by I let out a sigh of relief after finally climbing to the top of a tower within the Black Pits of Sauron’s stronghold. All I have to do now is stealthily eliminate the orc to advance. I jump on his head, the game stutters and crashes completely. I’m back to square one.
I fall to my death once more, and when the checkpoint resets, Smeagol appears mid-fall, repeatedly. I’m trapped in an endless loop of doom with no escape. It’s a sick irony, considering what happens to Gollum in JRR Tolkien’s epic trilogy.
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is a confusing and frustrating platform game set in Middle-earth. As the story focuses on Gollum, other familiar faces appear, such as Gandalf. Or, at least, that’s what the game says. The visuals are so bad that it’s hard to tell who’s who, but Gandalf is apparently in the game.
Most of the gameplay involves platforming and stealth, though neither works very well. Gollum it’s riddled with technical issues that make an unpleasant experience even worse, and the game’s boring story makes it difficult to recommend it even to the most hardcore Lord of the Rings fans.
Defect from the start
The platform is frustrating as it’s easy to miss jumps and fall to your death.
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When the story opens, Gollum is being held prisoner in the Dark Tower in Mordor eight years before the trilogy, and we learn how he escaped captivity to search for his Precious. Along the journey, Gollum is forced to perform menial tasks, such as herding large boar-like creatures called Borocs. A large portion of the game takes place inside the Dark Tower, which means you’ll see a lot of dark, gray corridors.
The platform leaves a lot to be desired. It’s hard to tell where you should jump, as grappling walls mix with non-grappable surfaces, leading to a lot of takedowns. Fall damage is pretty unrelenting, which makes traversal frustrating and cheap. Even the simple act of jumping over an object can be tricky, due to the fluctuating and imprecise controls. Gollum often gets stuck on surfaces, requiring you to reset the checkpoint multiple times. If you’re being chased by enemies, clearing a small gap or successfully completing a platforming section becomes more a matter of luck than precision.
Gollum does a poor job of convincing you to keep playing, as it gets repetitive from the start. Levels blend together, the game forces you to traverse the same sections over and over again, and there’s very little variety throughout. You can only wall-jump so many times. To make matters worse, nearly every movement in the game is excruciatingly slow and awkward. The mere act of walking as Gollum is excruciatingly slow, making him almost unbearable to play.
You also get very little guidance. Boring visuals blend in, so you often have to rely on Gollum’s “Senses” ability (think Detective Move from the Batman: Arkham games) to see where to go, but even that gets a little confusing. It’s easy to get lost due to the unintuitive level and environmental design. While things eventually get better, the entire first half of the game is muddy and dark, making it difficult to distinguish certain areas from one another.
out of sight
Checkpoints are spaced unfairly at times, causing you to restart long platforming sections.
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Stealth also plays an important role in Gollum, but the level design doesn’t leave much wiggle room to avoid enemies, so it often takes a long time to get past your enemies. Furthermore, the enemy AI is wildly inconsistent. Sometimes you can walk directly next to an enemy without being seen, while other times, you’ll be spotted from behind a bit of cover.
One specific section requires you to get past a guard – whether you get caught or not seems purely random. Then, you need to distract another guard before climbing the wall behind him while the first guard chases you. A long platforming section is ahead, with several chokepoints – any one of which can easily cause you to reset from the beginning of the area.
I tried this part over 20 times before downloading it. Somehow it’s more than just sloppy execution – it’s as if the game is out to get you, prioritizing frustration over fun. Checkpoints are too far apart, forcing you to replay the frustrating sections over and over again. Even action platformers will struggle with Gollum.
The characters are rigid and lifeless in Gollum.
nacon
The visual presentation of Gollum leaves a lot to be desired. Sometimes, characters’ mouths don’t move when they speak, while other times, character models look totally unfinished. Gollum himself comes across as quite gruff at times, though it’s nothing compared to the glassy, soulless supporting cast.
For all its technical issues, terrible platforming, boring gameplay, and awful visuals, Gollum just doesn’t cut it as a video game protagonist. If you had any doubts the first time you saw the trailer, know that you were right. I don’t recommend playing The Lord of the Rings: Gollum if you get it for free let alone paying $50 for it.
3/10
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum releases for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on May 25, 2023. reverse reviewed the PS5 version.
INVERSE VIDEOGAME EVALUATION ETHOS: all reverse Video game review answers two questions: Is this game worth your time? Are you getting what you pay for? We have no tolerance for endless quest quests, clunky mechanics, or bugs that dilute the experience. We care deeply about designing a game, building the world, character arcs, and storytelling together. reverse we will never throw a punch but we are not afraid to throw a punch. We love magic and science fiction in equal measure, and as much as we love to experience rich stories and worlds through games, we’re not going to ignore the real-world context these games are made in.
