The Lord Of The Rings: Gollum is 2023's worst-reviewed game so far

Dear lord. I’m not sure if anyone was expecting phenomenal things from Daedelic Entertainment’s Gollum game, but the review scores are finally in, and they’re abysmally low.

On the surface, a stealth-based action-adventure game genuinely sounds pretty interesting, but it was clear that The Lord Of The Rings: Gollum’s devs were running into some issues during its development based on how many times the game was delayed since its announcement in 2019.

Take a look at the trailer for The Lord Of The Rings: Gollum below.

At the time of writing, the PS5 version of The Lord Of The Rings: Gollum has an average critic score of 38 on Metacritic. The PC version’s score is currently marginally higher at 43, but I don’t think anyone’s going to be thrilled about that. These two versions are sat in 295th and 296th place on Metacritic's 'Best Video Games for 2023' list, which speaks for itself.

So, what’s everyone been saying? GameSpot’s Sam Pape, who gave the game a ‘Terrible’ 2/10 rating, wrote: “Much like Gollum's quest for the One Ring, my quest to complete The Lord of the Rings: Gollum was full of endless setbacks, impossible odds, and ever-increasing levels of madness. And, like Gollum, my journey was doomed from the start. So if the developers' main goal was to really put you in the shoes of such a pitiful, unloveable character faced with constant pain and suffering at every turn, they were at least successful at that.”

Yikes. Push Square’s Aaron Bayne echoed this sentiment in yet another 2/10 review, and slated Gollum as “a broken mess of a game” with “barely any redeeming qualities to be found”. He summarised: “As massive fans of the books, films, and games, it's sad to see that there is nothing precious about this experience.”

Currently, the highest rating Gollum has received is a 7/10 from IGN Adria. Reviewer Mladan Tapavički described the game as a “surprisingly competent 3D stealth platformer”, but called its visual presentation “underdeveloped”.

All in all, it sounds like even Lord of the Rings fans are going to struggle are going to struggle to find much good in Gollum. At least the screenshots look hilarious, though.