The Lord of the Rings: Gollum

i would legitimately recommend buying this game at a very discounted price such as the (as of right now) £13. This game is certainly not worth $50 as it is objectively a bad game, but looking past objectivity i can say that there are a few things i like about this game. if Gollum originally released for the price of £15 i think it would have been a lot more passable, but charging 50 bucks for this game is rather ridiculous. If you enjoy *very* simple stealth-platforming mechanics and think you would enjoy the story of Gollum i genuinely very much recommend it at this current price.

I wont defend the price. It does feel like a low-budget game but if you get a nice discount and don't mind that indie feel then i think its worth a shot. I found the platforming quite satisfying, there is a bit of jank here and there but its mostly fun. The stealth system is very basic but there isn't many stealth-heavy levels so i didn't mind it.
I think the story is one of the stronger aspects of the game. Not necessarily the main plot, but i did enjoy the Smeagol/Gollum interactions both with himself and others. It is a sad story though (i did both endings). I couldn't help but feel sympathetic towards poor old Smeagol, doubly so because of his unfortunate character model.

I think I must have been playing a different game than the one that has gotten all the bad feedback. This game was not nearly as bad as the internet seems to claim. Heck, it's not bad at all, it's actually a pretty fun game. I wouldn't say it's a great game by any means, but it's a fun little platformer that I think anyone could enjoy. I especially think Lord of the Rings fans will enjoy the narrative about Smeogol. Maybe it's because I played the game in 2024 after the patch came out, but I seriously doubt the game was improved that much by the patch. I'm guessing a few influencers played it and didn't like it and then a bunch of people jumped on the bandwagon.

I enjoyed the game quit a bit. It's fun to run around as Gollum. The feeling of playing as a crawly type creature instead of a bipedal is a bit refreshing. The platforming is reminiscent of the first Crystal Dynamics Tomb Raider games (Legends, Anniversary, and Underworld), maybe that is too old school for some, but not for me.

I'll admit... I bought the game because of the negative hype. I just had to see what kind of dumpster fire this game was, and I guess I was surprised how wrong the internet was. (Either that or the patch seriously improved the game.)

I will grant that the game has some flaws. Gollum looks funny, that's true. It wasn't really what I would expect him to look like, but it's nothing you can't get used to it. I've always made the argument that whether or not a game is fun is more important than the graphics. And this game is fun. Another flaw is Gollum's basic jump feels weird. He just springs into the air like six times his height. It doesn't feel quite right, but it does seem like that was to account for the platforming, and the platforming is fun, so I can accept some suspension of belief for that.

I did hit quite a few bugs. None of them made the game unplayable. The only real frustrating bug I encountered was an objective marker that didn't trigger a cutscene and I was stuck, and restarting the checkpoint didn't solve it. Instead I had to restart the whole section of the chapter, which was very annoying but it only happened once.

I'll even concede that there are some bad platforming sequences in the game. There were a few times that I found myself getting killed over and over in a few locations because it wasn't quite clear what path I was supposed to take. But that's true of any game, and this game wasn't even a particularly bad offender. Checkpoints are also super frequent (maybe too frequent) so making mistakes doesn't generally set you back very far.

I will say that the narrative is a bit weaker than I expected. The plot seemed to jump around a lot, sometimes a few hours, sometimes years at a time, and why Gollum ended up where he was wasn't always clear. It also wasn't as hard hitting as I thought or hoped it would be, but it was okay, and it was interesting.

That's pretty much all I can say in terms of flaws. Nothing bothered me that much. I can't fathom why the developers put an apology on the Steam page. The only explanation I have is that this is not the same LotR: Gollum game that so many people have been hating on, or that the patch really did fix all the major flaws with the game (again, I say I doubt that, the patch notes do not read like the Cyberpunk 2077 v2 update notes).

So I guess I'll end by saying, give the game a try. Ignore the internet and give it a try and decide for yourself if you like it. It's probably not for everyone, but I'd imagine most players will find some enjoyment in it.

I'm so glad I got this game and played, despite the negative reviews! I actually really loved it. I enjoyed the story, music, scenery, getting to know the different characters and wondering what will happen...I definitely got attached to a couple of them! Even if gameplay is repetitive, as a lot of negative reviews mentioned, the environments and characters keep it interesting. I'm grateful most of the glitches have been fixed, and although I did also get stuck in a death loop in an early level, I just had to restart the level and keep trying not to fall and finally made it! I didn't experience any more issues after that one. It was a fun game and as an avid Middle Earth fan, this was a really interesting perspective from Gollum/Smeagol and made me appreciate him more. I feel bad for the game developers, to have gotten so many harsh reviews! Loved it.

more you play, the worse it gets and it's so bad that I kind of like it (especially the dying sounds)

This is the very underrated game. It was unlucky to come out in the era of toxic, spoiled gamers who were used to seeing 300 fps, without a single lag and a fantastic picture on their ancient PCs.
This game is not an AAA project and has never claimed to be one, and besides, it costs 3 times less. It just so happens that people have high expectations, especially capricious ones like LOTR fans.
Pros:
This game has a wonderful deep story, excellent attention to detail, atmospheric immersive sound and character voice acting, and many references to the lore of the universe.
Cons:
The only problem is the technical part. There are slight drops in FPS and low-quality textures. The game looks old, as if I played the game 10-15 years ago.
But you know what, this is what brought me back to that time and made me immerse myself in it completely, when I was a child and with genuine joy launched Harry Potter games, old Witchers, Tomb Riders and ofc The fellowship of the ring and Middle-Earth series.
if you are one of those people who care about immersion and that same feeling from childhood, and you don’t care about non-modern graphics - this game is for you.

Genuinely, if you look past the MANY problems this game has, I actually enjoyed the story, the character, mostly the orcs, look janky AF, but i did enjoy the environments, and the story was genuinely fun after a while. Yeah, never though i'd put a positive review