Developers for The Lord of the Rings: Gollum have published an official statement regarding the backlash the game has been receiving from players who were excited to try it and ultimately met with disappointment. The stealth platformer launched with a myriad of bugs, with both reviews and users reporting frequent crashes as well. Despite having an enthusiastic fanbase of Lord of the Rings fans who were anxious to experience the lore and story set in J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy world, its launch simply has not been able to live up to expectations. LOTR: Gollum is quickly becoming 2023's biggest flop with reviews and player feedback leaving it with the worst scores of any game this year. The story-driven game relies heavily on Tolkien's works and offers a deeper look into one of the key characters in the saga by allowing players to experience part of Smeagol's story first-hand. Unfortunately, the game launched with so many bugs, that even Screen Rant's own Gollum review has been marked as "in progress" because the game would not progress past Chapter 2 without crashing.

Gollum Game's Developers Issued An Apology

Lord Of The Rings Gollum stares shocked at camera while looked closely at from right

The message from the team of developers at Daedalic Entertainment was posted on the official The Lord of the Rings: Gollum Twitter page on May 26, 2023, just one day after the game was released. In the statement, it is said that the team will continue to work on repairing technical issues and provide communication on upcoming patches.

Daedalic Entertainment has also noted that Gollum suffers from more problems than simply bugs and crashes. Many players have been underwhelmed by the gameplay and poor UI experience and ultimately feel that the game did not live up to the expectations it set for fans.

Gollum Is Just Another In The Growing Trend Of Disappointing Launches

Gollum sits on a rock looking toward the Eye of Sauron with Mount Doom to the right in the distance in the cover art for The Lord of the Rings: Gollum.

Releasing unfinished games that suffer from serious bugs and crashes is sadly not an uncommon circumstance, as many may recall seeing with previous titles such as Cyberpunk 2077 and No Man's Sky, which suffered notorious issues as well. Despite this type of start being injurious to a game's success, it does not mean that the developers can't still make things right moving forward if they approach the situation well, with good communication, and quality fixes. Daedalic Entertainment's tweet states that the "passion and dedication" of the players are motivating them to make things right.

Currently, Gollum is suffering from receiving generally unfavorable, albeit warranted, reviews and several players are taking to the internet with the frustrations of being unable to even play the game due to its technical issues. Daedalic Entertainment says it is diligently working to repair the game and, hopefully, the studio will be able to set things right before it's too late and players have moved on entirely. The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is the worst-reviewed game of 2023 currently, but time will tell whether the developers will be able to fix it enough to make up for this negative start.

Source: GollumGame/Twitter