The Hamburg studio Daedalic has been working on “The Lord of the Rings: Gollum” (PS5, Xbox, PC, Windows, PS4) since March 2019. Gollum was certainly the largest game made in Germany in the last 4 years. The hype was enormous, with international gaming sites reporting on the project for years. However, the release is now a complete disappointment. The studio hints that it may have taken on too much.
What was special about the game?
- The Lord of the Rings: Gollum was a game that is not usually made in Germany. When you look at the German Gaming Award, it mostly features “indie titles” from Germany, which are often head-heavy games. Daedalic has made a name for itself with “point-and-click” adventures.
- However, Gollum was supposed to be a major blockbuster aimed at a wide audience. It was described as a big action-adventure with a lot of “stealth gameplay.” They wanted to release it for all platforms – expectations were high. After all, “The Lord of the Rings” is something like the ultimate license you can acquire.
- The game was considered an AAA title from Europe like “The Witcher” in the years leading up to its launch and received a 12-page article in the international gaming magazine Edge in February 2022. GameStar introduced the game in May 2020 in a 4-page preview as a “world exclusive premiere.”
Gollum receives terrible reviews on Metacritic and Steam – player counts are poor
How did the launch go? The release of Gollum was on May 25 and it was truly terrible:
- On Metacritic, the game has only 36% for the PS5 version – the user score is 1.3 out of 10.
- On Steam, Gollum has “mostly negative reviews” – only 35% of player tests are positive.
- Player counts for Gollum on Steam are catastrophic. The peak player count was 502 and has already halved after a few days.
Steam reviews call Gollum a “shame for The Lord of the Rings”
What is being criticized on Steam? The reviews are harsh:
- The game has poor graphics and even worse performance
- The gameplay is uninteresting, it starts boring and then remains so for a long time
- It is a “shame” for The Lord of the Rings.
Even positive reviews advise waiting for a sale – the full price of €50 is not worth the game
Developers apologize “deeply”
How are the developers reacting? Daedalic has “sincerely apologized” to fans in a statement from May 26. They acknowledge and deeply regret that the game did not meet expectations – neither their own nor those of a dedicated community.
They say that telling a story in Middle-earth was the greatest honor and the greatest challenge they have ever faced.
It sounds like they concede that “The Lord of the Rings” was indeed a bit too big for the studio.
Daedalic announces that they will work hard on the bugs and improve the game with patches so players can enjoy it.
Gollum is compared to weak hype games like Forspoken or Redfall
In the reactions to the tweet, some express their disappointment about the “AAA blockbuster releases.” Gollum is placed in a line with games like Forspoken, Halo Infinite, Redfall, or Cyberpunk.
This is indeed roughly the league in which they wanted to play with Gollum – but they surely envisioned it differently in Hamburg.
