really interesting ways. That said, you shouldn’t go in expecting genuine scares. Other than quite a few annoyingly cheap jump scares scattered throughout the experience, Reveil tends to focus more on atmosphere than actual, active horror.

On the gameplay front, I had a surprisingly fun time with Reveil. It’s a simple, straightforward game where its mechanics are concerned, and the bulk of it functions like a walking sim, as you’d expect from this genre. Thanks to the strong environment design of the game, that remains an engaging experience in and of itself, but there are some other activities thrown in there to break things up as well. You’ll encounter a fair few puzzles, and though some of them can be a bit obtuse at first, by and large, they’re all fun and simple interactions, with a few that even involve some fun minigames.

At times, Reveil will also attempt to challenge you with stealth and pursuer enemy sections- though “challenge” is perhaps too strong of a word. Engagement is minimal here, thanks to the rudimentary enemy AI, and mostly, these sections just come across as ineffectual attempts at horror. They’re definitely the experience’s weak, from a gameplay standpoint. Beyond that, there are some collectibles to collect and multiple endings to unlock, though mileage will obviously vary on how much you’re getting out of that stuff, based on how much you enjoy the core experience.

"You shouldn’t go in expecting genuine scares. Other than quite a few annoyingly cheap jump scares scattered throughout the experience, Reveil tends to focus more on atmosphere than actual, active horror."

On the technical front, Reveil is largely a solid experience. The environments look great and do a solid job of facilitating the excellent art design, from how bizarre they can look to how much detail they often have crammed into them. The game is let down by a few audio issues though, especially with some weird mixing and abrupt changes in the volume that can take you out of the moment. Sound design can be incredibly important in any game that focuses this much on atmosphere and horror elements, so they’re definitely an issue here.

Ultimately, if you’re just looking for a single playthrough lasting around 3-4 hours (depending on how you play), Reveil does definitely deliver the goods on the front, with a few caveats. It’s not the most original game, thanks to how many P.T.-inspired games we’ve seen (and continue to see), and from clumsy writing and voice acting to ineffectual attempts at horror, the game does let itself down in some ways. But there are also some genuinely good moments in here, be it the memorably designed, surreal environments you often find yourself in, how effective the atmosphere can be at times, or the fun and straightforward nature of most of the gameplay mechanics. Reveil doesn’t set new standards for the genre in any way, shape, or form- but if you have a hankering for another short first-person psychological horror experience, this one is certainly worth a look.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.

As such, it’s more like a traditional city-builder than one would initially believe. You start with shacks to house people, take in survivors, set up Gathering Camps and Field Camps to harvest resources like meat, mushrooms, wood, iron and stone, and feed the populace – it just keeps spiralling from there.

"New Cycle offers three types of experiences – Sandbox, Campaign and Sanity. Sandbox is supposedly a more chill experience (even though it’s not – more on that in a bit), while Campaign injects more story."

Your people will have more demands, like clothes and access to medicine, and different milestones can pop up, such as storing a certain amount of water and food. However, they can also come forward with dilemmas, whether it’s to provide a day off every week or so, or asking you to keep satisfaction above a certain threshold. Fail, and their morale is affected, which can occur even if you’re not holding to their promises.

Of course, their morale will be affected anyway when a lightning strike destroys a building, a fire breaks out, a sandstorm rolls in, or even when the dreaded solar flares show signs of returning. If they fall sick without access to health facilities, they die off. Survive for long enough, and eventually, a new cycle is unlocked, opening up new technologies and buildings to research and build.

It all sounds typical and would be solid for its early access launch. Unfortunately, several aspects drag the experience of New Cycle down when they’re not adding to the overall frustration. Also, beyond the current premise of simply expanding and advancing your settlement, the game’s scope offers very little that’s fresh or noteworthy. Again, this is an early access release, but it’s worth keeping in mind if you’re hoping for something more to the experience.

New Cycle offers three types of experiences – Sandbox, Campaign and Sanity. Sandbox is supposedly a more chill experience (even though it’s not – more on that in a bit), while Campaign injects more story. Sanity is a completely different scenario, where you lead a more advanced settlement and have to contend with the appearance of a strange illness. It’s a race against time as you struggle to save the city. Unfortunately, Sanity is locked, presumably until you beat the Campaign.

"I can understand having to make such decisions under duress after a few people die, but being forced into it and giving up resources regardless is annoying."

When jumping into a playthrough, you can also choose different map types. Meadow is the cheery start, with 40 percent increased Morale whenever Spring rolls around, while Steppe has infertile lands that discourage agriculture, high temperatures and scarce water. Regardless of the map type, resources will inevitably dry up, and you need to rely on the stockpile or alternatives to get you through the long Winter. Sickness can also start spreading if your people don’t have access to housing, clean water or clothes, and by the time Spring arrives, you may find yourself dealing with several dead. But don’t worry, as strangers will come by, and more adults will join the ranks. At least, in theory.

People are your main resource, as you assign them to various tasks. Sure, they have needs and are the main backbone of the economy, but you don’t feel particularly attached to them. It also doesn’t help that most decisions don’t incentivize the other choice when it comes to making them happy. Of course, you’re going to select “take more time to train workers into craftsmen” if it means higher chances of the latter being made. Except when you don’t get any craftsmen, and it feels just as worthwhile as taking less time with more risk of the training failing.

Then there are the decisions with the illusion of choice. A destroyer may suddenly pull up into your harbor – a sight thought impossible in this post-apocalyptic landscape. However, not only do they have nothing to offer you, but insist that you help them. Refuse, and they’ll attack an empty space as a warning – understandable, but then you must cede to their demands, regardless.

I can understand having to make such decisions under duress after a few people die, but being forced into it and giving up resources regardless is annoying. It’s even worse when some random person with slaves shows up, and you’re forced to pay him off in materials to set them free. Why couldn’t the entire settlement take him down? Why am I pretty much forced into the transaction?

"Perhaps the most underwhelming part of New Cycle is that even when you get into the groove of building and planning ahead for any possible disaster, it doesn’t offer much to shake up the formula."

The difficulty and tuning, even in Sandbox mode, is also skewed. Despite touting a more chill atmosphere, I still witnessed freshly made mines destroyed by a lightning strike within seconds of being built, high temperatures affecting morale, and a sandstorm further impeding the town’s hope. Don’t even get me started on dozens of citizens dying in one fell swoop due to sickness.

The fact that medicine is so far down the research tree makes some sense from a historical perspective, but the occurrence and scale of sickness to this degree feels completely off-balance. I understand resources like mushroom collecting drying up in the Winter and reassigning workers to other tasks or giving them time off.

However, when people start dropping like flies anyway, the micromanagement feels pointless. The same goes for when fires break out. Even on Sandbox, the buildings are reduced to wreckage nine times out of ten. What’s the point of a full response then and wasting so much water?

Perhaps the most underwhelming part of New Cycle is that even when you get into the groove of building and planning ahead for any possible disaster, it doesn’t offer much to shake up the formula. Lack of content is one thing due to its early access state – it feels like there isn’t a unique hook behind developing the city. Even sending scouts out into the countryside to examine other locations for other resources and trading feels lackluster. Shout out to resetting my trade with a merchant, only to get the same items but with more in stock.

"New Cycle isn’t the worst city-builder out there, but it’s got a ways to go, especially when seamlessly incorporating its survival elements."

Presentation-wise, New Cycle is decent. Viewing most of your available resources at a glance is simple. Even if it doesn’t show everything at once, there are extensive progress reports to check each material. Even if structures tend to blend into the world, you can swap between different views to see which items are being produced where, how many workers are engaged in the activity and more.

It’s also easy to switch between multiple structures of the same type. It isn’t to say the visuals are superior to the genre’s best, but there’s some attention to detail, especially when stopping to observe your people at work. The music, as generic as it can be with its foreboding tones, also isn’t too shabby. The performance is also mostly well done without any major glitches.

New Cycle isn’t the worst city-builder out there, but it’s got a ways to go, especially when seamlessly incorporating its survival elements. Based on the roadmap revealed thus far, interesting features are in the works, though how significantly they affect the gameplay loop remains to be seen. For now it scraps by with its gameplay and little else.

This game was reviewed on PC.

After interviewing a total of 32 former and current employees of the studio, the report outlines that the failure of the project can be attributed to a bunch of factors ranging from poor management to extensive crunch and developer incompetency. Daedalic Entertainment didn’t have experience working on a 3D game with AAA levels of ambition since it was always known for its 2D point-and-click adventure projects.

Add to that the rather measly budget of $15 million for such an ambitious project, the team wasn’t able to hire the required talent to realise those ambitions. The developer allegedly tried to get more funds for the game, but those pleas were consistently rejected by at-the-time owner Bastei Lübbe. In addition to this, the developers were forced to work long hours by CEO Carsten Fichtelmann and COO Stephan Harms- all of which came together to create a stressful environment.

But despite all that crunch and hard work, Gollum just wasn’t ready to be released. So when marketing for the game started, the developers had to resort to damage control measures to minimize the outrage that would happen. It’s a sad state of affairs that such malpractices continue to be a persistent problem in the games industry.

Now, new details have emerged on that apology letter. As reported by German YouTube channel Game Two (spotted by @Knoebelbroet on Twitter), Daedalic Entertainment apparently had no knowledge of the letter or its content, with publisher Nacon reportedly having overseen the entire process.

On top of that, Game Two also claims that, as per two anonymous sources, that letter was written using the AI-operated chat software ChatGPT, and was published without being checked or proof-read. Perhaps that would explain why the beginning of the letter refers to the game as “The Lord of Ring: Gollum“. An embarrassing situation all around, to say the very least.

Shortly after the launch of The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, it was confirmed that Daedalic Entertainment would be focusing only on publishing going forward, with future internal development being shut down, and that, as such, the studio’s second Lord of the Rings title had been cancelled.

Otherwise, there are bug fixes for issues like quest markers disappearing, objects becoming non-interactable after restarting, progression blockers, loss of mouse focus, etc. Check out the full patch notes below for more details. The developer says at the end, “To all our players, thank you for your patience. We sincerely hope these changes will help you enjoy The Lord of the Rings: Gollum.”

Without mentioning any other upcoming updates and improvements, this could be the last patch that the game receives. The Lord of the Rings: Gollum was released on May 25th for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5 and PC after delays, and received several negative reviews. The developer apologized for the same, while Daedalic has confirmed it’s shifting away from development to focus on publishing.

As a result, the internal development team was laid off, and their rumored upcoming Lord of the Rings title cancelled. There’s still plenty to look forward to in the universe, at least for MMO players, with Amazon Games Orange County working on The Lord of the Rings MMO. It’s coming to PC and consoles with a release date to be announced.

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum: Patch Notes 2.2

• Adjusted DLSS default mode from “off” to “auto” to prevent stuttering and performance issues when playing with RTX without DLSS.
• Resolved a low reproducibility bug where parts of the environment could be missing.
• Fixed an issue where quest markers could disappear after continuing from the main menu.
• Fixed an issue where interactable objects become non interactable after restarting.
• Fixed Bugs in the checkpoint system to improve the titles stability and clear annoying gameplay bugs
• Corrected the issue of the Bird losing the player’s chosen color in the breeding mission.
• Fixed the Bell in “Thranduil’s Halls – Cellars” being placed before the player placed it.
• Resolved a malfunctioning interactable object in “Thranduil’s Halls – Cellars”.
• Fixed a conditional blocker that caused Gollum to die if restarting during the beetle conflict.
• Fixed an unresponsive situation where the Pause Menu overlapped with a Game Over screen.
• Addressed the issue of losing mouse focus when opening settings.
• Fixed a blocker in the tower of light where the guard could see the player after spawning.
• Increased the chase radius for the “Cruel Woman” chase to prevent save games where the player cannot keep up anymore.
• Fixed a locked camera issue in the cart sequence in the “Sewers”.
• Improved Bird Training Spy Mission and Morning Visits, fixing several bugs.
• Resolved missing environment issues in “Tower of Light”.
• Fixed cog wheels spinning in random directions.
• Fixed nervous hands achievement behavior.
• Adjusting DLSS mode and sharpness when loading a save from a previous version.
• Fixed background sequence causing blocker behavior in Sewers.
• Overall fixes for background sequences.
• Fixed a Game Over screen in the tutorial when restarting from the main menu during the chase sequence.
• Fixed a possible bypass in Tower of Light Day 6 that caused a blocker.
• Fixed a softlock in Shadow Mountains when jumping off a cliff during a checkpoint.
• Added required checkpoint to Great Halls Low Day 1.
• Fixed malfunctioning trigger in Beast Pits Day 3.
• Fixed unresponsive menu issue after quitting from Gamma settings.
• Unloaded sublevel issue in the Black Pits cart mission fixed.
• Halls of Grond & Execution chambers – fixed and adjusted rotating wheels.
• Fixed extra camera shakes.
• Gollum Groom is now covered correctly by translucency while still respecting DOF and refraction.
• Fixed possibility to end the Sewers without killing both orcs.
• Fixed some localization issues.
• Fix excessive camera rotation during frame drops.
• Solved the issue of no sound in the cutscene of Cook’s death.
• Fixed Kings Grove missing sublevel when the escape orcs quest started.
• Resolved tutorial checkpoint issue in the chase mission.
• Fixed German conflict menu choice being displayed as French.
• Fixed several VO subtitle inconsistencies.
• Fixed Pause Menu malfunctioning after initial load of the game.
• Refresh animation state when Gollum is pushed by another character in crouch mode.
• Added missing “Hold” to Food tutorial in German and both traditional and simplified Chinese.
• Fixed a blocker in Mines Day 2 where the environment would unload before reaching the 3rd tunnel.
• Redundant collectibles removed for ending levels.
• Fixed unresponsive puzzle door in Ruins Outside when loading from Main Menu.
• Fixed blocked progress after the throttle tutorial when restarting from a checkpoint.
• Fixed Gollum floating at the beginning for Chapter 2.
• Fixed a softlock in Outer Gardens where Gollum would be detected immediately after spawning.
• Resolved Gollum staying in the shadow form even after exiting the shadow volume.
• Fixed softlock in “Queen Cascades” where it’s possible to avoid quest dialog when loading checkpoint.
• Fixed missing Mell water spot VFX when loading checkpoint.
• Fixed missing Grashneg lantern issue when loading checkpoints in Shelob’s Lair.
• Fixed unresponsive map / collectible screen when spamming open / close buttons.
• Improved NPC navigation around Gollum.
• Fixed a conditional blocker when returning from haze in Haze Gate.
• Kings Grove – fixed incorrect quest marker when loading checkpoint.
• Fixed wrong spawn location, direction, and missing quest marker on a specific checkpoint in the Finale.
• Fix for wall running not always triggering correctly.
• Riverpath fixed invisible 2 elves’ issue at the end of the level.
• NorthTower flying platform room improved visual effects.
• Fixed a conditional blocker in Breeding Hills when the spymission NPC group became immobile.
• Added a missing intuition path and relocated a wrongly placed intuition path in Riverpath.
• Fixed malfunctioning door hole in Ruins Outside when transitioning from the Main Menu.
• Fixed incorrect visit number in Cells when returning with the lights to the cook.
• Fixed NPCs in Tower of Light Day 9 not being aware of Gollum when returning from the Main Menu.
• Fixed punctuation in Lore Compendium.
• Resolved the issue of input hints flickering.
• Fixed the title remaining unresponsive when opening the Pause Menu while selecting Gollum or Sméagol before the inner debate.
• Synced data for DLSS Support, setting Fidelity fx2 to 0 when DLSS Support is false.
• Fixed blockers in North Tower when reloading a checkpoint and trying to interact with the winch.
  Added missing localization files.
• Fixed fluctuating groom when the game is paused.
• Fixed an issue in Bird Breeding where the inquisitor wouldn’t move or play the dialogue when reloading a checkpoint.
• Resolved an unresponsive door puzzle dialog blocker in Ruins Outside.
• Fixed the issue where falling due to stamina loss while turning on a bar prevented Gollum from climbing afterward.
• Fixed missing environment issue in Kings Garden on the 2nd visit.
• Fixed misplaced damage volume in Kings Garden.
• Discarded input when the controller disconnects.
• Added an input to close the message window of the disconnected device.
• Fixed the bush not restoring its state after reloading a checkpoint.
• Resolved missing environment in Mirkwood Chase when loading a checkpoint.
• Fixed a conditional blocker in Mines when restarting after picking up the last tag.
• Fixed the delivery bridge environment in Sewers when reloading.
• Adjusted the wrong Grashneg scale in Sewers.
• Fixed infinite Game Over screen in Construction Low when sweeping through a specific checkpoint.
• Fixed the wrong state of the door when transitioning from Tower of Light to Bird Breeding.
• Resolved incorrect camera spline in Shelob’s Lair during the 2nd chase.

As reported by Games Wirtschaft, Daedalic Entertainment has announced that it’s shutting down its entire internal development pipeline. The studio will no longer make its own games going forward, and is instead pivoting to focusing exclusively on publishing titles developed by external partners. That, unfortunately, means the internal development staff at Daedalic – at least 25 employees – is being laid off.

“We value each and every member of our team and it is important to us that the transition goes as smoothly as possible,” the studio said in a statement. “Therefore, we will support our former employees in finding new opportunities within our network.”

As reported previously, Daedalic Entertainment was working on another Lord of the Rings game, development on which started in 2022. That project has also now been shut down as part of the studio’s restructuring.

Daedalic Entertainment was acquired by Nacon for a sum of €53 million in February last year.