‘The Lord of the Rings: Gollum’ Was So Bad That the Developer Has Released an Apology Statement

Apology statements are so hot right now. Daedalic Entertainment is the most recent to join the list of studios saying they’re sorry.

It is safe to say that The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy is one of the most influential book series ever made. So much of the fantasy world owes its very existence to it and the franchise has continued to only grow over the years. Movies, cartoons, TV shows, video games, and more.

Daedalic Entertainment announced they were making a game specifically about Gollum in 2019 and it would show what he was up to between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. This caught many off guard since Daedalic Entertainment mostly makes point-and-click adventures. The Lord of the Rings: Gollum was announced to be more of an action-adventure game. The game was announced with a launch window of September 2021 and was pushed back until it was finally released in May of this year. Unfortunately, the game is the latest in a string of moves companies have made lately.

Smeagol promises to Precious, promises faithfully

The game is out and well, everyone hates it. Critically it is getting slammed for being bland with no redeeming qualities and fans are just absolutely disappointed that nothing in it works. The game suffers from glitches, mechanics not working, and just plain ol’ crashing. It currently is sitting at a 41 for PC and 32 for PS5 on Metacritic with both having a really low user score. Daedalic Entertainment went to the Twitter page for the game and released a statement apologizing for the state of the game. 

People were quick to point out two things. One is that they called the game “Lord of Ring.” Honestly, how did that even happen? Secondly, more and more games are released just broken on release. Sometimes it is a PC issue like The Last of Us or seems to be issued on all the systems like Jedi Survivor. People have started to collect statements like General Grievous collects lightsabers.  

How Does This Keep Happening?

Here is the thing, no gamer really wants a video game to fail or come out bad unless there is some serious baggage behind the developers making the game or something behind who made the IP they are adapting or just the content itself. Every single one of the teams who worked on every game had to release an apology statement and had an idea of what kind of game they wanted to make.

Something got in the way of every single one that stopped it from coming out without issues. Sometimes it is inexperience and they were too ambitious with what they planned vs what they could do. Other times, they just didn’t have enough time and could only delay it for so long.

No amount of crunch can fix that

Gamers are tired of the same cookie-cutter answers about why a game shipped in a poor state and game companies are losing their reputations with every bad game launched. New games are costing $70 more often and gamers are getting even pickier due to it. Game companies need to slow down and make sure everything works, because people care more about that than if a game has a great story.

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is out on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC. Nintendo Switch TBA

“Deep down here by the dark water lived old Gollum, a small slimy creature. I don’t know where he came from, nor who or what he was. He was Gollum.” – The Hobbit

Author: Spider-Mike

Spider-Mike is a staff writer who is a regular co-host on the let's play channel Rage Select and regular contributor to One of US.net for over 5 years. Born in Austin, but raised on the border of Texas and Mexico. He has been gaming since the NES and jokes that he has a Masters in Spider-Man, Superman, and Dragon Ball.