Bad reviews of The Lord of the Rings: Gollum game will definitely make new players want to change their minds, and the $60 charge adds more to their vexation.
The Gollum game currently is rated 38 on Metacritic on PS5, and a 43 on PC. That makes it the worst-reviewed game on both platforms in 2023, 18 points lower than Redfall on PC which had 56, and 26 points lower than Forspoken on PS5 which was rated at 64. This is an industry where a 60 is considered a disaster and it’s got a thirty-eight.
To make matters worse, the Gollum game is charging a full $60, $70 for a special edition that paywalls things like emotes and elvish voiceovers. Though a lower price would not have made the game better and improved player reviews, it certainly makes them all the more irked.
Here are some of the bad reviews and rating got from the game
Gamespot (2/10) – “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.”
Inverse (3/10) – “The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is a messy and frustrating action platformer set in Middle-earth. … Most of the gameplay involves platforming and stealth, though neither works very well. Gollum is full of technical problems that make an otherwise unpleasant experience even worse, and the game’s boring story makes it hard to recommend, even to the most hardcore Lord of the Rings fans.”
IGN Spain (4/10)– “The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is a stealth, action, and platform adventure that has some interesting ideas, but lacks cooking. A video game of classic structure whose gaps are evident both in the narrative, as in the playable, technical and aesthetic.”
IGN Adria gave the game the highest review, calling it a “surprising competent 3D platformer.”