Middle-earth is a vast and magical realm filled with wonderful creatures, the seeds of evil, and Gollum, a Hobbit-like creature who was corrupted by the One Ring. Despite The Lord of the Rings being a beloved franchise, not even Eru could revive the new The Lord of the Rings game, Gollum, after its poor launch on May 25.
With a current score of 40 on Metacritic, it’s safe to say Gollum was not the game people were expecting—and rightfully so. One of the big gripes players had was the stark differences between the promo screenshots and how the game looked upon release.
The woefully poor and outdated graphics leave much to be desired, along with the unimaginative and bland dialogue, narratives, mediocre UI, and whacky controls, according to many of the reviews that have already gone live ahead of the title’s release. When combined, you have a game that is failing before it could even fly.
While players did enjoy seeing a new look take on Middle-earth, having Gollum as the main character discouraged a lot of people from playing as he is considered one of the vilest, most disgusting, and unlikable characters in the franchise.
Related: What is The Lord of the Rings: Gollum about?
There has been a silver lining—the Gollum memes already circulating across the internet have been pure gold. So, it’s not all bad.
If Gollum had been based on any other character and had better graphics, storyline, dialogue, controls, and, everything in between, it may have been great. Unfortunately for anyone hoping for a top-tier LOTR title, that’s just not the case.
Gollum is available on PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
