Credit: Daedalic EntertainmentThe Lord of the Rings has been a massive brand within pop culture for 86 years. It is based on the celebrated novels penned by the renowned J.R.R Tolkien. Its mythology had a resurgence in the 2000s with the Oscar-winning masterpieces of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Since that monumental success, there has been a The Hobbit trilogy, the ongoing prequel series, Rings of Power, as well as several video game adaptations. The bar of possibilities was set high as a new Gollum-centric video game was set to debut in May 2023. Yet, constant glitches and patchy graphics have led to a nose-dive in sales and word-of-mouth. The publisher has attempted to fix the problems, but the game might be cast into the fiery abyss of Mount Doom.
While The Lord of the Rings brand has not exceled under the video game medium, that reputation changed with Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor (2014). It was a technologically innovative game that won countless awards and faithfully adapted the beloved source material. Then, a German video game publisher, Daedalic Entertainment, announced in 2020 that they were adapting a game based off the fan-favorite character of Gollum. It would be a point-and-click adventure game that would involve stealth and strategy. The game would also give a deeper backstory into the tragic figure.
Many fans were hoping that this unusual character choice to center a game around would be a sleeper hit. However, when The Lord of the Rings: Gollum debuted, its high expectations were crushed faster than a hobbit inhaling a second breakfast. The game was plagued with poorly designed platforming (level designs), terrible AI enemies, repetitive stealth missions and imprecise controls that often led players to fall to their death while rock climbing.
Even Daedalic apologized to fans as they deeply regret that the game did not meet the expectations for The Lord of the Rings community. They finished with the claim that they would fix the game so that it could reach its fullest potential. The details of how they planned to achieve that were undisclosed.
Yet, today they finally released an updated version of the game that promised to fix a wide range of glitches while providing multiple performance enhancements. Since the upload, The Lord of the Rings: Gollum has only charted with SEVEN downloads. This catastrophic news led the video game publisher to announce that they have fired their internal development division. The company has tried to galvanize fans of the series by posting all of the problems they fixed here.
This incident has proven that if any company attempts to adapt a source material with a passionate fanbase, there needs to be a massive amount of care put into each facet of its creation. If The Lord of the Rings fans are anything like Star Wars fans, then its proven that a misuse of these cherished legends will have the fanbase pulling a Gandalf and “You shall not pass!”
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is now available for download on the video game platform, Steam.
What do you think of the game? Would you give it a try? What should be the next The Lord of the Rings story to be told?