Yeah, too bad. I can't say I was ever a big fan of a game centered on Gollum, but... I love Tolkien and hoped this would be fun.

I was very curious about this one. I will look up some gameplay to see for myself. But it seems it didn't achieved what it could have, it's a pity.

I love Ghost of a Tale, it's probably my favorite game of the last decade, and I'd love a Hobbit game like it, but Gollum? All the beauty and adventure of Middle-Earth, and I'm stuck as this wretched creature crawling in the shadows and breaking people's necks? Sure, he's a fascinating character, but far from one I'd like to play as.

I knew this game would get bad reviews the minute I saw it's reveal for the first time. It just looked so bad.

What's wrong with the idea of playing little stealthy psychopath? It could have been a good dark comedy, if implemented accordingly.)

Nothing, Styx was fun (not a psycho exactly, but close enough), just don't make it a Lord of the Rings game.

Apparently the whole game was leaked on youtube and the reception has not been good.

Between making a 3rd person game centered around the guy with the ugliest ass in Mordor (and that's even discounting stupid sexy Shelob and OG Shelob, who'd at least offer the novelty of playing as a giant spider), charging 60 bucks for it, offering elvish voiceovers as 10€-addon option and then delivering a sub-par mess of a game that, like it's protagonist isn't exactly sure where or what it wants to be...

...I'd say it's time to sack the suit that considered this would be a good idea in their coke-fueled haze.

if the game was good - i would.

there can be some really good stories told from the perspectives of the "bad guys" as well as the less know characters. It is challenging to create good stories from them, yes, but it can turn out well. On of my favorite movies is for example "Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead"

Great review! I'm putting this game in my wishlist.

Great movie, though calling them "the bad guys" seems a bit of a stretch.

Anyway, I'm not saying there isn't a good story to be told about Gollum (thought honestly, I don't think anyone can add much of worth to Tolkien's world, it's not a Marvel like franchise, apt for people to just waltz in and insert their own stuff), but that I don't find it an appealing idea for a game.So far the only LotR games that were any good were either strategies, the Lego game, or the very arcade-y Return of the King and Middle-Earth is a world I love deeply, so I'd like to explore it as someone who can interact with it's beauty, and experience wonder at it's sights, whereas Gollum can only shrink in disgust from beauty and couldn't give less of a crap about monuments of the past. Or anything else really except for the Ring, and maybe raw fish.

It's like if we never got to experience the Star Wars world in Jedi Knight or KOTOR or Fallen Order games, and then got a game about Watto.

No, they are not the bad guys, but they are lesser known.

I would play good game with Watto. I can see some kind of shop simulator, perhaps. for example having to balance rep with the empire, but using the black market to buy and sell... may be need to establis trade relations with the Jawas or Tuskan raiders... the pod race could be in thre. off course, but from a manager perspective. there could be good game here somewhere

There could be, but you're ignoring the "if we never got to experience the Star Wars world in Jedi Knight or KOTOR or Fallen Order games" part, which was kind of important. Since there has been a ton of opportunities to explore the Star Wars galaxy in person as a Jedi, pilot, smuggler whatever a game about more fringe characters/aspects sounds sort of interesting now. But like I said, I don't feel like I ever got a chance to experience Middle-Earth in person in a game really well. Lego LotR is probably the closest, and that's saying something, or maybe the Third Age, and that game is completely messed up in its own ways. So giving this kind of opportunity to Gollum feels like wasting an opportunity. Like if we never got the Batman Arkham games, but suddenly Killer Croc gets his own title. Enjoy the sewers!

But I realise I should probably not have generalised my feeling about this idea as likely to be everyone else's. Since the game seems crap by all accounts it's a moot point anyway :D

The idea of a LOTR Gollum game was appealing to me as it would be more unusual considering the character of Gollum, and so I was intrigued and anticipating the eventual release of the game. I was also thrilled that it was being done by a studio that is not EA or Ubisoft and their formulaic lootbox style of game design.

Then when I saw it was going to be available on GOG day one I got a bit excited. Having never been one to pre-order games, and being one to almost never buy new releases right when they came out... but having a great experience with pre-ordering Witcher 3... but then also pre-ordering Cyberpunk 2077 and experiencing the initial disappointing state that it released in (but was subsequently patched over time much to my satisfaction to date)... and then pre-ordering Subnautica Below Zero because of how well they supported the first game, only for them to never fix any of the bugs I've encountered in Below Zero since release, and barely support it at all so far...

... I wont pre-order games nor buy them day 1 again ever. If this game got an 80%+ positive rating on Steam (ignoring any review system gaming people sometimes attempt to do), then I would have bought it here on GOG because YEAHHHH. But alas so far today it appears to have a 38% positive rating on Steam at the time of writing this, and the "positive" reviews showing are more negative reviews mocking the game with a thumbs up and funny comments, so I suspect the satisfaction rating is far lower than 38%.

What a disappointment. Definitely going to hard pass and wait for the game to be given away for free on Epic Games in a year or 2 or 5 or 10 or whatever instead. Or perhaps buy it for $3 bargain bin if they fix the game enough to boost the rating over 70% down the road.

Game companies need to get their acts together.