The Lord of the Rings: Gollum Review (Eggard King of the Mountain)
Unlike most reviews i have actually played it to the end, so buckle up and let me tell you about my suffering.
When i heard that Daedalic got the rights to LOTR i was so excited. For i have played a number of their Point and Click adventures and they are master storytellers. And they decided to tell the story of the most tragic character (Apart from Húrin and his family) in the entire Legendarium.
So what in Ilúvatar's name happened!?
First of the game runs at least for me but i see a lot of people having huge performance issues. But this cannot redeem the awful controls and platforming. Movement is so stiff and prepare to die a lot from falling. I also encountered quite a number of bugs like getting stuck on terrain, not willing to grab ledges and most hilarious and frustrating of all A wheel that i was supposed to jump on totally defining the laws of physics and just disappearing into the wall.
But Daedalic are great at making stories i think back at Chains of Satinav and Memoria so i pushed forward. But more than half of the game is spend in the dungeons Barad-Dûr bearly moving the plot onward. Characters are gone as soon as they appear and have no depth to them. It teases you and when it starts getting interesting it's over. For example there is an old man in your cell and you discover he was a Haradrim king and thats it you will never see him again. And you spend much of your time doing just boring tasks for your masters. The reason for my focus on this part is that we already have a game that did this so much better. In The Lord of the Rings Online if you make a Stout-Axe character you start in thralldom in the Dark Tower together with your fellow clan members You get a short idea how your life goes and do mundane tasks until word gets out that a certain prisoner of the dark lord is set to be released, a riot breaks out and you escape. All this takes about 15-20 Min if you do not skip the dialogue But here it is the majority of the game. And ones you get out of Mordor you skip right to you imprisoned in Mirkwood. (No you do not get to see Aragorn hunt you) And for some reason the Elves are very cold and mean against you. This is so strange as in fact in the book the elves took pity on Gollum. There is a lot to say about the bafeling story decisions but this review would be an novel in itself.
The last time I was so disappointed with a game was Stronghold 3 many years ago and this might be the worst game of the year. I just wish that Daedalic would have played it simple for their first venture into my favorite fantasy universe and made a Point and Click of The Hobbit