On Metacritic, the game comes out with the disastrous score of 38%, displayed in a bloody red, which helps to show how the studio has neither understood how to infuse the spirit of the Lord of the Rings into its game, nor even how to establish gameplay mechanics in 2023. For many testers , it’s currently one of the worst games they’ve played in 2023, if not the last 10 years. That is to say the level…
Games.cz: 3/10
Ugly graphics, outdated animations, crap controls, confusing level design and lots and lots of bugs, including some really unacceptable ones. Even a well-told story that intelligently and sensitively enriches Tolkien’s universe cannot save Gollum’s laborious journey to freedom.
Eurogamer Poland: 4/10
Gollum is probably the worst game set in Tolkien’s universe, it’s as repulsive as the main character himself. The basic idea was really good and it’s safe to say that the developers know and understand the source material, but the game just sucks, with its outdated graphics, frustrating platforming phases, glitches galore and glitches. infiltration mechanisms of another age.
Well Played: 3/10
With its thoroughly dated design, The Lord of the Rings Gollum is a tedious experience through Middle-earth that even the staunchest fans of Tolkien’s work will find hard to enjoy.
Gaming: 2.5/10
The very few redeeming values present in Lord Of The Rings: Gollum give way under the enormous weight of mediocrity it carries. He tries, but the game is about as forgettable as any of the thousands of slaughtered orcs in the movies.
Gfinity: 2/10
The Lord of the Rings Gollum, like the titular character, is ugly, malformed, and infested with bugs.
GameSpot: 2/10
Much like Gollum’s quest for the One Ring, my quest to complete The Lord of the Rings: Gollum was full of endless setbacks, impossible odds, and ever-increasing levels of madness. And, like Gollum, my journey was doomed from the start. So if the developers’ main goal was to really put you in the shoes of such a pitiful and unlovable character facing constant pain and suffering at every turn, they at least succeeded in that.
Push Square: 2/10
The Lord of the Rings Gollum is a mess. There’s hardly any quality to be found amid what can only be described as a huge missed opportunity. There’s serious potential in a linear single-player Lord of the Rings experience like this, but with outrageously dated level design, clunky controls, a serious lack of polished, muddy, unimpressive graphics, and a boring story. , Gollum completely misses the mark. As big fans of the books, movies, and games, it’s sad to see there’s nothing valuable to this experience.
Spazio Games: 5/10
The Lord of the Rings Gollum was a bad idea on paper and is 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.
CGMagazine: 5/10
The Lord of the Rings Gollum shines the most in moments when Gollum engages with secondary characters.
God is a Geek: 5/10
The Lord of the Rings Gollum is littered with technical and gameplay issues that dull the fact that there’s a great story at its heart.
Noisy Pixel: 4.5/10
Unfortunately, The Lord of the Rings Gollum isn’t the precious one we were looking for. Gollum’s internal combat mechanics are fun but not a prominent feature in a game consumed by terrible platforming sections and dated visuals. The voice acting adds promise to the experience with a stellar soundtrack, but there’s no real reason for you to play this game unless you crave a retro platforming experience or you simply loved Gollum.
4Players.de: 4/10
Good Ideas Badly Implemented: Gollum’s well-acted inner conflict in a cohesive world with rampant weaknesses.
GamesRadar+: 4/10
In the end, it’s hard not to come out of Lord of the Rings: Gollum with a bitter taste in your mouth. You can see glimmers of Deadalic’s intention to create a different type of Lord of the Rings game throughout, particularly in how it manifests the unique psychological state of its unlikely hero, but those bright spots are quickly dying. lost amidst all the other ways Gollum stumbles in his execution. Perhaps there is a Gollum game that could work on both a narrative and a mechanical level, a game that reframes our relationship with the iconic character to the point where people think twice before making their terrible impressions of him. at parties. Alas, The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is not that game. I’m sorry to say, but those terrible impressions are here to stay for now.
IGN Spain: 4/10
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is a stealth, action, platformer adventure that has some interesting ideas, but lacks cuisine. A classic structure video game whose shortcomings are evident both in the narrative, as in the playable, technical and aesthetic.
Gameblog: 4/10
Ultimately the conclusion is sad. Daedalic Entertainment had the opportunity to make a fairly intimate game on a central character from Tolkien’s saga, moving away from the great battles of the War of the Ring. But in the end the result is disappointing, technically and in terms of game mechanics. It’s stiff, it’s not very pretty and it’s full of bugs. We are in front of a sick old orc that we simply want to finish as soon as possible with an elven dagger. Only Tolkien fans will be able to find their accounts there by enjoying the history and the exploration of the zones of Middle-earth.
We Got This Covered: 4/10
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum has the ghost of good ideas sprinkled throughout, but they’re terribly hampered by dated graphics; rigid and wobbly controls; endless bugs, glitches and crashes; and in-game gadgets that fall short of their lofty ambitions. King Theoden sums it up best: “You have no power here.”
Twinfinite: 3/10
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum doesn’t do anything fun or interesting like similar (better) games like A Plague Tale: Innocence and Requiem. It’s hard to say if even the most loyal Lord of the Rings fans would find anything worthwhile here. Considering that good Lord of the Rings games exist, this one feels incredibly out of place.
Press Start: 3/10
I find it hard to think of a positive experience in the thirteen hours I’ve spent playing this game. Gollum is uninspired and dated and Lord of the Rings fans deserve better than that.
Reverse: 3/10
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is a messy and frustrating action platformer set in Middle-earth. …Most of the gameplay involves platforming and stealth, though neither works very well. Gollum is rife with technical issues that further compound an otherwise unpleasant experience, and the game’s boring story makes it difficult to recommend even to the most hardcore Lord of the Rings fans.
Hobby Consoles: 5.5/10
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is a laudable game for Daedalic’s effort to tell a thoroughly original story in Middle-earth by mixing stealth and platforming mechanics, but it falls apart on almost all sides: controls imprecise, terrible AI, bland narrative, outdated level design and graphics from another generation.