Lord of the Rings Gollum’s visual downgrade leaves Middle-Earth fans crying bloody Mordor

The verdicts are in for today’s release of Lord of the Rings Gollum, and sadly it seems the Middle-Earth adventure hasn’t gone down well – particularly when it comes to the titular character’s visuals.

Of particular note, fans and journalists have been sharing reviews and screenshots of the game that haven’t painted Gollum in the best light – and especially when compared to official screenshots released during the game’s development process. It’s not the only example of a finished game looking different from pre-release imagery of course, but as former GamesRadar journalist Alex Avard pointed on Twitter, the differences between are a world apart, with poor Gollum himself looking particularly rough.

Alas, the reviews themselves don’t paint the game – released this week – in a much better light, with Avard’s own review for GamesRadar giving it just two stars and saying “Much like its title character, The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is compromised, inelegant, and a bit of an eyesore.” It hasn’t fared much better at other outlets either – including The Guardian’s 1 star review and PCGamesN’s score of 3 to give just two more examples.

Users on Reddit are providing some of the biggest burns, however – for example TheIllusiveGuy who said “Decided to make a Gollum game and then worked backwards from there.” Molar goes one step further with their criticism, saying “I have no clue how this game has been in development for more than four years and come from a studio who apparently have been in the gaming industry for 20 years.”

It’s a shame, as, personally I thought the game’s idea of showing things from the perspective of a typically villainous character was a good one – especially with the dual personality aspect of the ever present battle between Smeagol and Gollum. Alas, it seems that the game’s protracted development – having first been set for a 2021 release, before slipping several times over the last few years – seems to imply the ambition may have been a little higher than what studio Daedalic Entertainment were able to pull off with the resources they had.

LOTR fans may have something else to look forward to though, as a new LOTR MMO has recently been announced by Amazon. In the meantime, Lord of the Rings Gollum arrives today on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4 and PC.

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