The Lord of the Rings: Gollum
| The Lord of the Rings: Gollum | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Daedalic Entertainment |
| Publisher(s) |
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| Producer(s) | Harald Riegler |
| Artist(s) | Mathias Fischer |
| Writer(s) |
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| Composer(s) | Jun Broome |
| Series | Middle-earth |
| Engine | Unreal Engine 4 |
| Platform(s) | |
| Release |
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| Genre(s) | Action-adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is an action-adventure game developed by Daedalic Entertainment. The game, set in the fictional world of Middle-earth created by J. R. R. Tolkien, takes place in between the events of The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring. The player controls Gollum through a series of locations, such as Cirith Ungol, Barad-dûr, and Mirkwood, as he attempts to find Bilbo Baggins and retake the One Ring whilst battling and avoiding Sauron. It was announced in March 2019 and delayed from its September 2021 launch window.
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum released on 25 May 2023 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. The Nintendo Switch version of the game is currently in development. The game was a commercial failure, and was panned by critics who were critical of its gameplay, graphics, bugs, and inaccessibility to newcomers. It was ranked by Metacritic as the worst game of 2023, and is considered to be one of the worst video games ever made.
Its poor reception and sales caused Daedalic Entertainment to cancel plans for a second Lord of the Rings game and close their development division, laying off their staff and moving to a publishing-only model. It was later reported that they had imposed poor working conditions, which had affected development of Gollum.