Lord of the Rings: Gollum, Daedalic Entertainment’s third-person action-adventure, is garnering criticism left and right and is the last example of a failed startup. And we’ve had too many of them lately.

Any game set in Tolkien’s vast universe is eagerly awaited. And more in this case because of the novelty of the role of Gollum, who is deformed and corrupted in body and soul by the power of the Ring, which is very important in this world and which in this title is located between the events of The Hobbit and The Lord. rings. But as has unfortunately happened on other occasions, a valuable license was wasted with the release something that cannot be played.

Reviews on major portals like Metacritic have been wild. At the time of writing, the expert media score is 3.6 out of 10, and the user rating is even worse, 1.9 out of 10. The game will randomly drop between 5 and 10 minutes into the game. Since Gollum uses a checkpoint system, you’ll have to replay the same segment over and over when the game crashes. It’s just the beginning, as in addition to numerous technical issues, including incorrect transition between scenes, the character often falls into a mess of polygons.

The framerate drop during cutscenes is noticeable, as well as you’ll notice that the characters in the background are actually 2D and not 3D. Also the same game structure was criticized and its lack of originality. Actually heThe gameplay and story structure completely reveal the game and offer an unforgettable experience. Even after changing the scenery, the game and environment follow the same patterns, but with different actors in the same empty spaces.

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, another edition to forget

It must be said that the game was originally scheduled for release in 2021, so there was time for development, and it is not a port and fails on all platforms. And if more time is needed, use it and don’t release something unplayable. It’s hard to believe that the developer didn’t know about his problem… Daedalic Entertainment had to come on stage with apology and recognition:

A few words from the »Lord of the Rings: Gollum™ team » pic.twitter.com/adPamy5EjO

— Lord of the Rings: Gollum (@GollumGame) May 26, 2023

“We would like to sincerely apologize for the disappointment many of you experienced with The Lord of the Rings: Gollum following its release. We deeply acknowledge and regret that the game did not live up to the expectations we set for ourselves or our dedicated community. Please accept our sincere apologies for any disappointment this may have caused.”

And now this? The development team says they are listening to player feedback and “we are working hard to fix the bugs and technical issues that many of you have encountered”. Apologies are appreciated, but for starters, they should be refunding what was paid for the game. Some technical issues can be fixed, but there are others that will not be resolved no matter how many patches are released.

Video games are the first entertainment industry and move colossal amounts of money. Also, games are getting more expensive and The players deserve respect for supporting this type of pitch. And it’s not the first fiasco in recent times, and not just in PC ports. Add Cyberpunk 2077, Jedi Survivor, Redfall, Forspoken, The Last of Us Part 1 and long, etc. Too many insults to the gamers who keep the business going.