So far, yikes. This game has gaming reviewers backing away from it too.
Developed by Daedalic Entertainment, The Lord of the Rings: Gollum has finally been released to the public, and honestly? It’s not doing so well. Both in terms of performance and audience reception. Compared to what the developers promised years ago, it is clear that the final product was a downgrade. We’re not even gonna talk about that screenshot we’ve included above, which has been making rounds all over the Internet.
In terms of critical reception, the PC version has a total score of 43 on Metacritic and 40 for the PS5 version. These are a bad set of scores, by the way. Reviewers also call the game a bit of an eyesore. While the game follows the style of narrative done in the original source material, that nostalgic story isn’t even enough to distract players with how bad looking it is.
“Characters appear flat and lifeless, vistas are murky and lacking in detail, and textures are so drab and washed out, you can easily be mistaken into waiting for them to pop in with a sharper resolution that never arrives,” Alex Avard wrote for GamesRadar+. “Gollum never feels particularly fun to play as, with many simple actions like jumping or throwing a rock feeling wooden and unwieldy to perform.”
With gameplay and visuals feeling bleak and boring, it is no surprise that this game is getting bad reviews. It’s really sad to see a project that developers spent years working on looking and performing like this.
Image credit: Daedalic Entertainment