Lord of the Rings: Gollum dev says it ‘deeply regrets’ delivering ‘underwhelming’ game

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum developer Daedalic Entertainment has apologised for delivering what it called an “underwhelming experience” with the final game this week.

Following several delays, co-publishers Nacon and Daedalic released the game this week for consoles and PC, and it was met for unanimously negative reviews.

At the time of publishing, Gollum is the lowest rated game of the year on both major aggregation sites Metacritic and OpenCritic, with The Guardian labelling it “a derivative, uninteresting and fundamentally broken stealth action adventure that fails to capture anything interesting about Tolkien’s fiction.”

On Friday, Daedalic responded to the negative release reception via a message posted on social media. The company said “[we] deeply regret” that the game did not meet expectations, and pledge to improve it via future updates.

“We would like to sincerely apologize for the underwhelming experience many of you have had with The Lord of Ring: Gollum upon its release,” the company wrote.

“We acknowledge and deeply regret that the game did not meet the expectations we set for ourselves or for our dedicated community. Please accept our sincere apologies for any disappointment this may have caused.

“Our goal as a studio, and as passionate The Lord of the Rings fans, has always been to tell a compelling and immersive story-driven adventure. Crafting a story with Middle-earth as our playground has been the greatest honor – and the biggest challenge we have faced so far.”

A few words from the ” The Lord of the Rings: Gollum™ ” team pic.twitter.com/adPamy5EjO

— The Lord of the Rings: Gollum (@GollumGame) May 26, 2023

It continued: “We understand that a game’s success relies on the enjoyment and satisfaction of its players. We genuinely value your feedback and have been actively listening to your voices, reading your comments, and analyzing the constructive criticism and suggestions you have provided.

“Our development team has been working diligently to address the bugs and technical issues many of you experienced. We are committed to providing you with patches that will allow you to enjoy the game to its fullest potential.

“Once again, we deeply apologize for any inconvenience caused, and we appreciate your understanding during this time.

“We will continue to keep you updated on our progress and provide transparent communication regarding the upcoming patches and improvements. Your passion and dedication as players have been the driving force behind our determination to make things right.”

Taking place in parallel to the events described in The Fellowship of the Ring, Gollum is a fantasy action adventure game in which players embark on a quest to retrieve the One Ring.

It has an original story that takes players to several regions of Middle-earth and features familiar faces from J.R.R. Tolkien’s books.