The Lord of the Rings: Gollum

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.

This stealth adventure has its charms, despite a fractured identity.

Despite being presented as a lonely creature, Gollum gets more attention than he might deserve in The Lord of the Rings: Gollum. With average by-the-books platforming and stealth gameplay, there actually is a thoughtful and engaging story at the heart of Gollum. It’s up to fans of the genre to decide whether time spent on ordinary gameplay is worth experiencing Gollum’s history.

Much like the namesake character himself, The Lord of The Rings: Gollum couldn't be saved from what it became. Frustrating platforming coupled with boring gameplay and cheap ways to die make any experience hard to play. Unfortunately, the intriguing setting and lore exploration can't come close to overshadowing the game's fundamental issues.

Much like its title character, The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is compromised, inelegant, and a bit of an eyesore. To everyone except the most fervent of Tolkienites; you shall pass.

Reviewed on PlayStation 5

The premise of a Gollum game was already questionable when it was first announced, but I tend to be optimistic, as I usually find the oddest ideas to be the most surprising, that is, if, and only if they work. Sadly that’s not the case with Gollum, as it’s more of a game going through the motions without ever finding its footing in the process. It has some cool ideas and attempts to execute them, ...

When it comes to the Lord of the Rings, there are a few levels of fandom. Some people, of course, think the whole fantasy genre is a bunch of silly nonsense. We’ll ignore them. Then there are those who have read the books, maybe more than once. And seen the movies, too, it goes without saying. Finally, there are the super fans, who regard J.R.R. Tolkien’s masterpiece as fantasy’s Bible, Koran, and...

A strong sense of character is let down by poor controls, fiddly implementation, and bugs.

“The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is such a mess of barely formed ideas that it feels like a game still in its pre-alpha stage.”

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum poses itself as an epic quest across the treacherous realms of Middle-earth, where an inner conflict will rage inside the mind of one halfling. Of course we refer to the split-personality of both Smeagol and Gollum, an integral character across both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings stories. Filling in the blanks between both of those tales, Daedalic's third-person...

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is an unwelcome throwback to the days when licensed games were synonymous with low quality. Thanks to its dreary gameplay, stilted story and unacceptable technical issues, slogging through its 12-hour campaign is about as much fun as walking barefoot across the fiery plains of Mordor.