The Lord of the Rings: Gollum sees its titular character going around various locales in Middle-earth, including Barad-dûr and Mirkwood. And while Middle-earth is vast and sprawling, the gameplay here is fairly linear, meaning it won't take all that long to beat The Lord of the Rings: Gollum. Of course, playstyles and luck are factors here - since so much of the game relies on stealth-related mechanics. This means sneakier players may find Gollum easier to beat than those who are new to stealth games or have a hard time moving past enemies unseen.
The timeline placement for Lord of the Rings: Gollum means that a lot of the game is told in flashbacks, explaining how Gollum escaped Mordor and eventually encountered Gandalf (and was subsequently questioned about the One Ring). The game is made up of ten chapters, but players are free to restart levels or checkpoints if they encounter a problem or die. This is where the real factors for how long it takes to beat Lord of the Rings: Gollum comes in, since restarting levels can mean having to redo large chunks of the story.
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum Is About 20 Hours Long
Officially, the devs behind the game have stated that it takes about 20 hours to finish The Lord of the Rings: Gollum. However, Gollum can likely be completed in a shorter timeframe (around 15 hours) if players aren't worried about finding the 35 collectibles hidden throughout the chapters and are fairly well-practiced at stealth. Those who want to find most (or all) of the collectibles - as well as those who attempt to interact with various cave paintings, characters, and objects - will likely spend at least 20 hours beating the game.
How Long It Takes To Platinum Lord of the Rings: Gollum & Get 100%
Based on what Screen Rant has seen of the game, it's estimated that most people will take around 40 hours to platinum The Lord of the Rings: Gollum on PSN and get 100% achievements on Xbox or PC. The reason for this is that it will likely take multiple playthroughs (or at least one full playthrough and a partial second playthrough) to get the Platinum Trophy. There is a Gold Trophy called "How Did You Do That?" that will only pop if players have completed the entire game without dying; however, another trophy ("Welcome to Mordor!") depends on Gollum getting killed at least once. This occurs in Chapter 2, though, and is possible to make happen about two hours into the game, making only a partial playthrough possible if the "How Did You Do That?" trophy is achieved during the first full playthrough. There are also trophies for siding with Gollum (or Sméagol) the entire game, which means multiple playthroughs or taking advantage of autosave and replaying chapters.
However, it's most likely that players will want to work on getting all the collectibles, and other trophies like "He's So Annoying" (kill the Greshneg in every possible way), the first time around before attempting to complete the entire game without dying. This means The Lord of the Rings: Gollum may take only 20 hours to beat, but many people will come close to doubling their playtime in order to get a Platinum Trophy and 100% the game.
