The Lord of the Rings: Gollum Reviews
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is a great idea, but a frustrating experience. Non-Tolkien fans should not play this game, and none but the most hardened fans should.
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum could have ushered in a new era of The Lord of the Rings-based games. One that had the daring to fill in Tolkien’s gaps, but still showed respect for the source material. The Lord of the Rings: Gollum isn’t that game. While the story is compelling with a great performance from Smeagol/Gollum, the remainder of the game is a woeful mess. While Daedalic’s vision for Middle-earth is filled with artistic beauty, it’s altogether let down by a terrible technical presentation that’s far behind today’s standards. Ultimately, though, it’s the lack of polish and jankiness that is its undoing. From the myriad gameplay issues that bog down the simple mechanics to the mind-numbing crashes capable of hampering progression, there is little about The Lord of the Rings: Gollum that’s polished or enjoyable. The Lord of the Rings: Gollum crafts a compelling story around Gollum and Smeagol, but it fails to craft a polished, stable or enjoyable gameplay experience. Unfortunately, The Lord of the Rings: Gollum isn’t the Precious we’ve been searching for.
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum was a bad idea on paper and is an even worse as a game now that we can play it, with a dull and boring plot and a gameplay formula that feels too old to be real in 2023.
Review in Italian | Read full review
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is a great game for hardcore Middle-earth fans, but an experience that didn't do Gollum's character justice.
If the team behind The Lord of the Rings: Gollum manages to get it in an acceptable state, the foundation of this game is still hopelessly rotten at its core. No amount of polish can undo the miscalculated story and game design. Daedalic would effectively have to restart the entire development process and start over to salvage it.
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is undoubtedly one of the worst games this industry has ever seen. From gameplay to visuals, it's a complete mess. There is no reason on god's green earth to experience this game. So don't bother!
Review in Persian | Read full review
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is a poorly designed, bug-ridden, untested game that's only redeeming quality doesn't matter in the whole picture.
The motive behind developing this game is a mystery. Visuals and gameplay are from two generations before, and the story is meaningless. Safe your precious time, and skip this one.
Review in Arabic | Read full review
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is so broken on every level that just proves that having enough material and a rich universe to work with doesn't necessarily guarantee a good outcome if you don't know how to make a video game.
Review in Persian | Read full review
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum offers a bleak and lackluster adaptation of Middle-earth, with one of its more divisive characters in the spotlight. Whatever potential the game had is buried under dull, generic gameplay, a variety of technical issues, and low quality visuals.
Do not buy this game and avoid the extra DLC at all costs.
Well-known brand, interesting main character, mix of different genres. What could possibly go wrong? Everything. You really don't have to waste your money on this today.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is nothing more than a failed project that should have been cancelled, but since it is a lucrative IP, it was released to the market to deceive the unwary and that, gentlemen, is a scam that should not be be tolerated in this industry.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
It is good to know that we already know the worst game of the year in May. Do yourself a favor and forget about The Lord of the Rings: Gollum – it is anything but precious.
Gollum might be the worst release of 2023 so far. Why Daedalic agreed to do this and didn't cancel it is a mystery.
Review in Russian | Read full review
Daedalic Entertainment boldly chooses a game that has no obvious reason to exist and make it their passion project, but weirdly forgets to design it in a way that justifies its existence. TLOR Gollum is sadly everything you would fear. Out of touch on every front and most importantly, It misses every one of the very little attempts it make to feel compelling.
Review in Arabic | Read full review
Like the character itself, Gollum is an ugly, depressing, pitiable mess that's destined for a bad end and with little to recommend it. With a stronger design behind it, this title could've perhaps been redeemed, but the version we got isn't that. It's not good, it's not entertainingly bad, and it's not even interestingly broken. It's just a lackluster, licensed game that doesn't seem to have a point, and it focuses on a character that even die-hard fans don't want to play as.
This is a problem across the entire games industry and far too much of the work it produces. What makes Gollum stand out is that most other developers and publishers then use their creative teams to try and hide the crass cynicism and capitalism. Daedalic didn’t bother with Gollum. This game represents the games industry with its mask off.
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