The Lord of the Rings: Gollum Reviews
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum manages to appropriate the best features of one of the best and most complex characters created within an unquestioned mythology, but a limited aesthetic representation of the world surrounding it and sloppy movement systems prevent the the game from being as precious as it should be.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
The story of Gollum actually has some interesting lore but bad encounter design, terribly executed stealth and platforming, and a host of bugs make the experience an exercise in frustration.
By Far, The Worst Title of 2023
Review in Arabic | Read full review
Even though we are big Lord of the Rings fans, and we were afraid to start the game based on the preliminary negative feedback, it was a pleasant surprise. We enjoyed the story so much that I hope to play Gollum's Adventures again. If only to explore the different decisions and endings.
Review in Czech | Read full review
Although I do think the premise for the game was good, The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is a slog to get through. The boring missions, bland environments, flat gameplay, poor graphics and average story combine to make this, at best, a completely mediocre experience. But once you take the multiple issues into consideration and the fact that Daedalic wanted £60 for it, The Lord of the Rings: Gollum becomes like its namesake: a pitiful wretch corrupted by the allure of the One Ring.
It hurts to burn down a game that takes place in the universe of The Lord of the Rings. But just like the series The Ring of Power, the board is completely missed here. The graphics are of a deplorable level and the bugs often make the game literally unplayable. In addition, the gameplay is extremely shallow and boring. Are there no pluses at all? One or two puzzles are quite nice and the voices of Gollum and Gandalf are not bad. But there really isn't much more than that. Daedalic Entertainment had quite a nice concept in terms of concept and also had a legendary license that they could work with. What do they make of it? A game just as ugly and rotten as Gollum itself, which you should stay very far away from.
Review in Dutch | Read full review
Unless you’re a die-hard LOTR fan or a lover of bad games, this can’t be recommended. The sound design and motion capture work are both excellent but the game’s negatives far outweigh its positives. One day, we will get a game that rules over all LOTR games. But for now, we have a game, that, to misquote Gandalf, DOES NOT PASS!!
Gollum isn’t protagonist material, at least not for a video game. He is a wretched creature who only survived the events of The Hobbit because Bilbo took pity on him. If The Lord of the Rings: Gollum can be said to have one achievement, it perfectly emulates the painful experience of being Gollum, as it makes you feel just as sad and wretched as Sméagol himself. This story didn’t need to be told, as the exciting parts of Gollum’s life were displayed in Tolkien’s works, and this game only sullies the characters created by the great author with its terrible… everything.
Essentially, what I’m telling you is that The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is indeed a bad video game. It’s not fun when it works, it’s even less so when it doesn’t, and the overall concept of the game is one that ultimately makes it feel unnecessary altogether.
It turned out that, for Daedalic Entertainment, The Lord of the Rings Gollum was a hot potato, which blew it.
Review in Greek | Read full review
I wanted The Lord of the Rings: Gollum to be a slam dunk given how fantastic the source material is. Unfortunately though, the game suffers from a wide range of issues from the janky platforming and stealth mechanics to the underwhelming visuals. Thankfully, Gollum himself is nicely animated and voice-acted, but it's not enough to overcome the game's faults.
It should be removed from physical & digital shelves until it can be finished without resorting to banging your skull against sheetrock.
Lore and creative retelling were the best parts of The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, and even that was spoiled to a degree. Hopefully, further updates can save the technical aspect of the game in the future, but not even Mount Doom can reforge the base game formula.
I don’t think it’s some greedy money grab, a worthless piece of trash, and the worst game ever. There is a ton of effort and quality here. It’s just buried under nonsense, which I suspect only exists because of market pressure. A $50 niche stealth game is a hard sell, and being a short game only makes it more so. But I think we can all agree that taking the same game and artificially inflating it to AAA length at AA quality wasn’t the solution. And while Daedalic has said they intend to work on and fix the game, I honestly don’t see how. The damage is done, the issues baked in. Just learn and move on.
Daedalic Entertainment brings us an unimportant chapter starring one of the key characters of Tolkien's legendarium. The controls are frustrating, visually not everything is pulled out of the closet and there is repetition after repetition of boring levels that do not advance the plot fast enough. Moreover, theoretically interesting mechanics do not add essential differences. 'The Lord of the Rings: Gollum' is mainly a missed opportunity.
Review in Dutch | Read full review
I’m a positive person when it comes to games, happy to overlook minor issues when the overall result is worthy of both my and your time. Unfortunately, Gollum is not a game I could recommend to anyone, even if you were the world’s biggest Lord of the Rings fan.
This game was clearly a challenge too big for the developer and they should have been saved from this embarrasment. This game doesn't do the Lord of the Rings franchise, Daedalic or Nacon any favors and it would be best if they avoid games of this size and for a while. With its extremely poor character design, lackluster, boring gameplay and bug ridden mess, this is one title even the biggest LotR fan should avoid.
Review in Dutch | Read full review
When Gollum was announced, it sparked immense curiosity about a game with scenes unseen in Middle-earth and his journey through Mordor even has interesting scenes. It's a shame that most of your time it's just boring or that it leaves you feeling like you're better off playing something else that does everything you want to do here.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is inadequate in all respects. Something good can be glimpsed in the second act, but it is still a drop in a sea of mediocrity that isn't worth your time, and especially not worth the involvement of such an important license as The Lord of the Rings.
Review in Italian | Read full review
An ill-conceived parkour game with aged graphics and gameplay, but with an undeniable thread of lost potential underneath that makes me wish the development team had spent more time in the planning stage. PC version reviewed.