The Lord Of the Rings: Gollum Review

Let’s get started on this The Lord Of The Rings: Gollum review.

What is The Lord Of The Rings: Gollum?

The Lord Of The Rings: Gollum is an action-adventure game. You play as Gollum, who you guide through various locations in Middle Earth as he attempts to find Bilbo Baggins and retake the One Ring. You will make navigate through treacherous environments, solve puzzles, and engage in stealth-based encounters.

Who Makes The Lord Of The Rings: Gollum?

The Lord Of The Rings: Gollum is made by Daedalic Entertainment. They are a large game developer located in Hamburg, Germany.  This developer has created many previous games including Witch It, Deponia, Edna & Harvey, Silence, and Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun.

Which Platforms is The Lord Of The Rings: Gollum On?

The Lord Of The Rings: Gollum is available on Playstation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, Steam, and Epic Games.

 The Lord Of The Rings: Gollum Gameplay Review

The Lord Of The Rings Gollum starts with an animated narrative that places you in the world of J. R. R. Tolkien. It’s a familiar story and the cut scene does a good job that setting the mood.

Unfortunately, that is where things start to go downhill.  The Lord of the Rings Gollum is a mixed bag, struggling to find a cohesive identity. The mechanics blend exploration, platforming, and stealth elements, attempting to capture the duality of Gollum’s character. Ultimately, the execution feels disjointed and lacks the polish expected from a game of this caliber.

The tutorial is long and not very exciting. It contains several basic platforming skills that are sometimes quite strange to pull off. The controls can be clunky and imprecise, hindering the fluidity of movement and platforming sequences. Stealth encounters often feel unrefined, with inconsistent AI behavior and frustrating detection mechanics.

After it goes over the basics you get into the real “start” of the story which revolves around Gollum being a slave. There is an initial “avoid the killer beast” quest that was fun, but things quickly turn into repetitive basic ‘follow-me’ quests. The gameplay loop becomes repetitive, leading to a sense of monotony as players navigate through uninspired environments.

As you continue to play you will be presented with “key choices” that tap into Gollum’s psyche. Overall this presents a nice choose-your-own-adventure experience, but overall falls flat. The consequences of the choices are not really clear. Whatever I picked didn’t really seem to matter and I quickly stopped caring when these popped up.

The Lord Of The Rings: Gollum Graphics and Sound

Visually, The Lord of the Rings: Gollum falls short of capturing the grandeur of Tolkien’s universe. While some locations are faithfully recreated, many lack the attention to detail and visual splendor expected from a game set in Middle-earth. The graphics feel dated and fail to fully immerse players in the world.

The audio design also disappoints, with a lackluster soundtrack that fails to evoke the epic atmosphere of the franchise. Voice acting, while serviceable, lacks the emotional depth needed to fully bring Gollum to life. The overall audio experience feels uninspired and fails to leave a lasting impact.

There is also the issue of putting some voice acting behind a DLC. For a separate $3.99 you can purchase The Sindarin VO DLC. This is touted as ” adds even more authenticity to the game experience by having the Elves speak in Sindarin, the Elvish language created by J. R. R Tolkien.”

This is a really strange game choice that I have not really seen before, especially with how lackluster the overall sound was. The community did not take kindly to a basic feature of the core game being a DLC of course.

The Lord Of The Rings: Gollum Bugs

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum suffers from notable technical issues that can disrupt the gameplay experience. Glitches, frame rate drops, and occasional crashes hamper immersion and frustrate players. These issues detract from the overall enjoyment and suggest a lack of thorough quality assurance. Although the developer has released several patches since the launch date, users are still reporting bugs and glitches.

Who Will Enjoy Playing The Lord Of The Rings: Gollum?

The Lord Of The Rings: Gollum is rated T for Teen. Fans of The Lord of the Rings franchise, particularly those intrigued by the enigmatic character of Gollum, will find something to enjoy in this game. Additionally, those who appreciate narrative-driven gameplay and atmospheric worlds will be drawn to the game’s storytelling and choices.

What Games are similar to The Lord Of The Rings: Gollum?

Gollum is a stealth game at heart and several others fall into the same category. Chernobylite, Song of Horror, and Middle-Earth: Shadow Of Mordor are similar games that will give you a better experience than Gollum.

How long is The Lord Of The Rings: Gollum?

The entire game took me about twelve hours to get through. If you did a more relaxed playthrough you may be able to get a few extra hours out of it.

Final Thoughts On The Lord Of The Rings: Gollum Review

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum had the potential to offer a deep and introspective exploration of Gollum’s complex psyche. However, the narrative fails to fully deliver on this promise. While there are glimpses of Gollum’s internal struggle, the storytelling feels shallow and fails to provide the depth and emotional resonance expected from such a character-driven experience.

The branching choices, touted as a key feature, lack meaningful consequences and fail to impact the overall narrative trajectory. The potential for player agency remains largely untapped, leaving players disconnected from the events unfolding in the game.

While The Lord of the Rings: Gollum may appeal to die-hard fans of the franchise eager for any glimpse into the world of Middle-earth, it ultimately leaves a lingering sense of missed opportunities. With technical issues further hampering the experience, it’s difficult to recommend The Lord of the Rings: Gollum as anything more than a lackluster addition to the beloved franchise.