Gollum has always been considered a rather unusual and mysterious character in the Lord of the Rings universe. Although it is difficult to call him a positive hero, he still has a well-developed story, thanks to which at some point you begin to empathize with him. However, he has always remained more of a minor, albeit undoubtedly important to the plot, so the idea of creating an entire game about Gollum called The Lord of the Rings: Gollum really looked interesting. However, as you know, the idea and its implementation are two different things. What happened to the developers from Daedalic Entertainment? Let’s try to find out in this review.
The Lord of The Rings: Gollum’s problems don’t even start at launch, but from the moment you visit its Steam page. Firstly, the price for the standard edition is 2400 rubles, which seems too high for such a game. However, the fact that it can at least be bought without any restrictions is already pleasing. Secondly, the developers have set excessive system requirements that do not match the mediocre graphics. That’s why I decided to play on the PlayStation 5 so as not to run into potential performance issues. Alas, I still couldn’t avoid them – the game managed to crash periodically, and also periodically threw up various kinds of bugs.
If you take the gameplay of The Lord of The Rings: Gollum apart from everything else, then it seems to be quite good here. The objectives in the tasks are quite diverse, and there are also unique mechanics related to Gollum. For example, the split personality of a character is really a good and interesting mechanic that fits perfectly into the game. At a certain point, his two personalities start arguing with each other and you have to try to convince one of his sides by choosing the right answers. In addition, during the dialogues, you do not indicate the options for replicas, but on behalf of which person you will answer. For example, Gollum’s responses will be harsh and rude, while Sméagol’s will be softer and more condescending. A funny detail that allows you to better understand the character.
In general, the gameplay can be conditionally divided into two large parts: Splinter Cell and Assassin’s Creed… I mean, stealth and parkour. Stealth is very primitive and allows you to complete missions only according to strictly specified scenarios, without giving you the opportunity to show your imagination. For example, you can only throw stones at certain places so that the enemies are distracted by them. Otherwise, it will have no effect (orcs nearby will seem to be alarmed, but will not budge). Parkour is also largely familiar, although it adds a bit of dynamics to the stamina that is spent when moving along indents without support.
During the passage of The Lord of The Rings: Gollum, we will find out what happened to Gollum after Bilbo Baggins tricked him into taking the ring and what he did before and during the events of the films. Due to the background dialogues, we are better immersed in the lore of the game world: the slaves complain about their lives, and the orcs are happy to share with each other stories about how they mocked the slaves. At certain points, we are even allowed to make a choice. However, the story as a whole is not very engaging.
However, despite the foregoing, The Lord of The Rings: Gollum has a serious drawback that greatly affects the overall impression of the passage – this is the monotony of locations. There is a lot of backtracking in the game, especially in the first half, and we often have to return to the same places, and if we don’t, then new locations are almost always similar to the old ones. Over time, of course, we find ourselves in new places, but, firstly, it happens too late, and secondly, the situation does not get much better from this.
In addition, the problem is exacerbated by the poor quality of graphics, which was mentioned at the beginning of the review. It’s actually possible to make a dark yet beautiful game, and the developers of The Lord of The Rings: Gollum didn’t get the job done. In addition, Gollum’s design is terrible, in a bad way, and it’s not duckling syndrome – it’s actually badly done, which is especially noticeable in moments when it is shown close-up.
The Lord of The Rings: Gollum is a game with a great idea but mediocre execution. There are some interesting ideas here, but they just pale in comparison to the shortcomings, like boring locations, poor graphics, primitive gameplay and high system requirements. Add to that the high price and there is little reason to buy.
