Lord of the Rings: Gollum review 4 points: lackluster and no fun

* This article is compiled from IGN US related content, the original author is Justin Koreis, the translator is unknown, the editor is Kamui Ye, unauthorized reproduction is prohibited.

Whether it's books, movies, or games, creative works usually have a meaning. Sometimes they bring joy through heart-catching stories or fun gameplay, and sometimes they bring new information by delivering news or providing different perspectives. Or maybe it makes you think, prompting you to explore or reflect on an issue with a whimsical idea.

However, for these, "Lord of the Rings: Gollum" not only does not touch, but instead makes you play a character with an empty gimmick, without any meaningful elaboration and performance of the iconic emotional conflict in the protagonist's heart, but just makes him do a series of meaningless tasks. The game is neither fun nor fun. It only succeeds in asking the question: how could anyone be bored enough to play this kind of game?

Having the player play as Gollum makes the game seem tricky, as he is one of the very interesting and famous characters in J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy universe. He and Smigo are two sides of the same coin. Smigo was a good man, but unfortunately his body and mind were corrupted by the negative forces of the Supreme Ring, and then twisted into the poor creature of Gollum.

We substitute the perspective of Gollum in the game, walking wetly and barefoot, and at first glance it seems that there is a clear goal: to reclaim the Lord of the Rings from Bilbo Baggins. However, you spend most of your time as Gollum, reliving his prison career in the period between the original The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings: The Lord of the Rings Reappears through story-driven linear levels.

Unfortunately, Prison Simulator: Mordor Edition sounds interesting, but it's actually boring. As I played, I couldn't help but resent: I should have embarked on a magnificent journey to the Lord of the Rings, but reality was stuck here immobile, endlessly collecting trivial gadgets for featureless NPCs, or burrowing into the bushes to avoid the tedious patrol guards.

Each level usually has three stages, and the design of each stage usually hovers between "boring" and "bad". The daily task phase generally requires Gollum to run from one waypoint to another to complete trivial tasks. The route passes through conceptually different scenarios, such as climbing through narrow passages to detonate explosives.

But functionally, these missions are just letting the player travel through the same area again and again, and it feels like it's just prolonging the gameplay and doesn't make any sense. Gollum's sprint speed is amazing, so running around with him might be a little fun. It only takes a few seconds to drain his stamina, but recovery is very slow. Therefore, every time you need to run, you have to endure slow speed and long waits, and you have to listen to the breathless sound of grunting at every turn.

In comparison, the platform stage is more fun, but still bad. The spacious space has grabbers for climbing, climbable walls, and jumping for faster action. However, Gollum's movement is slouchy and light, and the controls are not very precise, resulting in the game feeling like an old old piece of the PlayStation 2 era.

As long as you've played a more recent Assassin's Creed or Tomb Raider, you're likely to drift to the boundary and die after jumping in the right direction, or fail to jump accurately onto the white line that accurately marks the reachable range. The path is dead restricted, and it is often necessary to guess the position of the next gripper to make a blind jump. Such a design is not a retro return, but an outdated and a parody of classics such as Prince of Persia.

Finally, there is the stealth part of the game. In a word: poor. Every time Gollum needs to sneak from point A to point B, it's torture. The enemy's patrol route is extremely monotonous, and he is very blind, and seems to suffer from acute amnesia with very rapid onset, and he forgets his presence in place if he does not see Gollum for a second.

These problems may have plagued mediocre stealth games 15 years ago, but it's a bit annoying to appear in 2023. Here, you can't use the fun skills and superb level design to battle your enemies with the same fun skills and superb level design as in Dishonored or Hitman, and start a game of cat and mouse that is one foot tall, but can only painfully crush the enemy's incomparably obvious flaws and have only one goal: to reach the designated location.

The only abilities Gollum can rely on are sneaking quietly, throwing stones to attract attention, and hiding in tall grass or in the shadows. Since the enemy's AI is surprisingly stupid and can only perform very simple actions, such as standing on a table or knee-high rock, you can't be caught at all. Once I had to sneak through a long sneak area of the Baladur animal pit, and every time I was discovered by the guards, I would find a random place to grab and jump up and grab it, and I would use this trick to fight the invincible hands all over the world. Later, some Oaks got crossbows and posed a certain threat to me, but even so, their threat was still negligible.

There are no battles in this game. This is reasonable, because Gollum can't beat anyone bigger than the Hobbit. However, you can strangle enemies from behind, but the scope of this trick is a bit confusing. First of all, it does not work for all enemies wearing helmets. This makes sense when facing a heavily armed enemy, after all, Smigo's dirty gloves can't bend steel.

The problem is that the game's definition of "helmet" is too broad. You see Oak over there wearing a hat? Well, then you probably won't be able to strangle him. In addition, only Oak can be strangled. This setting makes sense, after all, you can't strangle a beast like a spider. But other races of humanoids, such as elves, apparently have a steel neck that cannot be pinched and can only go around. That's not good.

The game also sets up some chases, and despite the mixed quality, it manages to speed up the pace of the game. There's a scene where Gollum carefully dodges oncoming obstacles and archers on moving objects, and it's one of the few interesting parts of the game. In addition, there is a scene where Gollum runs wildly in the direction of the camera, but a good hand is played sparsely due to poor handling accuracy when jumping on the platform and the problem of not being able to see obstacles when dodging when needing to dodge. Obviously, the character's eyes are looking ahead, he should be able to see the oncoming obstacles, but you as the player can't see it, and because of this reason, the character dies, which is really crushing.

If for some reason you don't want to play the various great titles released recently, but rather want to relive Gollum's terrible adventures, there is still some potential replayability. Finding hidden collectibles in the game won't give you any rewards. You just spread them out on a rag to admire, and Gollum will match some lines for each collection. As a collector, I scour my collection most games clean, but even so, I couldn't ignite any enthusiasm in Lord of the Rings: Gollum to find the next bat wing or jar, and only felt that there was no point in bothering to add to Gollum's not-so-precious treasure vault.

Why is that?

Hardcore Lord of the Rings fans know that Gollum itself is a very complex character. He is both a victim and a villain. However, the plot does not explore this point in any meaningful way. The game occasionally has a binary choice that gives you the choice to answer questions as either Gollum or Smigo, but this choice never feels like it changes the course of the story or has any lasting effect on Gollum himself.

Some scenes require one of Gollum's personalities to convince the other to agree to a plan of action, such as a scene where Gollum loses his mind when he sees a drawing of the Eye of Sauron while avoiding Oak. The game offers two options here: "Kill Oak" or "Stay Panicked". The former is Gollum's claim, the latter is Smigo's tendency. In the end, Smigo won the argument, but it's hard to say whether it's because I found a compelling reason to keep Gollum panicking, or because the multiple-choice question was so good. In the 20 hours I've been exploring Middle-earth, I've probably only encountered one argument that didn't unfold exactly as expected, and that made me feel pointless in having that interaction.

At the same time, the game's graphics are not as good as it should be. Even with all graphics options set to Epic on PC, places like Baladul still seem dull and flat. In an age where lush vegetation and flora and fauna have almost become standard in the gaming world, the empty scene of Milkwood looks out of place. Gollum's model is well done, and the delicacy of each strand of hair is surprising, and it also captures the verve of Gollum's various mannerisms well. But the animations of the other character models are too stiff to ignore, and the facial expressions are devoid like a lingering nightmare.

However, the game's sound design is very powerful, and it is a good interpretation of Gollum's almost breathless husky voice, while also brilliantly showing the more sober and timid side of his character that belongs to Smithgo. The vocal rendition of Gollum fully satisfies the expectations of those who have seen Andy Serkis' performance in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Even the smallest details – such as the wet and sticky sound of Gollum's hands slapping on different surfaces while climbing or running, or the ringing of ringtones in certain spaces – are very real and the attention to detail is impressive.

But even if the game's graphics and sound are excellent, it will still make you feel pointless to play. If there is a technical problem at this stall, this "sense of meaninglessness" will turn into despair. In this review, the author encountered a total of three situations that required a complete restart of the level: one because the autosave was stuck in a magical position, and two times some puzzle items went wrong, resulting in a very clear puzzle idea, but it was impossible to move forward. THESE BUGS WON'T COMPLETELY RUIN THE GAME, AS A RESTART WILL FIX THE PROBLEM. But they can destroy your mentality because you have to go through already boring levels again, and suffer again that you never have to suffer again.

summary

Lord of the Rings: Gollum failed to provide satisfactory answers to the many loud cross-examinations. There are thousands of wonderful characters in Lord of the Rings, why do players have to play Gollum? It is clear that the past same-world games provided orthodox action elements, why do people not play them, and have to experience lengthy and boring missions, boring and crashing platform jumps, and poor stealth design? I don't know who the target audience is or what its goals are. Only one thing is clear: it's not fun and not recommended, unless you're the most curious and avid fan of Lord of the Rings.

merit

Officially licensed adaptations

shortcoming

Outdated, uninteresting platforming mechanics

The stealth design is superficial and boring

Meaningless plot story

Unflattering character styling with related plots