The highly anticipated video game, The Lord of The Rings: Gollum, was released last week, but instead of receiving positive reviews, it received the worst review scores of 2023 on Metacritic and OpenCritic. The game, which adapted the popular novel of the same name, got an average score of 42 out of 100 on OpenCritic and only 5% of the reviews recommended it to gamers.
Compared to other games released this year, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of The Kingdom received the highest review score. On Metacritic, TLOTR received a score of 43 for PC and 40 for Playstation (PS), putting it behind games such as Clive ‘N’ Wrench, Crime Boss: Rockay City, and The Last Worker.
Despite some unique positive aspects, such as the portrayal of the character Gollum and new information on the beloved fictional world of Middle-earth created by J.R.R. Tolkien, many reviewers gave the game scores between 1 and 5 out of 10 due to the subpar graphics, mediocre gameplay, and multiple bugs that disrupted the gaming experience.
TLOTR: Gollum is a game that adapts the character of Gollum from the novel of the same name, which was first published in 1954. Gollum is an antagonist character with two personalities: the child-like Smeagol and the evil Gollum. In the game, players take on the role of Gollum as the protagonist.
The gameplay heavily relies on stealth mechanics and requires players to spend most of the time hiding from enemy attacks while moving from one location to another. Although Gollum cannot fight, players can execute silent attacks such as choking enemies from behind. A unique feature of the game is the decision-making system that proves to have consequences. The system can be viewed from two perspectives: Gollum and Smeagol.
The Lord of The Rings: Gollum was released on May 25 on several platforms, including PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S, with the Nintendo Switch version to come in 2023. The game is priced at Rp429.999 on Steam, Rp449.999 on Epic Games, and USD59.99 (approximately Rp1 million) on PS and Xbox, respectively.
In conclusion, TLOTR: Gollum is the highly-anticipated game that fails to deliver to the expectations of the gamers and receives the worst review scores in 2023. While it has unique positive aspects, such as the portrayal of the character Gollum and new information on the beloved fictional world of Middle-earth, the graphics, gameplay, and multiple bugs lead to its downfall.
