The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is the Worst Game of 2023 So Far

The latest Lord of the Rings game, simply titled ‘Gollum’, has received some of the worst review scores of the year. With frequent 3/10 and 4/10 reviews, its clear that both critics and fans alike are in agreement with this one: its awful. One glance at the Metacritic and Opencritic scores makes this quite apparent- with a 36 Metascore and a measly 4% of critics recommending the game. When the highest rating your game receives is a 7/10, you know somethings gone terribly wrong, especially in an age of inflated review scores.

Each of the reviews point to the same glaring flaws: terrible gameplay and a story that barely relates to the character of Gollum in any way. On the gameplay side, there’s no combat at all- meaning the game focuses on stealth and puzzles to traverse the world. This isn’t always a bad thing- especially when you look at how the indie gem ‘A Plague Tale: Innocence’ put players on edge with its limited resources and inability to take out most enemies. However, its important that this is done right- which is something that can definitely not be said for Gollum.

With next to no stealth tools to get past enemies and next to no way to actually take down those enemies, the game is reduced to a long span of waiting around until you can get to the next area. This is as bare bones as stealth can be in a game- and it plays as bad as it sounds. This is especially true considering the strange enemy pathing and janky mechanics that can easily glitch out and has led to a lot of players (including reviewers) rage-quitting before even finishing the game. On top of this, the strangely specific puzzles required to progress are more trial and error as opposed to needing the players to think about what to do next.

Its clear, then, that the gameplay is simply abysmal. As for the story, it may actually be worse. With the bulk of the game focused around a never-before seen character who has no relation to Gollum and leads to titular character into a plot of political intrigue and power struggles. For anyone who has seen the character on screen for more than a couple of minutes, its obvious that this is not the type of story that the fish-eating, goblin-like Gollum should be involved in. It almost feels like the character and story were forced together in a similar way to Fox McCloud in Star Fox Adventures back on the Gamecube.

So, with a terrible gameplay loop, an irrelevant story and the game pricing at a ridiculous £50, there is no reason to pick up this mess of a videogame. With it being given the title of lowest rated game of 2023 so far as well as being the worst rated Lord of the Rings game on Metacritic, Gollum will go down in history as one of the worst and most disappointing videogames ever made.