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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ก.ย. 2024
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Gollum is the worst thing I've played this year. In fact, it's the worst thing I've played in a long time.
#Gollum #LOTR #Review
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Make all the DILF jokes you want, but DOROTHY MANTOOTH IS A SAINT YOU HEAR ME??? DOROTHY MANTOOTH IS A SAINT!!!!
15/10 Gollum voice. Actually beats Andy Serkis.
Still waiting for code SHILLUP
Obligatory "do not buy manscaped products, EVER". They are severely overpriced for the Alibaba 4 dollar shaver you get. Just buy a Wahl and don't rip yourself off.
@@spf50sunscreen80 I have had a Wahl for 8 or 9 years and that thing is still going strong. It was a Christmas gift and it is one that I will treasure forever. Of course, I also have a straight razor that I use to get the cleanest shave ever.
The inconsistent controls is just the game immersing you in Gollum's descent into madness.
Verisimilitude at its finest
Yeah. Gollum's other personality is wrestling with the player for control. :D
@Telleva The game really makes you feel like Gollum
Hahahahahha....noooooooo
See, I just did a Ryan Johnson.
Noo yes noooo
@@thrace_bot1012 heeeyeey I should do my job and kick you in the feels.
Super eyepatch wolf is my boss aswell
Gollum looks like he’s addicted to a lot more than just the one ring.
Lol 🤣🤣
Haha. 🤣
Holy 🤣
Well his heritage is pot smoking hobbits so…..
Gollum looks me me getting under 6 hours sleep
Gollum in canon: "What's it got it in its nasty pocketses?" "WE HATES THE BAGGINSES"
Gollum here: "I must perform taskeses for Lord Bezoses, or else no bathroom breakses, gollum..."
"What has it got in its PayPal accountses?"
"I mustes pays the rentses"
@@aegisScale I love how this comment implies that the current middle earth economy has precluded Gollum from home ownership and so he lives in an apartment. Morgoth mortgage rates are just too high these days.
@@Aldrnari956 cost of living in Middle Earth has been getting terrible recently, you can't even be a mutated wretch in a cave without selling your soul anymore.
@@aegisScale “You get your rentses when you fix this cursed door!”
I know like seven guys and two women that can do a near movie accurate gollum voice. How could they not have found someone with a decent gollum impression?
I think it would have been awesome if they just had Sylvester Stallone do Gollum's voice for no good reason.
@@slayerd357 I bet they would make Gollum suddenly able to use bow complete with exploding arrow, just like Rambo
@@NewNoobie "Lore accurate"
That's... an oddly specific skillset in your friend group. I've never heard anyone do a Gollum impression. ;)
I know several people who can do gollum impressions too, I think it’s kind of a common impression for people to attempt buh idk
It looks like a PS3 game with facial animations from a PS2 game, truly a masterpiece of all time
Gday funny goose man
Oh hai Dolan
I’m so glad the Tolkien Estate is so defensive of the IP and only allows the best projects to go ahead! Right?
You shouldn't diss the PS2 & PS3 like that.
Yeah but some of the textures were fkimg epic.. alongside some that would get mocked on the ps3 🤷🏻♂️🙌🏻
I can't believe they had the balls to release this as a full price title
Redfall emboldened them.
50$ USD is full price? Bro get your facts checked
And the “Precious” edition which locks away the elf lanuage behind a paywall
@@DeltaAssaultGaming Emboldened by the flames of... GREED
there was some idiot called me a dipshit for saying this game is not full price then deleted his comment after realizing he's wrong, just putting this comment here to forever shame @Junii Senpai @juniisenpai3777 for being a thick brain
This doesn't just look unfinished, this looks like they just made a proof of concept build and shipped that as a final product.
To be fair, they couldn't have pitched this as a proof of concept, because they'd have been told to fuck off and start again
That's nearly all games lately.
@@jwberry23 Nearly all games since the start of games, the bad ones are just forgotten about
@@sambmortimerNo, AAA games used to have more quality to them. Even the bad ones usually seemed finished in most respects.
people keep buying, so they keep releasing crap
21:56 The fact Gollum can't easily get out of a body of water shows the developers didn't ask for Tolkien expert (or whatever) because Gollum is a Stoors Hobbit, and his people was known for swimming and boats
You don't even need to know that specific piece of Tolkien lore, just have seen any of the movies. Gollum was living at an underground lake when Bilbo found him and in one of the original trilogy (Two Towers I think) he was diving in a pond for fish and having the time of his life
@@mori6434 see what I expected was a survival-horror game, but this is so close to the edge between "game" and "proof of concept" that this shouldn't have even been sold for FREE.
Whoever convinced the Publisher to send out review copies deserves some kind of medal
They truly are a person lookin out for us.
This feels like the type of game I'd pick up as a kid, and only play 30 minutes of after getting annoyed over the controls or getting stuck
Alone in the dark vibes.
That’s how I kinda was with the oddworld series, however, those are actually good games I just sucked at back then lmao
For real
It really looks like one of those old cheap PS2 3D Platformer (or maybe Beat Them Up in a rarer occasions) licensed games
Everyone who experienced one of THOSE things know exactly the feeling. The cutscene at the beginning alone brought back some memories and sensations I thought were lost in time
It definitely looks like one of those movie tie-in games that like your mom buys you for the wii because she saw you liked the movie
Feels like one of those movie tie-in PS2 games that my mom bought randomly because she recognized the title.
I’m convinced that the reason this plays so badly and is so broken and unpolished is because people couldn’t bare to play it more than once when they were ‘testing’ it, so they were just like “yep… that-that’s fine!”
Or they were reduced to silence and the devs thought it was a good sign
@@generalalduin9548 probably 😅
You know what would have been cool? In the books Aragorn actually tracks Gollum with Gandalf for years to try to find him. His journey takes him from the lonely mountain right to the very walls of mordor. Finally he manages to capture Gollum and bring him back to Gandalf for questioning. THAT should have been the game they made. How cool would it have been to play as Aragorn traveling middle earth and facing who knows how many dangers and amazing set pieces along the way? Hell in the expanded lore it's mentioned that he actually served in the Gondor army as a commander against the Corsairs of Umbar before receiving the call from Gandalf. All of that could have been an amazing game.
Because they knew no player would survive the escort mission of bringing Gollum to Thranduil.
There's a whole fan film about that. And it is good material indeed!
Never knew that. Actually would’ve been pretty cool
Is that how Gandalf found out about Gollum telling mordor about baggins and shire?
Dude, this is a German studio. They just don't have the skills to serve the modern market in the 3D action genre.
Gollum is one of the most complex and nuanced characters in the story. His lack of redemption is what saved everyone, in the end. We saw Gollum's anger and spite and guile in the movies. If this game showed more of the grief and torment and self-hatred that had become his only companion after claiming the ring, it could have added such a new angle to the overall story. We never saw Gollum really cry except for trying to avoid being beaten, and when losing the ring, but the books eluded to the inner pain he carried with him. Imagine if this story started with that. It would have made him a far more sympathetic protagonist for this game.
Exactly. I see people mocking the choice of character, but I find Gollum such an interesting and deep character. It's a shame they didn't take the opportunity seriously. It could've been a brilliant game with so much to tell. It's really a shame.
Imagine if you started as him when he was a hobbit, that would have been fire
I mean, TWO DIFFERENT HOBBITS who found him deeply repulsive and evil both wavered on the precipice of killing him, but ultimately took pity on his wretchedness and his self-loathing. He is, metaphorically, every negative pitiable human trait - and yet that is what gives him his humanity. He is not redeemed bc that element of humanity is irredeemable, but even the wretchedness of humanity plays an important role in the end. And yet the game somehow missed that this is all the ENTIRE POINT OF HIS CHARACTER
Exactly. You could even have some nightmare/flashback scenes of the horrible things he did as he was transforming from Sméagol to Gollum only for him to wake up to daily torture whilst in the captivity of Sauron. Almost like he has PTSD from all the things his addiction to the ring made him do but it’s too late to undo those things.
Well apparently the story was written by "experts" so they seem to have a different perspective on Gollum from most other people
19:53 They're asking for $60 DOLLARS MINIMUM, and that's the death animation??? I can't think of a more fitting example of "Something being funny that's not supposed to be". That's hilarious, no exaggeration I actually laughed out loud
Same the death animations had me dying
LMAO! I clicked on the timestamp and didn't expect that at all. I laughed so loud i woke mu girlfriend up. Wtf was that!?
@@Infamousbob24 Were you also floating awkwardly as you died?
same, the one where he fell and it sounded like someone dropped a wooden plank also had me giggle heavy
I didn’t laugh and this game deserves no semblance of a positive reaction, even at its expense. It’s disappointing and exploitative. That’s it.
Gollum didn't even have to escape from Mordor in the first place. After Sauron got the info about Baggins and the Shire he let Gollum go, because he knew Gollum would inevitably go after the ring and could unwittingly help Sauron in locating it
Nice to see that PS2 games are still being developed.
Hi-Fi Rush to this is the biggest flirting versus harassment difference of all time
Only this time they require 24GB of vram somehow
@@igaovieira with DLSS activated
That's not fair PS2 games were well optimized.
It was great era, I will always pick up PS2 game
The part where Gollum stared directly at the screen and told me the exact date and time of my death was wild. 10/10
Gollum is such a weird choice for a protagonist. The reason he worked so well in the books and the movies is precisely because he has a support role, and all that shatters when you put him in the forefront and make him do ridiculous bullshit to justify his role. It would be the same if a Star Wars game came out about R2-D2, where he breeds banthas and engages in conversations.
Yeah but let’s be fair. The problem with this game is that it’s devoid of artistic and technical talent. A great studio could make that R2D2 idea work brilliantly.
Or a Star Wars game making you play as Jar Jar
I think with good devs the idea they were going for could have been executed miles better than this
Based on the sht Chopper does, Id kill for a game as a chaotic astromech
@@Eli_Guy let us play through that one comic where r2d2 basically solos an army inside of an imperial ship to rescue c3p0
After half an hour, I could hear Tolkien banging on his coffin lid wanting to come out and punch someone. It was a vivid experience.
💀💀💀
It's really sad to see such a lore-full IP like LotR being wasted like this.
This guy was a literal genius, it's a fcking shame that they did this to him
This actually feels like a £2 indie game you'd find on a Wicked Wizard video and never hear about again
Nice to see a mention of Wicked Wiz!
Jesus christ this is insane. I get that Tolkien fans can be a little nuts about lore and characterization (myself included) but I think my mom who half-watched the Ranklin & Bass Hobbit and Return of The King movies with me as a kid would be like "I don't think Gollum would hang out with that chicken". Actually, I think Gollum's second most famous trait is that he loves to kill and eat cute animals while they're still ~raw and wriggling~.
I'm glad this is the first time I'm hearing about this game, because I'm such a lifelong Gollum fan that I might have been tempted to buy this just to support, but these people clearly don't give a shit about my little guy.
We're nuts about lore and such because it's all been written by Tolkien, which means there is no excuse for getting it wrong. I think that's perfectly fair. It's like being handed the answers to a test and still getting things wrong.
I haven’t even finished the video. I scrolled until I saw this comment and I’m sorry did you say “I don’t think Gollum would hang out with that chicken”???? Wtf????? 😂😂😂😂😂
They could've given Gollum an arc where he starts more hobbit-like while doing all that stuff but goes through a transformation into the Gollum we know over the course of the game.
But no, that would've made too much sense.
But he was already mostly the Gollum we know when Bilbo stole the ring from him, and that happened before the events of the game. He's maybe a *little* more volatile during The Lord of the Rings, but in The Hobbit he was already a reclusive murderer who talked to himself and ate raw fish that he caught with his bare hands.
@@imperiallarch7610 He probably talking about before The Hobbit, when gollum found the Ring.
I think he's supposed to look less corrupted? he has more hair and his face is fuller, but it just looks really bad and yeah he doesn't change
To be fair, it's a little bit tricky to tell a story that lasts for the necessary duration, which would be several decades. But not impossible.
That would actually take centuries.
It really reminds me of those PS2 movie adaptation games where the game just creates arbitrary challenges and levels just so you can call it a 'game'
We played that shit as soon as it came out too even tho we knew
It sure has some uncanny PS1 Harry Potter vibe going here..
Only those games, were for KIDS!!
the last one of those i played was Peter Jackson's King Kong on Xbox 360
@@NF_Redux And what a game that was, I remember the fire mechanics blowing my mind as a kid
And ironically I remember the LotR movie games being actually kinda decent.
I'm really interested in the autopsy of this game. How on earth did this ever see release? Who kept pumping money into it? What drove the studio to even go down this road in the first place?
Guess they thought they could pull an EA and release a broken piece of trash...
The studio is a very small, un-noteworthy studio in Germany that somehow got bought out for a heck of a lot of money to make this game. Just an all round bizarre situation.
Even worse, the German games fund has given them more money (2 million) to work on their next LOTR game. This has got to be the worst thing that the German government's ever done...
GOLLUM! GOLLUM!
Higher ups. We have to release this game for earnings report.
If you realise that the developers are known for making point and click adventures, so many things start to make sense. The publisher is Nacon, the guys that pirated a copy of a game of a developer they lost the rights to and published it on steam, just to get sued for it and had to take it down.
Edit: spelling.
No fucking way 😂
what game was that?
So Daedalic tried and failed to be Lucasarts by breaking into console action games Nacon should stick to make shitty gaming accessories cos good God they sound like absolute scumbags
@@SirButtface3000 "The Sinking City" by Frogwares
Why would Warner hire those guys there not the right people for the job
The Precious Edition is probably the greatest name for a deluxe version of a game 😂
And ironically there's nothing precious about it at all.
Meta 😂
If they knew what they were doing, it would have been called the Preciousss Edition.
If the game was any good, that would have been actually cool.
This feels like a game that would come out in the PS2 and you’d find at a pawn shop 10 years later for 8.00 bucks
Nah, only for a pound.
Nah. 2.99 at most.
$8?
More like 2 months
This is the kind of ps2 game that would get you 50 cents of store credit at gamestop XD
Those lore bits are 100% AI generated
I believe AI can write 10x better than this
You misspelled "leftists"
@@lamikal2515 What is wrong with you
@@lamikal2515 Judging by how many failed actors, comedians, and writers on the far right I highly doubt that
@@lamikal2515 when you’ve consumed so much rage-bait that you instantly blame anything bad on your one and only scapegoat:
If Gandalf saw this game, he’d have hurled himself off the bridge before the Balrog even appeared.
Bruh.... Lmao
I think it's important to note that they sold the game as a stealth platformer where you escape Mordor, end up in murkwood where you escape again and do other adventures. They hid the fact that the front half of the game is overloaded with shite mini games in prison. They never mentioned that the majority of the game would take place in the exact same location.
How in the hell out of all the millions of people that can do spot on Gollum impressions did they manage to hire someone that sounds absolutely nothing like him?
What do you mean "sounds absolutely nothing like him?" lol what does Gollum sound like? Do you mean sounds nothing like Andy Serkis? Gollum is a character from a book. He should sound however the author describes, and even then, that allows for a lot of artistic interpretation. This isn't a the Lord of the Rings: The Movie game, he's not going to sound like Andy Serkis' rendition.
One could argue this voice is more accurate.
@@truesoupplay please stop, you're embarrassing yourself
@@truesoupplayHonestly that's an interesting point. Has it been stated if this game is in the world of the books or the movies?
@@Sneedmeister game sucks, but he’s right. The movies blow anyway
Hes right though
When this was first announced my only thought was “how the hell will this work? What kind of gameplay could a story fully centered around Gollum even have”. Guess I wasn’t too far off
_"He's a really good and popular character, and that's the same thing as making a good MAIN character!"_
--Someone rich
I could see this concept work as a point and click game the devs are known for. A small maybe mobile-only game, likewise pricetag. They instead tried to make a half-assed assasins creed clone, despite having no prior experience anything like that. Regardless of the idea itself, why this type of game by this type of company?
I just figured it would have had a bunch of old school stealth and some complex traversal mechanics since Gollum can climb over any surface basically. I was sort of right... I didn't think this was a good idea, but I had a lot higher hopes than this. Expectations went to zero as soon as we got our first look at what Gollum looked like. Looks like a late PS2, early PS3 game from 15-17 years ago.
amazing you heard about it
If you've ever heard of Styx, I would have expected a Gollum game to play somewhat similar. Just a shame that this is what the LotR IP was wasted on
You know you gotta give this game credit it makes you feel what it is like to be gollum in a prison boring, tedious, and you rather do anything else so in that area it really succeeds.
Gollum: a game _one guy_ was looking forward to, *AND THEY STILL FUCKED IT ALL UP.*
one guy is one man too many for this game.
😂
Hey. That one guy has pasty, loose skin, is always in pain which makes him antisocial, and his only posession is a plastic spider ring the first girl who didn't scream on sight gave him.
Feel good about yourself now?
He deserved a good game.
Poor dude.
That guy was Jerma lol. No joke, he said it in a recent stream, I forgot which.
True LOL, honestly who the fuck wanted a Gollum game💀
I really want to see how the hell they pitched this project. The director must had crazy high charisma and rolled nat20.
The whole "smeagol vs gollum" thing they kind of broached genuinely seems interesting, if it was done well. This clearly was not.
He was crazy high on something, that’s for sure.
It doesn’t seem like a problem of "rushed development" or a "squashed vision" of the developer by deadlines, I see absolutely no way that concept would’ve worked in the first place
I mean I think it'd be kind of a cool idea if it was like Styx: Master of Shadows but with LotR.
director is nattie light
What seems to be the most weird thing about this game is that Gollum should be a miserable character in a dark and miserable world, having a miserable experience doing horrible things to survive.. eating raw fish, killing them with rocks, swimming on mud and shit, in the dark.. avoiding rocks.. like.. I feel more like Gollum when I'm walking on the wastelands of death stranding or when I'm playing a game from fromsoftware.. Elden Ring is more gollum than gollum with this ridiculous pokemon bird..
What you just described is the Gollum game I would have wanted to play. You know, a gritty, miserable survival horror game set in Middle Earth, with a protagonist who is pathetic and crazy. That's one hell of a good premise. (Don't include player choice for Gollum's actions though - you shouldn't have the option to make Gollum into a "good person.")
@@thesardonicpig3835 exactly.. although... I would absolutely LOVE and laugh as a maniac if I had a "smeagol" moment if I had a single moment do to a choice to be a "smeagol" good guy.. just like when gollum chose to be a good guy and helped frodo and sam.. but in the end it backfired and didn't made any difference and drove him even further into madness like it did in the movies.. like a easter egg making fun of such games and at the same time being just like it had happened with gollum in the books and the movie.
@@wildguardian Remember, with Frodo and Sam he is forced to help them, he does not do it willingly.
Ancestors the gollumkind oddysey
Those lore entries were written by an AI 100%
holy shit, its depressing that that might actually be true...
AI would have managed better I tell you.
the co author of this game has a phd in tolkien
@@Allorius999 No. It has proven your weak defense incorrect many times.
AI made the whole game 🧐
I can’t believe Gollum of all characters ended up with his own game.
Lmao. I wouldn't want to play as that gay ass character anyways
Exactly!
Actually in concept this all seems great, but terribly implemented. Playing a game like Styx but as Gollum, and being a grimy slimy little jerk sneaking around middle earth could be fun.
@@JackFromAbove look up the 1st and 2nd age and tell me any of characters from there wouldnt be better
It could be a cool concept i wont lie but whan there are 100times better characters too play as it fucking sucks
@@JackFromAbove Sneaking around, killing orcs by biting their necks or pushing a large boulder to crush them and eating random birds and fish you to restore HP while avoiding patrols and wild warg packs. I can see the potential, how could they screw it up that bad?
That death animation with the orc, holy shit. Less of a kill, more of a horny bonk.
"Quit yer bonering, ya mangy git!"
*bonk*
When the Gollum game was announced, I asked myself, "Why?" Now that it's finished, I can't help but wonder, "Why?"
They could of taken any character from the 3th age including Gorfindel, Gandalf, any of the Rohirim hack even Aragon but no we get gollum of all people lol.
14:05
i had same question 15 years ago when movie games got developed i guess you still dont get it based on your comment
because yachts aren't gonna buy themselves!
Gollum really makes you FEEL like a 500 year old degenerate
The exaggerated swagger of a shriveled up hobbit.
😂 😂😂
Wow. Finally I can feel like Joe Biden!
@@bigboydancannon4325trump as well, truly a president simulator
@@MissBeloved__no you’re thinking of the grab em by the pussy simulator
It’s really sad this game is as bad as it is because the idea of wrestling with his split personalities and forcing one to convince the other to make a particular decision as a gameplay mechanic is actually a really unique and interesting concept
DID YOU PLAYED IT ?? IT IS GREAT AND UNIQUE
That whole prison segment would have been far more at home in the shire. Where you actually get to do a lifesim of a hobbit. herding pigs, breeding birds, 5 meals a day...
As a LotR fan... I would love that.
And then Saruman arrives and you have to fight to get back the tranquility and piece that you enjoyed in the beginning.
Tbh a harvest moon hobbit game could be super cool lol.
@@TheHollowBlade Hobbit Moon.
Agreed! That's a really neat idea :3
Could show the slow decline, too, in like a chapter format ala Mother 3. Remember, Saruman had his lackeys working in the Shire before he got there. I can't recall if we got an approximate time, but it seems Sharkey (Saruman) had started backing Chief (Lotho) financially probably before the hobbits even left the Shire. Given how easily Saruman took over, it's also likely some of the 'ruffians' and orcs Lotho hired as mercenaries were from Saruman.
You know, with such a weird idea for a game I thought the devs had to have a strong vision for the gameplay. I guess I was wrong.
Edit: I just finished the review. Why... why did they make this? Why is Gollum doing menial labor the premise for a $70 game, and what
publisher thought it was ready for release?
Yeah. Imagining all the possibilities they had with gollum makes me sad. I think a studio like this should've gone with a safer game as their first rodeo.
I can see bits an pieces here and there… some of the design looks nice the art in bits. A lot of this type of design in games takes time. I get the feeling a reasonable amount of people worked really hard and non of it clicked or they were told to do stuff or something 🤷🏻♂️ guess we’ll never know. It’s a shame. I’m a real Tolkien buff and would have got this if it was just good.
Maybe the Publisher bought, like, about two footnotes worth of rights for a song.
@@T1tusCr0w that a lot of people have put so much of their time and energy into a project for years that’s just ended up being critically panned and mocked is so tragic to me
I wonder if the story of what happened behind the scenes will ever come out. Something must have gone pretty wrong with all the delays and stuff
It’s a real shame that such a unique concept hasn’t worked out
@@perspii2808 yep. We can only hope it doesn’t discourage the devs & they dust themselves off & try again.
Damn, the Tolkien IP is perfect for so many great adaptations (gaming or otherwise) and somehow beyond two good games in the past generation, no one has come close to hitting the mark recently
Shadow of war was a generic passable arkham feeling game... an ign 7. This looks horrible
@@lordsysop Shadow of war was fantastic, what is this slander? The orc nemesis system in that game is genuinely mindblowing.
@@GalaxyEdgeStudiosNemesis system should've been in every single game since its release. Its literally reworked old shitty enemy path of progression. Sadly greedy fucks are locking it and abandoning.
I mean 2 Good Games in one generation alone isn't nothing...it's enough. Ravenous consumer appetites aren't good for any IP, you inevitably end up with an MCU like situation.
@@GalaxyEdgeStudios the two good games are the shadow series. I finished both of them
It really does feel like a throwback to like, that era of cheap PS2 tie in games you'd see on the lower shelves of a gamestop or tucked away unassumingly in a modern day used game store. It just so happens to have a more modern technological budget.
I love how you’ve gone from “I do not recommend X” to “How can I properly roast the fuck out of this game”
Well, when the product's 50-70 dollars and released in this state, it tends to warrant this level of criticism
Isn’t Gollum intentionally freed to follow Frodo and hopefully attempt to take the ring, and therefore dooming the fellowship’s quest?
That was always what I took it to be.
Yes. "When he had learned what he could from him, Sauron released him and sent him forth again...But Sauron perceived the depth of Gollum's malice towards those that had 'robbed' him, and guessing that he would go in search of them to avenge himself, Sauron hoped that his spies would thus be led to the Ring."
Wasn't specifically for him to attack the fellowship, more so follow Gollum to the ring, basically have him do the searching for you
@@antoinelachapelle3405 right, but I feel like the potential for Gollum to strike is still useful.
Watching the human ally move at a literal snails pace when directed had my jaw drop. I could feel how ass the controls were every time I watched golem move. Unreal 😂
this game is the living epitome of ''our expectations for you were low but HOLY FUCK''.
Totalitarianism low to be specific
Me with Biden
Jesus loves you
John 3:16-17
Romans 8:35-39
Luke 23:42-43
@@scrubbingdoubles8585 while I agree with the message I do not believe this is the place for that my friend
The perfect game to gift to someone you secretly hate
Yeah, if you hate someone so much that you feel compelled to spend 70 dollars, lol. Idk about that.
@@marktaylor3290 The fact that this game was "made" and the money was not donated to cancer research, should be counted as fraud. 😂😂😂😂
Secretly? This is a war declaration.
@@mingyuhuang8944 dude why do you keep spamming this?
It won't be a secret anymore. God, this was abysmal. Actually, it's worse than I imagined.. that paywall is such a kick in the taint, too.
Truly a game that fell out of a time portal from twenty years ago
It looks like one of those Mini CD games you'd get from a Burger King meal in 2003. Those Pokémon games were still better than this shit.
And it’s odd that this was the first announced next gen title.
@@nousername2942 I'm still playing those free burger king games. They slapped
It's giving me Fellowship (the video game) vibes. Although I have extreme nostalgia for that game and have zero chance of becoming attached to this.
It strongly reminds me of bad movie tie-in games from the 90s and 2000s, except this isn't even a movie tie-in because it has nothing to do with any recent LOTR adaptation or anything. It's also kind of ironic because the Peter Jackson movies *did* get movie tie-in games, and they were actually really good!
I'm trying to figure out why they left this audio in 0:30
Let's remember this game was announced back in March of 2019 and later delayed for two years...Meaning they started working on it at least back in 2018 if not before. I feel so bad for the team who has to put up with a game this long when they probably knew was doomed to fail and of course for LOTR fans...damn.
Maybe it is a conspiracy to prevent any gamers to even consider reading the books, who knows... At this point anything is possible.
@@phantomasuras like how they destroyed starwars just to make a new generations ready for the trash sagas
@@hildagrauls5138 No, its nothing like Star Wars.
BTW, if Star Wars had been destroyed you wouldn't be talking about it.
@@TatankaTaylor I'm still salty ok. And Rey is very memorable. Yes,as the only Mary Sue who even the actor herself dispises.
To each their own I suppose
@@TatankaTaylor btw, why do u act as if I was talking to you... is your yt alias Phantom (edit : ./?) Sleep tight babe
I think we all know a person or two who can do a really good Golem impression,, how they did not find someone to do a better voice over is insane
Vinny probably could've hit it big lul
We all know the developer would never have hired Just Some Guy.
That reminds me, I once came across a talent show where one of the contestants' act was just doing a passable Gollum impression.
It struck me as a little odd, because let's face it, it's not exactly a unique gift that only a few lucky people are blessed with.
Right? I thought that Liam O'Brien was going to reprise his role from Shadow of Mordor. While Gollum's inclusion in that game was quite suspect from a lore standpoint, Liam killed the impression.
Redfall - "damn we probably gonna be the worse game of the year." Gollum - "hold my beer"
@@danjoredd the competition is fierce and it's a close battle lol
@@danjoredd I mean... looking at the borocs at @11:00 in the video, I wouldn't exactly call the AI in this "working".
@Daniel Jones I mean it gonna be a hard fight between the two regardless I feel. 🤣🤣🤣
Hold my fish
Hold my longbottom leaf.
One of the very first mentions of Gollum in the whole movie series (I've read Fellowship but can't remember if this is in the book too) is Gandalf speculating Gollum might have been deliberately set loose by Sauron's forces. Sure they lost track of him shortly after, but knowing Gollum would be drawn to the ring, sending him after it isn't a bad plan even if it ultimately didn't work. So Gollum having a whole arc about being a slave in Barad Dur makes no sense.
Yes and no.. maybe he kinda was a slave and did this kind of miscible work and horrible existence in a kinda waiting period while they wondered how best to use him. You have to remember. It was about a 20 year period I think. I’d need to check to be certain. But the film truncated everything.
@@T1tusCr0w Fair point actually. I forgot about the time gap.
It did work though. It worked absolutely great. Gollum found the ring, and his actions nearly brought the Fellowship to ruin multiple times
Insane how far the Dreams community has come since its inception!
Pray for the Dreams community 🙏
Underrated comment 💀
@@manukau5271 they fallen on low times 😔😔
@@Syae22 cheers sir!
The idea of doing chores as Frodo for Bilbo in The Shire sounds like a decent tutorial for a LoTR adventure game.
@@ollieguy6781 Nah them trolls didn’t mess around
The original lord of the rings on ps2...
2 towers and return of the king on ps2 were kickass games tho
@@Carnage7209 2 of my favorite game of all time.
"...someone called the Mouth of Sauron..
"
-100 nerd points, Skill Up
Lucy James will be sending him a strongly-worded text message after watching this review.
Yea I’m not even a fan and I know who the Mouth of Sauron is. That surprised me.
Exactly my thought!
Couldn’t believe my ears…. SMH
I feel like the lore compendium was written by Chatgpt like,
"Repentance is a recurring theme in Tolkein's writing..." This is literally what Chatgpt would write out if you asked it to write a lore with major themes in it.
charging money for fucking chatgpt prompts, new low
Nah, Chatgpt writes better than this. Especially in grammar, not necessarily in content.
It's so ironic that a game based on the character that effectively shaped 3D animation into what it is today looks so bad and is so broken...
Gollum saying "Why?" At 14:05 needs to be a reaction gif.
Hahaha.
😂
lmfaooo
I was looking for this comment! Thanks.
Play at 0.25 speed for a spectacular display.
"Gollum has this wallrun like he's a fucking pilot from Titanfall 2" 😂
that one's too good
I miss that game…
@@giancarlocoia3228 same 😭
Oh my god the "why?" at 14:05 is absolutely hysterical, that has serious meme potential
me looking at the publisher like:
This was all probably done in a single take
The frail man represents the consumer who bought the game
Bros head glitches also 💀
Gollum is one of those characters who is fun to watch on screen, but should never be the main character or sole focus for an extended period.
i'm not to sure of this statement. I really really enjoyed Gollum's representation in the Shadow of Mordor series, and if a game was made using their engine and their writers, i think i would be totally for that.. I love it everytime gollum shows up and starts talking in shadow of mordar.. I want to squeeze ghim and hold him and talk like him out loud in public places after i play some shadow of war
@@raidermaxx2324 he isn't the main character or sole focus in shadow of war.
@@BovineInterventionHe’s also only in either games for like barely 20 minutes
@@raidermaxx2324 nah don’t no one want to look at this deformed gremlin anymore. Never got the appeal to this creature
I mean, styx master of shadows was pretty good. They could have copied that and we would have a decent goblin stealth game
This game is a good example of how devs nowadays think gamers are idiots and will buy everything .
I mean... Are they wrong tho? XD
Alot of gamers unfortunately are the ones that fall for the same money scam with every game. Always preorders and falls for the hype... Those players have created this hellscape of companies realizing they don't have to put any effort in anymore. If this wasn't tolerated in the gaming community then how come we keep seeing the same shit these days huh?? If this was boycotted long ago it wouldn't have spiraled this far. So yeah in essence the gamin community are big fat idiots for accepting this type of bullshit for this long. Yes of course the smarter gamers have always tried to warn about this shit and how it's gonna get worse but do the dumb dumbs ever listen??? Nooo. All they see is a shiny thing dangling in front of their face and they fall for it every goddamn time. How many times do we have to say NEVER PREORDER UNDER ANY CIRCUMCTANCE, DON'T SUPPORT OVERPRICED PRICETAG, DON'T BUY STUPID "ADD-ONS" THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN IN THE BASEGAME until people actually listen??? Every game released lately you see the most stupid add ons in the spirit of Sims games pretty much. It's goddamn money scam. I pirate sims games these days cuz I bought a few addons as a kid and felt like I was scammed once I realized a few years later. These fools are grown adults/teens that have too much money if they can throw it away on this stupid shite, they should know better!
They totally will though.
Sometimes, when I see games like this, I wonder if there are people on the dev team who are genuinely proud of their work.
Yes. A game is a group effort. You can be proud of your individual contribution even if the whole is not as good as you hoped.
Daedalic Entertainment is about 90 people. A good part of that is likely upper management, artists, PR, IT, etc. Meaning the dev team may be comparatively small. I think the devs are fully aware of the game's shortcomings, wish they had time to make it better, and are embarrassed to be connected to the game in this state. But they have to follow orders from upper management… which is where I'd start looking for why this game is so bad. Always start with the leadership.
Maybe if this was their first game and learned a lot from it and continue to grow. Otherwise…NO lol
The bird is adorable though!
It's very likely too that the design for the game goes through changes, meaning the devs have to trash stuff they worked hard on or re-do things they worked hard on, etc etc. So the development itself becomes a mess.
Just look at the whole Lore thing that's stuck behind a pay wall. Some upper management guy comes up with that idea randomly and tells the devs to get it in. But the devs tight deadline means all they have time to do is hide the visuals from the lore menu.
Hard to know exactly where to point the blame for a game as sad as this, but a team effort is a team effort...
Also, I've said it before and I'll say it again: in a universe with so many characters, who in the hell ever actually wanted to play as Gollum's creepy ass?
It would be really great if this was treated as a horror game with Gollum as the horror villain and the orcs as the guilt free slaughter victims.
You COULD have a really neat game playing as Gollum, it's just that this game utterly failed in every regard to make it
Plenty of ways to make playing gollum interesting, not every game needs to be about heroes. Playing as a vile creature sneaking through the shadows that is willing to do anything and backstab everybody to get to his addiction can be cool if exectued right. Just because you play as Gollum doesn't mean the main story foucs needs to be on him, make him follow and spie on other parties as means for him to find what he wants and tell middle earth stories through that. He never escaped Barad-Dûr himself anyway, he was set free after he had nothing new to tell (and where is the torture in game? Like... why is, so instead Sauron counted on his obsession to make him seek out the new ringbearer and thus make it easier for Sauron's men to find the ring. There is nothing wrong with the premise, just everything else is just terrible, starting with completely ignoring lore and character traits. This is the year of badly written Tolkien spinoffs that make you miss when they refused to give out licenses at all.
@@Wolfsschamane I think Gollum is an extremely playable character. He's morally bankrupt and great at parkour, what more do you need? Little Nightmares nailed the "frail, starved amoral protagonist traverses hostile world" premise, so it shouldn't be that hard.
It's absolutely insane that the dev thought "Alright, that's good guys, let's ship it!"
"We can fix it with a patch, we just need it out by Friday!"
It's typically the publisher however the developer also signs a contract which says the product will be delivered at a certain date. They overestimated their abilities.
Most likely they in fact did not think that and instead were like "FUCK MAKE AS MUCH WORK BEFORE WE HAVE TO SHIP THIS PILE OF SHIT ON FRIDAY!!"
sunken cost, why not release? they need to try to return a profit
I'm sure it was the Publisher who said that. But really the blame goes on people who still fall for the preorder bullshit in 2023. DO not preorder games, it just removes any incentive they have for a quality product.
Deadelic is a german studio that a lot of people hold in high regard... for their point and click games... I think it reaaaaally shows that that is what they usually do
Yep. I’ve enjoyed their previous games, but this one was a mistake.
Deadelic is a pretty good studio.
This does look atrocious though.
i love adventure games but daedalic are consistently said to have poor working conditions. imo they shouldve just stayed the size and style of edna bricht aus.
They were trying something new I feel it but nah fam this is trash
Well they could have made a Lotr point and click, there hasn't been one :) (just like there hasn't been a proper open world RPG yet! Not even a Dragon Age style RPG, the closest being this hack and slash War in the North game) but this was supposed to be action/adventure/platformer/stealth game. Lotr has such poor luck when it comes to video games, I mean even the Shadow of Mordor/War games despite having enjoyable gameplay were the butchery on the lore side, and they could have used more lore bits to spice up gameplay, adding some enemies variety, like other creatures, giant spiders of actual huge size to fight, of the Shelob's brood, with the special attacks of being caught in web, the other enemies like "lesser wraiths" victims of Morgul-knife for example, to fight visible in the Unseen the wraith-world to make it more interesting (kind of like the old Legacy of Kain, Soul Reaver which had different enemies for spectral and material realms :)), the Barrow-wights as sort of powerful mini bosses haunting some tombs or so on, the evil spirits possessing things, the Silent Watchers the magical statues with ability to make magical barriers...all book elements of Tolkien world lore they could have added to the gameplay of those games. Also more varied side activities in the free roam. Seriously Tolkien's world is one the richest and very complex worlds to craft into video games, one can make all sorts of things with proper care and passion and proper knowledge! Well this rough starting stage doesn't bode well for Lotr: Gollum game, many players will be turned off it.
When you said "technicals" I imagined gollum escaping mordor on the back of a pickup truck with a machine gun
This also makes Gollum developing a friendly relationship with Frodo feel alot less interesting. Like, oh yeah, he's done that before, very recently.
With a bird
It's a real shame this game turned out the way it did, because Daedalic Studios have made some really great games in the past. They focus on 2D point-and-click adventures and they've been really good at this genre. If you're into that sort of stuff, I can definitely recommend Chains of Satinav and Memoria. Great story, beautiful hand-painted visuals, costs only a few bucks. Daedalic probably bit off more than they could chew by setting out to make Gollum. They're a small German indie game devoloper, not a major AAA studio.
their Edna & Harvey and Deponia series are also great, though I've heard the English translation isn't that great, sadly
I'm glad someone else is saying this, a lot of people are treating this like another example of a big corporate dev trying to screw the gaming community, but that's not the case here. Daedalic is a small german studio that has made some real niche cult classics in the past like Edna & Harvey: the great escape. They're not activision or EA, these are just devs that had a great opportunity to pull off something big but then found themselves extremely out of their element, completely lacking the expertise to pull off the vision they had in mind. It's sad more than anything.
This game genuinely looks like it was made in dreams
Have some respect for dreams, pls
When I heard about this game I expected a 20$, unremarkable platformer and stealth game, I set my expectations too high
Gollum/Smeagol talks so weirdly in this game. It's just someone making a weird voice. It sounds like at some points he ends up with a slight accent like he wants to speak a foreign human language. When I look up my beard points upwards magically as well, so this is valid part of the game.
Oh no! I felt so bad for the devs being dunked on after the trailers that I really hoped they’d surprise us with something different but cool. Not an unexpected result, but a shame nonetheless
I was rooting for it too.
I don’t know if it’s just me but I quite literally forgot this game existed until I saw this review and this coming from someone who enjoys LOTR (not a superfan but an enjoyer)
@@ericdesjardins1854 Yeah like I wasn't holding my breath for it or anything. I thought the idea of playing of Gollum was weird, and not something I'd be into. But seeing that everyone was completely trashing on it, I kind of hoped that the devs had something up their sleeve just so they haven't wasted years making something that nobody asked for, and now nobody wants.
Could have been worse - Gollum could have ended up as a transexual that was rejected by his clan. Thank the Valar for small favours.
@@martinportelance138 bro stfu with the transphobia
Bonus bug: Gollum puts on fullbody blackface when in shaded areas like at 19:45 and 20:45. Unless that's actually an intended visual effect to denote him being in 'stealth', which would be a million times funnier if so.
That Golum swinging animation really got me in tears🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
I'm dying ahahahahahahah
We live in a universe where a new Titanfall project gets cancelled, but Gollum wall-running is a thing.
I just don't understand why deadelic even decided to make this game...?! They are loved and adored for the 2D/3D point and click games they made with amazing artdirection and pretty smart writing.
Daaaamn deadelic made this?? Their games are usually fun and full of charm and life, Gollum is like the complete opposite.
Braindead managment
@@nichtrick3308 yeah, I had to check the steam page multiple times out of disbelief. They didnt simply publish this, Daedalic themselves made this.
Shame, I really enjoyed their Dark Eye series. Another addition to the blacklist I suppose.
Hi there lol
@@Brixxter hey! ♥️
When the reviews aren't allowed to come out until the day the game comes out, you know something is up!
Yuuup. The Calisto Protocol did this and there was a reason why lol.
@@daxmichael6855 I got The Callisto Protocol now for 20 bucks and it seems all the glitches and bugs have been fixed. Enjoyed it alot.
@@taagssmart choice
Redfall comes to mind.
The Emote-DLC should be the default idle animation for when gollum stands still for some time
This would’ve been better if it was made as a side scroller like inside or little nightmares style.
Or a point and click like the debs are used to making
Could've been an Oddworld-type indie game. Wouldn't have been something I'd play, but it'd at least have a niche.
A re-skin of Inside would be so good
We are in a fun age of gaming like the 70s and 80s again! Everyone can make a game and they are learning they shouldn’t.
Call me optimistic, but I think Gollum might be the E.T. of our time for the AAA industry. And I think that's hilarious.
The bird breeding thing reminds me so much of doing the old cod zombies easter eggs with the many convoluted steps XD
You know a game is truly bad when just looking at the thing makes you feel depressed and disgusted. What were they THINKING with this
I have to agree, when a game comes out costing £60 plus, regardless of the size of the team or the studio that worked on it they are fair game at that point. I honestly didn’t have high expectations for this game, it could have been an interesting personal story about Gollum showing his travels and how the ring consumes him but I guess it just wasn't to be. As you said it almost feels like they were developing another game and attached the Gollum aspect of it right at the end
going from Shadow of war to gollum is like going from forza horizon to Garfield kart
Garfield Kart is peak, don't compare it to this
Fun note, Garfield Kart and Forza Horizon 5 both have a 9/10 on Steam
Yeah. This game looks worse than Shadows of Mordor, much less its sequel. It's almost like this game should have released before those 2, but somehow glitched itself into the future.
I'd rather play Garfield kart instead of this abomination
except garfield kart is actually good
I love this, this is the modern version of those horrible bargain bin ps2 games I always got for christmas.
But this one costs $70, instead of $0.70.
@@RDR911 Give it 6 months
The amount of horrible unknown titles I got from non gaming relatives growing up.
The last five years of gaming has been bargain bin garbage. It's really getting impressive seeing how all these companies keep flopping.
@@nousername2942 when you think about it, it isn't so different from gaming back in the day
Dude the bird flying around stiff as a board with that goofy look on it‘s face is insanely funny
Wouldn't it be better if Gollum had a pet bat? Caves, bats, spiders...those seem to all make sense. Gollum did make friends with Shelob..well kinda.
An Aragorn game about his life from his pov from a ranger till the point he becomes the king of Gondor would have been phenomenal.
This! We get nothing good now. I'll keep enjoying the old lotr movies and old lotr games on ps2
The environment artists really were the only ones who gave a single rip.
21:40 "gollum can wallrun like a fucking titanfall pilot"
this sentence is so hilarious even with context
I’m sensing some strong dlc or in game purchases for “alternate” companion / bird skins. Was probably the idea behind it. A way to earn a few bucks down the road by offering alternate stuff.
And judging by the “precious edition” that probably isn’t too far off from what they wanted to do
Gollum's climbing has some real "Prince of Persia at home" vibes.
Legitimately they could've just stolen Shadow of Mordor/War's climbing and made it more erratic and that'd be good enough to pass as a 40 dollar title.