Many do not offer that honesty! Edit:You are all replying to a fucking cheap joke like I'm serious, learn to read better, think before acting, remain calm, your life will improve.
For real, the fact that Dunkey made that comparison was what really made me think "damn, this game is so horrible my feeble mind can't even comprehend its horrors"
"The premise of this game is you play as a starving little gremlin that can't even catch a beetle doing slave labor for orcs in hell where everyone is coughing and dying and nobody likes you because you're a little slimy rat bastard and everyone hits you and calls you names the whole game" Holy shit dunky sure knows how to sell me on a premise
I appreciate the existence of games like this one, because it's a game that nobody asked for EVER. So when it turns out this game is bad I get free entertainment from TH-cam. Keep it up devs!
They also misspelled the name of the game in the letter. 11/10 Edit: Apparently, Nacon used ChatGPT to write the apology without even telling Daedalic. 20/10
My first impression hearing about this game was that it should have been a point and click adventure instead of a stealth action game, and then i found out that Daedalic specialized in point and click games before this! A baffling choice to have this be your first action game!
Maybe they should've just gone the Emperor's New Groove route, abandoned all sense of seriousness and made it a Middle-Earth flavored Untitled Goose Game. In this infinitely better Gollum (let's call it Untitled Gollum Game), you just sneak around places like Rivendell or Moria and harass people for no reason. And instead of a dedicated "HONK!" button, you have a "PRECIOUS!" button you can mash to your heart's content while you cross off objectives like "put nasty Elves's bow in the well" or Make the Hobbitses eat raw fish." I'd play that game for a million hours straight.
@@renemejias1842 If you watch the behind the scenes video they made about making Emperor's New Groove, they explain how originally they set out to make a great big serious musical like their other animated movies, but the development got so troubled and dragged on and on, until they finally just said "screw it, we're making a ridiculous comedy and not holding back!"
I feel like if maybe you took Gollum and placed him into the genre of horror inspired by Little Nightmares and Bramble King, you could potentially make this concept work. Treat Gollum's journey of harrowing self destruction like the horror it is and subtly tell the player that everything that happens to him is both self imposed or deserved yet beyond his control, rather than treating him like some kind of anti-hero or whatever they THOUGHT the fandom was thought of him.
@@williamwade9779 You are all misunderstanding this game. It is actually a masterpiece which was coded by smeagle himself and also made to feel the twisted and depressing, brain-breaking life of smeagle 😢😢😢😂
Well, to be fair, this game is actually very faithful to Tolkien's lore: Gollum's time in that prison was boring, horrible, abysmal, filled with crappy as hell objectives that either make no damn sense or are just ultra depressing, all taking place in a horrible looking environment. This game captured all of that accurately. LMAO.
@@johnpenguinthe3rd13 "It's not supposed to be *fun*, it's a commentary on the horrors of slavery, the banality of evil, and the halfling condition through the lens of the most wretched, pathetic id-driven excuse for a hobbit. It's *art*. Now give me $60.00."
@@Furufoo You are all misunderstanding this game. It is actually a masterpiece which was coded by smeagle himself and also made to feel the twisted and depressing, brain-breaking life of smeagle 😢😢😢😢
My favorite part of the 'apology' is that they focus on the fact that they're working on fixing the bugs. People don't hate it for the bugs. They hate it because the core game is terrible.
It'll never cease to amaze me that games with tons of promise get cancelled half way through production all the time, yet games like this survive all the way to a release date.
Being lord of the rings is the only reason it got to release. Think of it like a modern one of those shitty movie games they use to make tons of like ps1/2 time frame. It doesn’t matter if it’s good, enough people will likely buy it in the end anyways to turn a profit
it always surprises me that they make a game to this extent and then just... don't polish it and release it broken? it's literally throwing away years of work and hundreds of thousands of dollars every time they release a broken game.
@@samh3048 It's not throwing aways years of hard work and millions of dollars if dumb people buy the game anyways. Then they are actually making a profit for selling an unfinished game. And then they are incentivized to keep selling unfinished games because dumb people still buy the game.
In canon, smeagol is pretty weak. Strong enough to wrestle a hobbit, but just barely. Aragorn could probably crush his windpipe with one hand tbh. His survival is not a matter of physical durability. But instead is a combination of three factors: 1) His own cunning and desire to avoid danger so he can spend more time with the ring. 2) The power of the ring itself, which smeagol wielded longer than anyone. 3) The personal intervention of Eru Illuvitar ensuring that Gollum survives long enough to play his pivotal role in destroying the one ring and finally ending the rebellion of sauron and morgoth. And if I had to pick, I'd say it was mostly the third one. Smeagol was literally chosen by god to play his accursed role, to be the sacrificial lamb. And thus he could not have been permitted to due a pointless death before his appointed time.
Beep bop... I'm the Philosophy Bot. Here, have a quote: "I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration" ~ Frank Herbert
you really need to think, at any point during development did someone say 'hey this looks like trash' or were they all extremely proud of their product. If they were proud that is absolutely sad
Not my place to accept such an apology, though I will note they also need to apologize for charging 10$ for lore content to hide the fact this was not a 59$ game but a 69$ one.
This might be my favorite video on TH-cam. I am convinced I have rewatched this video more than anyone else! Anytime I’m in a bad mood I’ll throw on some dunkey Smegle review
@@terribletimmy2 Because these companies see their customers as complete and utter idiots who buy any old crap if it has a well known brand name attached too it.... and you know what? Half the time they are right. But they have no respect for us at all....
Back when literally anything imaginable would be ported to the Commodore, SNES, or whatever at the time. Makes me miss PS2 shovelware licensed titles. At least some of those were funny.
I like how they tell you to press X to Accept Game Over as if there was a mechanic where you could dispute it but didn't make it to the final version of the game.
I love Balan Wonderworld finally being recognized for its innovative features, such as utilizing multiple colors and attempting on some level to invoke happiness
I remember the game being introduced at the very first Xbox Series X games showcase and some delusional commentator said he'd buy a Series X just to play Balan Wonderworld.
Gollum would have been a much better experience if he'd been allowed to dress as a flower that intermittently illuminates the surroundings, or as a sunflower with Red Hot powers!
I don't think the idea is bad. The mechanics of having to pick between Smeagol and Gollum could have been great if they were fleshed out and put on a game that wasn't awful.
Reading the books and watching the movies, it's apparent that the developers were going for that truly authentic Gollum experience... which is to say a life of agony, pain, and crippling helplessness.
Which is weird, because the whole thing about Gollum in the books is that he is deceptively powerful. He can take out orcs and even trolls alone. He is twisted, and mutated, but not helpless at all.
I'd like to think that the ghost of Gollum is trapped in every iteration of the game's avatar, living out every pathetic lifespan as a mean of punishment, this game is literally Smeagol's afterlife.
@@basilcook4280 It should be “The Lord of the Rings”, not “The Lord of Ring”. Two errors there: no “the” and “Ring” instead of “Rings”. The intern/AI did not double check their work lol
The concept of this game sounded great. As a weak and frail Sméagol you’re tasked with navigating through middle earth and it’s dangers. Also as a character his interactions with people could have been fun to see. Too bad they released this 😭
I am amazed that Dunkey didn't point out the DLC for adding lore-objects to the game and the one that lets you say "My precious" on a 10 second cooldown for $3
I remember when there was first talk about this, someone summed up their hopes for it as 'it is a beautiful day in the Misty Mountains and you are a horrible Gollum' and I really wish that had been the concept behind it. Like, allow Gollum to cause as many problems as the goose got away with.
Yes honestly that would be awesome. Like Untitled Goose Game or Goat Simulator, but this time in Middle Earth and as a slimy Sméagol nobody likes. Actually seems kinda fun
I was hoping it would be more like the books imply where he's just kinda in the area while these massive, earth-shattering events are taking place but just eats fish and watches it go by. Figured it would lean more survival with the goal just being to mill about on a never-ending quest for fish while the ring gives us objectives that are all to get us killed so it can go back to Sauron but we keep living
I agree. In the books this is the sneaky little character that gained a taste for orc babies and the orcs couldn't stop him. He's evil on a level that makes Sauron look prudent and honorable, and maddeningly difficult to pin down with his only described capture in one of Mordor's most secure locations lasting a mere months at most.
This game reminds me of a AA stealth game I played a few years ago: Styx: Master of Shadows. It's like LOTR: Gollum went for a similar game with a similar premise (small and weak protagonist who cannot win a fair fight, dark fastasy setting, dark and brooding atmosphere, focus on stealth and acrobatics to avoid confrontations, even the way stealth kills are handled is extremely similar), except Styx did it better because the game was less glitchy (it was still janky but not in a game-ruining way), the story was more interesting to follow, the protagonist was more ressourceful, and the brooding atmosphere was tempered by bits of black comedy.
I really felt like I was depressed and an abused slave and had no free will of my own playing this game. Thank you Daedalic, ive never been more immersed in a video game.
The whole time this was being released I thought it was going to be a short Little Nightmares style game about Gollum moving from Mordor to Moria or maybe simply him escaping Mordor after being tortured. I am FLABBERGASTED that the whole game is him just doing slave work
I thought the same. At least that would have had some development, and lots of potential exploring and discovery. Edit: and it would have fit nicely in the canon
@@cube2fox seeing others play this (mostly my roommate and Charlie,) it's clear that at least half the game revolves around him being in slavery. At best that could have made for a nice intro sequence or tutorial section before his escape into the less linear world. It is very much a wasted opportunity.
What's even more funnier is the fact that the apology letter is ai generated (chatgpt) hence the incorrect spelling of the game's name Truly a work of gollum.
I actually liked the idea of playing as a feral goblin man running around in just my underwear and catching bugs and fish with my bare hands to eat. I was even willing to pay 70 dollars for such a game. And guess what, I did. And I do not regret my purchase of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom one bit.
On a meta angle, this would be brilliant. But the fact they had people pay AAA game price for it is unacceptable, unless we're dipping into some odd ARG territory here.
@@brzodroid the game is utter shit, in every conceivable aspect. I’ve watched people play it, it’s not bandwagoning what he said it’s absolute garbage, ugly, poorly made and executed, uninteresting garbage. This game is going to be 20 bucks in 2 months and probably like 8 during a Steam sale within a few more months, that’s how awful it is.
I have to commend the developers for making the first truly Kafkaesque gaming experience. I look forward to their next game, wherein you play as a giant cockroach trying to get off its back and avoid being stepped on by your abusive father.
I think there are some experimental games that might fit the bill. Balan Wonderland may be it too. The problem people have with that game is having to constantly traverse levels to get the powerups again. And of course the bizarre presentation and gimmicky powerups Shenmue is another example that comes to mind. Maybe you could play it with a guide, but I struggle to think of the demographic for that game. And somehow 3 of them were made
Kafkaesque?.. do you know what that means or where you just trying to sound smart? If this game was about the mundanity and redundancy of modern day bureaucracy, then sure. But I don’t recall Gollum wearing a suit and tie on his way to a 9-5 accountant job lmao Maybe devving this game was somewhat kafkaesque, but the game experience is not.
@@Howlingburd19 Gonna mention Skull Island Rise of Kong’s PC requirements are lower than Gollum’s requirements. Yet an 8GB RAM minimum requirement for a game with Awful graphics feels like a joke when you compare it to Crysis 2007 that only recommends 2GB RAM (as long as you don’t have Windows Vista) which has far better graphics than SIROK. This is why optimisation in pc games is VERY important.
You're all crazy, this game is an avant-garde masterpiece. The devs were so committed to authenticity they actually got Gollum to code it! Truly visionary.
The character you play as in this game is actually based on Dunkey's brother escaping after years of being forced to play video games blindfolded with an unplugged steering wheel for Dunkey's channel
One major about that: It's because games license from BOOKS not Jackson's movies. The movies likeness is "copyrighted" or they cant easily copy it. Mordor games were movie-licensed so they could copy the likeness easily. However, the model is kinda bad in the end..
@@SurrealLeaf Oh I just thought it was because he was like a younger Gollum, still partly Smeagol, not yet wholly physically corrupted by the ring. I guess I gave them too much credit.
@@Th3UprightMan I mean I guess they could've done that as well. It's still bit awkward looking, I agree. Real shame too. The devs are actually really good at making some point and click games and not bad at 3D. Look at their ken follett's the pillars of the earth game. That artstyle is really amazing in it too and games not bad. But supposedly their publisher is super shady and probably big part of the plunder.
"You play as a slimy rat bastard doing slave labor in hell where everyone is coughing and dying and calling you names" that's just employment in America tbf
I think the Smeagol game is a secret art of Daedalic Entertainment, which depicts the world of modern game-development. You slave away in a dark building, being yelled at by more aggresive and powerful people, who was given more power because they were more evil and aggressive than others. They force you to work on something you don’t want to. And at the end if you produce something worthwhile, you “get extra bread for that”.
You are all misunderstanding this game. It is actually a masterpiece which was coded by smeagle himself and also made to feel the twisted and depressing, brain-breaking life of smeagle 😢😢😢😢
They did such an amazing job with this game. They wanted to make a dark, depressing, gritty experience. Not only is the atmosphere dark, depressing, and gritty. But so are the mechanics and gameplay. What a success
I mean as a hobbyist game developer the point of game dev is to make the player feel a certain way. They seem to have made the player feel exactly how gollum feels so in that regard this game is a success.
It's hilarious they released a game about smeagle at *all* Like, who wanted this? Any lord of the rings fan wants to play a game as like, an adventurer or warrior not the fucking meth addict who eats raw fish in caves
I feel sorry for the devs, they've only ever made good, small 2D point and click games before this. Then their owners, a book publishing company, dumped making Gollum into their laps. And in the middle of production, shut down one of the studios working on the game and later sold the devs to a different company.
Just imagine that there is probably someone out there who had $70 to spend on a game, had to decide between this and Tears of the Kingdom, and went with this.
for the price of this game, you could get Deep Rock Galactic, Project Zomboid, and then still be able to buy most of the DLC for Vermintide 2 during a sale.
There are some crazy ass LOTR fans out there. Trust me on this. But no, not even I fell for this. I can understand folks who bought, for example, Anthem day one because they thought it looked like a cool concept, but this? Nah.
@@EdgieAlias The "precious" edition of this game includes emotes for Gollum, Elvish voice acting (this is not in the base game), and a lore compendium (also not in the base game). They sold basic features as premium content.
The broken game was a metaphor for how broken Golleum is. In fact, the developers wanted to hone that message in by forcing players be stuck in a loop.
I really appreciate how Dunkey never explicitly says that the game is hard to control and the platforming sections are unrewarding. It's shown through all the clips of him unfairly falling to his death that are sprinkled throughout the video.
Imagine spending 50 dollars on a game and upon opening it the developers say sorry
Many do not offer that honesty!
Edit:You are all replying to a fucking cheap joke like I'm serious, learn to read better, think before acting, remain calm, your life will improve.
60*
True but then at least drop the price? Who cares about an apology, consumers want their money's worth.
Its only 50 where you live?
🤓
You know it’s bad when Balan Wonderworld is used as a positive example
For real, the fact that Dunkey made that comparison was what really made me think "damn, this game is so horrible my feeble mind can't even comprehend its horrors"
I've never heard of Balanwonderworld I've only heard of Balanwonderland(this is a joke)
"This reminds me of that time I committed fax fraud at Yuji Naka's house"
@@UndeadAlv well my mind can comprehend these horrors just fine so sounds like a skill issue
only because it knew what it wanted to be
"The premise of this game is you play as a starving little gremlin that can't even catch a beetle doing slave labor for orcs in hell where everyone is coughing and dying and nobody likes you because you're a little slimy rat bastard and everyone hits you and calls you names the whole game"
Holy shit dunky sure knows how to sell me on a premise
I laughed so hard I cried when he said this, what a fucking description
Reminds me of my childhood
Update to the apology letter: they used chat gpt
Nah this fr? 😂
the fact that they misspelled the name of the game in their apology letter adds an extra layer of hilarity to this shitshow
Oh I didn't even realise it until you mentioned it. Wow, that's a low 🫣🤭
Truly the mark of what will be a stellar and timeless piece of entertainment
"yeah we're kinda sorry for that lord of ring game, oops, thanks for the money tho"
Jesus Christ, they really did do that
Lord of the RING
Yeah, forget all the other rings!
This game makes you feel exactly like Gollum. Bitter, sad, broken, depressed and alone. It's a Gollum type game.
peak Gollumcore aesthetic
Fuck strand games, gollum-type games are in.
Ah yes, I’m quite the fan of Gollum-likes
Too little appreciation for this "man of culture" comment
Truly makes feel like you dont have something precious.
I appreciate the existence of games like this one, because it's a game that nobody asked for EVER. So when it turns out this game is bad I get free entertainment from TH-cam. Keep it up devs!
Yeah, everything about this game is just so fucking baffling, I’m very glad it exists because it’s genuinely hilarious
I’m just sitting here praying for another shadow of war.
The devs dont make any games no more the studio is dead right now
the idea was so weird that I was CONVINCED they had some brilliant angle. Nope.
"The graphics is the graphics" Gollum game is truly one of the games of all time
Truly. A game was made and published.
if their goal was to make you see how depressing gollums life was then this game really makes you feel like gollum
I don't know about you, but this game actually made me feel like Spiderman.
@Hybrid From Hell that comment of yours is somehow even more sad than the game.
I hope they can one day capture that in a Spiderman game.
"this game really makes you feel like gollum"
9/10 - IGN
Depression simulator
"Like all high quality games, the Smeagol game comes with an apology from the developers" is just a 10/10.
Roasted them completely
10/10 It has a little something for everyone
They also misspelled the name of the game in the letter. 11/10
Edit: Apparently, Nacon used ChatGPT to write the apology without even telling Daedalic. 20/10
@@galaxywizard8904 "The Lord of the Ring: Gollum" lmao I can't man... I didn't catch that until you mentioned it
It's just embarrassing at this point
My first impression hearing about this game was that it should have been a point and click adventure instead of a stealth action game, and then i found out that Daedalic specialized in point and click games before this! A baffling choice to have this be your first action game!
Maybe they should've just gone the Emperor's New Groove route, abandoned all sense of seriousness and made it a Middle-Earth flavored Untitled Goose Game.
In this infinitely better Gollum (let's call it Untitled Gollum Game), you just sneak around places like Rivendell or Moria and harass people for no reason. And instead of a dedicated "HONK!" button, you have a "PRECIOUS!" button you can mash to your heart's content while you cross off objectives like "put nasty Elves's bow in the well" or Make the Hobbitses eat raw fish." I'd play that game for a million hours straight.
How does that have to do with emperors new groove? I'm so curious. I love that movie.
@@renemejias1842 If you watch the behind the scenes video they made about making Emperor's New Groove, they explain how originally they set out to make a great big serious musical like their other animated movies, but the development got so troubled and dragged on and on, until they finally just said "screw it, we're making a ridiculous comedy and not holding back!"
@@SomeTH-camTraveler they did well with that. Loved that movie as a kid.
The subtle tone of a saxophone after every inconvenience is hilarious
The first "apology type game", truly revolutionary.
No that was redfall
@@Immadeus Don't forget Cyberpunk!
@@mollusckscramp4124yeah but Cyberpunk was actually good
@@karimitickaeloogreattemlor3486_you're good_
...and _Breathtaking_
they should make a speedrun any % apology game category, wins wichever developer apologies first
I like how when you fall to your death, the game makes sure Smeagol fucking lands on his head to make sure he's really dead.
Is This the Worst Game Ever?
LOL 💀
probably because the mfs head is too heavy lol
@@LavaCreeperPeople well it’s certainly not getting GOTY that’s for sure
@@LavaCreeperPeople I'd put it right up there with.... damn really can't think of a worse game.
I feel like if maybe you took Gollum and placed him into the genre of horror inspired by Little Nightmares and Bramble King, you could potentially make this concept work. Treat Gollum's journey of harrowing self destruction like the horror it is and subtly tell the player that everything that happens to him is both self imposed or deserved yet beyond his control, rather than treating him like some kind of anti-hero or whatever they THOUGHT the fandom was thought of him.
2:54 does it really say the next day in comic sans 😭
"Wait in the line of slaves" has to be the funniest objective. Literally virtual queuing, peak game design.
The objectives are straight out of Postal 2 "get your welfare check" "wait in line for gary coleman's autograph" "piss on your dad's tomb"
This is just what living in Chicago is
@@williamwade9779 You are all misunderstanding this game. It is actually a masterpiece which was coded by smeagle himself and also made to feel the twisted and depressing, brain-breaking life of smeagle 😢😢😢😂
Well, to be fair, this game is actually very faithful to Tolkien's lore: Gollum's time in that prison was boring, horrible, abysmal, filled with crappy as hell objectives that either make no damn sense or are just ultra depressing, all taking place in a horrible looking environment. This game captured all of that accurately. LMAO.
@@johnpenguinthe3rd13 "It's not supposed to be *fun*, it's a commentary on the horrors of slavery, the banality of evil, and the halfling condition through the lens of the most wretched, pathetic id-driven excuse for a hobbit. It's *art*. Now give me $60.00."
"like all high quality games, the smeagol game comes with an apology" truly the future is now
Why the fuck are you all posting the same thing? Bots
cp2077 was so ahead of it's time
Smeagel always dies, but the sad saxaphone music implies that he cannot die, as if its his bad FORTUNE
I thought i was the only one
2:10 New objective: Request a refund.
It's actually kind of a hard game. It took me an hour to complete the "Restrict bloodflow to Gollum's throat" objective
I never did find all the fingers.
Anyone got any tips on how to convice gollum he is a little piss baby? Been stuck on this one for hours.
I personally struggled with calling Gollum a "piss baby" because I kept doing weird Mario impressions.
Find the new diaper was much harder than I thought it would be
The piss baby objective is a bit of a tricky one, you just need to refer to him as a urine goblin and it actually convinces him
It's amazing how far gaming has come! We used to get day 1 patches, now we get day 1 apologies
The devs banded together after the game was finished to preemptively write the letter, y'know, just to keep it on the ready
😂
@@Furufoo You are all misunderstanding this game. It is actually a masterpiece which was coded by smeagle himself and also made to feel the twisted and depressing, brain-breaking life of smeagle 😢😢😢😢
At least we have Pizza Tower to make us forget about this monstrosity.
Well at least it implies they regret making such a trashy game
i genuinely enjoy the fact that the state of game development is now just at “sorry for making this game” stage
My favorite part of the 'apology' is that they focus on the fact that they're working on fixing the bugs. People don't hate it for the bugs. They hate it because the core game is terrible.
I hated the beetle
It'll never cease to amaze me that games with tons of promise get cancelled half way through production all the time, yet games like this survive all the way to a release date.
Being lord of the rings is the only reason it got to release.
Think of it like a modern one of those shitty movie games they use to make tons of like ps1/2 time frame.
It doesn’t matter if it’s good, enough people will likely buy it in the end anyways to turn a profit
it always surprises me that they make a game to this extent and then just... don't polish it and release it broken? it's literally throwing away years of work and hundreds of thousands of dollars every time they release a broken game.
Corpos, that's the answer
@@samh3048 It's not throwing aways years of hard work and millions of dollars if dumb people buy the game anyways. Then they are actually making a profit for selling an unfinished game. And then they are incentivized to keep selling unfinished games because dumb people still buy the game.
The first game I immediately thought of when you said this, was Silent Hills. I still haven’t forgiven Konami for that
it's amazing how Smeagol who can't take 5 steps without dying somehow managed to live hundreds of years
That's just how hard his life has been. No wonder he's so crazy
@@thebillyd00 Smeagol had to play The Lord of the Rings: Gollum for hundreds of years. Can't believe the orcs would do this to him, sadistic bastards.
In canon, smeagol is pretty weak. Strong enough to wrestle a hobbit, but just barely. Aragorn could probably crush his windpipe with one hand tbh.
His survival is not a matter of physical durability. But instead is a combination of three factors:
1) His own cunning and desire to avoid danger so he can spend more time with the ring.
2) The power of the ring itself, which smeagol wielded longer than anyone.
3) The personal intervention of Eru Illuvitar ensuring that Gollum survives long enough to play his pivotal role in destroying the one ring and finally ending the rebellion of sauron and morgoth.
And if I had to pick, I'd say it was mostly the third one. Smeagol was literally chosen by god to play his accursed role, to be the sacrificial lamb. And thus he could not have been permitted to due a pointless death before his appointed time.
You know your game is bad when dunkey uses Balan Wonderland as a good example
Coming back to this after a few months. Dunkey NEEDS to play Skull Island: Rise of Kong now.
I’m genuinely convinced that the character designer got Gollum and Dobby mixed up on several occasions during the design process
Imagine playing as a fusion of the two most beautiful people in all of fiction. 60 dollars yes please
Don't disrespect Dobby like that, house-elves can wield powerful magics they're just brainwashed.
Then they threw Bully Maguire’s hair ontop of the abomination. 💀
And somehow failed at creating either one
It’s annoying too because theses guys helped make Barotrauma
"New objective: Return to your cell in the barracks and end the day by the window." Finally a game I feel represented in
Beep bop... I'm the Philosophy Bot. Here, have a quote:
"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration"
~ Frank Herbert
@@philosophy_bot4171bots on yt? Nah, reported
@@electron6825This is better than the other bots I've seen. Better than the attention seekers and pron bots.
@@philosophy_bot4171 "Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind" - also Frank Herbert. Let us get Butlerian on this bot
This is like playing some elderscrolls game, you start as a prisoner but this time you won’t leave the prison xD
"The graphics are the graphics" that's my favorite line ever
*When “Skull Island: Rise of Kong” releases*
Gollum: “Finally, a worthy opponent. Our battle will be legendary!”
the fact that their game was so bad they had to apologise for the game itself is just incredible
their game was so bad they couldnt spare the time to write an apology because they were still coding it after release
so they let the AI do it
“Lord of Ring”
It’s an embarrassment. They should have cancelled this monstrosity before it even released.
you really need to think, at any point during development did someone say 'hey this looks like trash' or were they all extremely proud of their product. If they were proud that is absolutely sad
Not my place to accept such an apology, though I will note they also need to apologize for charging 10$ for lore content to hide the fact this was not a 59$ game but a 69$ one.
It’s very telling that I legitimately cannot tell if the Gollum death sound effects are genuine or just Dunkey memeing.
There are no jokey edits in this, that’s just the game…😅
@@Capin91 comic sans?? For real?
@@TokumBeatboxdo you want to have a bad Tom?!
@@Another_El_User what?
@@TokumBeatbox they asked if you want to have a bad Tom?!
This is the best homeless simulator I have ever played. I was actually homeless when I got this game, yet somehow playing Gollum was more painful
This might be my favorite video on TH-cam. I am convinced I have rewatched this video more than anyone else! Anytime I’m in a bad mood I’ll throw on some dunkey Smegle review
I am genuinely flabbergasted that this was even released
I'm no Tolkien fan, but the idea for this at least sounded okay...I guess...
Seems like they just went about it the wrong way though.
It's legitimately shocking... how in the hell did this get greenlit??????
@@terribletimmy2 why wouldn't it get greenlit? It could work if it wasn't as bad as it is.
this game wasn't released.
it escaped.
@@terribletimmy2 Because these companies see their customers as complete and utter idiots who buy any old crap if it has a well known brand name attached too it.... and you know what? Half the time they are right. But they have no respect for us at all....
This game is honestly such a throwback to the days when all licensed games blew beaver ass. Like it's giving Superman 64
Okay, so since the '90s are back, when are we going to get cool skateboarding dogs with sunglasses?
Back when literally anything imaginable would be ported to the Commodore, SNES, or whatever at the time. Makes me miss PS2 shovelware licensed titles. At least some of those were funny.
E.T moment.
@@radio_obscura "it's giving" 🤡
@@joedorben3504 lol “it’s giving” ☠️🤡
I like how they tell you to press X to Accept Game Over as if there was a mechanic where you could dispute it but didn't make it to the final version of the game.
Who gets their own game next?
C-3PO?
I love Balan Wonderworld finally being recognized for its innovative features, such as utilizing multiple colors and attempting on some level to invoke happiness
I remember the game being introduced at the very first Xbox Series X games showcase and some delusional commentator said he'd buy a Series X just to play Balan Wonderworld.
Gollum would have been a much better experience if he'd been allowed to dress as a flower that intermittently illuminates the surroundings, or as a sunflower with Red Hot powers!
I prefer to live out my ultimate fantasy as a weak, wretched creature forced to perform slave labor in hell.
*evoke
I've never heard of it and thought wtf is that.. it makes sense that it is merely a more enthusiastic piece of shit.
This game really makes you FEEL like you’ve been cursed with unnaturally long life.
So bad it gives you a suicidal crisis?
Yep. At least ET for the Atari was only ten minutes long.
The game feels thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread.
I like you😂
Who thought people would want to play as Gollum?
Like Gandalf or Aragorn would be too fun?
I'm looking forward to the sequel where you get to play as one of the orcs guarding the Black Gate and do all the daily tasks that guard duty entails.
2:31 "New objective: End Smeagol's suffering." I hadn't seen that before lmfao
I love the implication that Sméagol just standing up would be such a power move that the game can't allow it and gives you a Game Over screen
😂 that’s the way I seen it too
This game really makes you feel like one of father’s rats
Had a feeling someone would write this.
K*ll him!
That digimon world 3 music at the end really bringin me back thanks dunko
I don't think the idea is bad. The mechanics of having to pick between Smeagol and Gollum could have been great if they were fleshed out and put on a game that wasn't awful.
Reading the books and watching the movies, it's apparent that the developers were going for that truly authentic Gollum experience... which is to say a life of agony, pain, and crippling helplessness.
yes -they want the experince for players so they succeded , they should charge more for this uniquehood
Which is weird, because the whole thing about Gollum in the books is that he is deceptively powerful. He can take out orcs and even trolls alone. He is twisted, and mutated, but not helpless at all.
And also mind-numbing tedium.
I'd like to think that the ghost of Gollum is trapped in every iteration of the game's avatar, living out every pathetic lifespan as a mean of punishment, this game is literally Smeagol's afterlife.
5:47 We need to acknowledge that the apology begins by calling it "The Lord of Ring: Gollum"
I’m confused, isn’t that the name of the game?
@@basilcook4280 It should be “The Lord of the Rings”, not “The Lord of Ring”. Two errors there: no “the” and “Ring” instead of “Rings”. The intern/AI did not double check their work lol
@@MrMario995 shows how little they actually cared.
I didn’t even notice that. I love how little they care.😂
Probably written by Gollum
The concept of this game sounded great. As a weak and frail Sméagol you’re tasked with navigating through middle earth and it’s dangers. Also as a character his interactions with people could have been fun to see. Too bad they released this 😭
I think the same, the concept itself is not that trash, but the execution..
I am amazed that Dunkey didn't point out the DLC for adding lore-objects to the game and the one that lets you say "My precious" on a 10 second cooldown for $3
No fucking way 😂 you have to pay to be able to say “my precious”?! 🤣
@@interestedinbread3634 It's advertised as "6 iconic emotes".
One emote is "My precious"
The other five emotes are him interacting with a bug.
@@Guntfarm are you serious about the other five emotes. you gotta be shitting me lmao
@@5PYZ3R It gets better
You do the emotes by pressing down on the d-pad and it plays a random one. You can't even pick which one plays.
@@interestedinbread3634 You do, yep!
This game makes you feel like you're experiencing smeagol's depression. Immersion 10/10
10/10 This game has a little something for everyone
@Kiril's Armwrestling Show fax
Say what you whill about this game but it really makes you feel like Smeagol 7/10
4:08 no im smeagol
Why does this translate to "I dont know everything"?
Nothing nicer then checking on a childhood TH-camr who has gone from a few thousand views to now millions. So we'll deserved dunk you are the goat
I remember when there was first talk about this, someone summed up their hopes for it as 'it is a beautiful day in the Misty Mountains and you are a horrible Gollum' and I really wish that had been the concept behind it. Like, allow Gollum to cause as many problems as the goose got away with.
Yes honestly that would be awesome. Like Untitled Goose Game or Goat Simulator, but this time in Middle Earth and as a slimy Sméagol nobody likes. Actually seems kinda fun
I was hoping it would be more like the books imply where he's just kinda in the area while these massive, earth-shattering events are taking place but just eats fish and watches it go by.
Figured it would lean more survival with the goal just being to mill about on a never-ending quest for fish while the ring gives us objectives that are all to get us killed so it can go back to Sauron but we keep living
Disaster Report w/ Gollum
I agree. In the books this is the sneaky little character that gained a taste for orc babies and the orcs couldn't stop him. He's evil on a level that makes Sauron look prudent and honorable, and maddeningly difficult to pin down with his only described capture in one of Mordor's most secure locations lasting a mere months at most.
That Balan Wonderland comparison was brutal, this is the most ruthless thing I've ever seen dunkey do
I don't know if you did it on purpose for the lols but just in case, it's actually Wonderworld xd
No, wrong. It’s Wonderworldland! Did you even watch the video?!
Balan Wonderwall
i spend so long editing, but get no views. I wuv you 💜
I can't think of a worse way to pan a game than to compare it unfavorably to Balan Wonderworld/land/wall/whatever
The shadow of mordor orc intro absolutely destroyed me lol
This game reminds me of a AA stealth game I played a few years ago: Styx: Master of Shadows. It's like LOTR: Gollum went for a similar game with a similar premise (small and weak protagonist who cannot win a fair fight, dark fastasy setting, dark and brooding atmosphere, focus on stealth and acrobatics to avoid confrontations, even the way stealth kills are handled is extremely similar), except Styx did it better because the game was less glitchy (it was still janky but not in a game-ruining way), the story was more interesting to follow, the protagonist was more ressourceful, and the brooding atmosphere was tempered by bits of black comedy.
I really felt like I was depressed and an abused slave and had no free will of my own playing this game. Thank you Daedalic, ive never been more immersed in a video game.
@Shitty Eugene not everyone buys a game every month
Why not just work at Walmart
@@chrismyers8613 You get paid at Walmart, which ruins the experience.
@@porkcutlet3920lolll
The whole time this was being released I thought it was going to be a short Little Nightmares style game about Gollum moving from Mordor to Moria or maybe simply him escaping Mordor after being tortured. I am FLABBERGASTED that the whole game is him just doing slave work
Is it? That sounds terrible. 😂
What a piece of shit.
AVGN should review this.
I thought the same. At least that would have had some development, and lots of potential exploring and discovery.
Edit: and it would have fit nicely in the canon
yeah why would they do that? who thought that was a good idea? that is actually depressing
Slave work is not the whole game? Gollum escapes eventually. Dunkey probably just played part of it.
@@cube2fox seeing others play this (mostly my roommate and Charlie,) it's clear that at least half the game revolves around him being in slavery. At best that could have made for a nice intro sequence or tutorial section before his escape into the less linear world. It is very much a wasted opportunity.
Was wondering why that sax music sounded so familiar when he was dying. Realised it's from Metal Gear Solid 2. Fortune's theme.
what this game was missing was Sméagol dancing at the end of every level to upbeat music with his girlfriend.
I nearly cried when I had to do the mission where smeargle had to fight baby seals, but the seals beat him instead
That twist fkin threw me off guard man.
That was fucking peak I swear
Smarmgle
Sneedgle
smeargle???
This game really makes you feel like one of father’s rats being killed
6:14 the digimon world 3 music 😭😭😭 absolutely best game taste possible
What's even more funnier is the fact that the apology letter is ai generated (chatgpt) hence the incorrect spelling of the game's name
Truly a work of gollum.
This is like if insomniac made an entire 60 dollar game based around those mj missions in the first spiderman game
Why was Michael Jackson in the Spiderman game?
Just summed up pain in one sentence. It's the only part of replaying the game I can't stand
Those were so terrible
@@radio_obscura Bc he asked Stan Lee to be spiderman in a movie and he said no
I actually liked the idea of playing as a feral goblin man running around in just my underwear and catching bugs and fish with my bare hands to eat. I was even willing to pay 70 dollars for such a game. And guess what, I did. And I do not regret my purchase of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom one bit.
All the gameplay footage I've seen of this looks like a barely-functioning crypto miner made in Unity.
I didn't realize until today that Dunkey added that troll objective at 2:33
I think the devs actually did a pretty good job to make the player experience the same torture Gollum had to endure.
On a meta angle, this would be brilliant. But the fact they had people pay AAA game price for it is unacceptable, unless we're dipping into some odd ARG territory here.
Similar to how ET for the Atari made you experience the desire to phone home.
Even if this was a 15 dollar indie game, this would've been unacceptable.
If they gave this game to me for free, I will ask for a refund 🤣🤣
No it wouldnt stop bandwagoning
@@leonardvilliers5858 😂😂😂 and an apology
@@brzodroid the game is utter shit, in every conceivable aspect. I’ve watched people play it, it’s not bandwagoning what he said it’s absolute garbage, ugly, poorly made and executed, uninteresting garbage. This game is going to be 20 bucks in 2 months and probably like 8 during a Steam sale within a few more months, that’s how awful it is.
I'm not sure even anyone would need it for free
0:31
“Stop. Gay!”
“Nyaaahaaa”
Balan Wonderland being an example of what a game could do better is horrifying.
I have to commend the developers for making the first truly Kafkaesque gaming experience. I look forward to their next game, wherein you play as a giant cockroach trying to get off its back and avoid being stepped on by your abusive father.
Bad Mojo already exists.
this one made me laugh so hard! thank you
I think there are some experimental games that might fit the bill. Balan Wonderland may be it too. The problem people have with that game is having to constantly traverse levels to get the powerups again. And of course the bizarre presentation and gimmicky powerups
Shenmue is another example that comes to mind. Maybe you could play it with a guide, but I struggle to think of the demographic for that game. And somehow 3 of them were made
Kafkaesque?.. do you know what that means or where you just trying to sound smart? If this game was about the mundanity and redundancy of modern day bureaucracy, then sure. But I don’t recall Gollum wearing a suit and tie on his way to a 9-5 accountant job lmao
Maybe devving this game was somewhat kafkaesque, but the game experience is not.
Final Fantasy 6 is pretty Kafkaesque since Kafka is the main antagonist
If gollum was a real person and he made this game it’s exactly how I’d imagine it to look like.
I'm not convinced this isn't what occurred.
Just remembering that they commited a typo on the Sorry Letter, they wrote "The Lord of the Ring", without the S in Ring
Nope, Rise of Kong takes the win for that title. 😅
The Fall of Kong
Gollum: “Finally, a worthy opponent. Our battle will be legendary!”
@@Howlingburd19 Gonna mention Skull Island Rise of Kong’s PC requirements are lower than Gollum’s requirements. Yet an 8GB RAM minimum requirement for a game with Awful graphics feels like a joke when you compare it to Crysis 2007 that only recommends 2GB RAM (as long as you don’t have Windows Vista) which has far better graphics than SIROK. This is why optimisation in pc games is VERY important.
You're all crazy, this game is an avant-garde masterpiece. The devs were so committed to authenticity they actually got Gollum to code it! Truly visionary.
>they actually got gollum to code it!
Doobus Goobus reference
@@TheLudicrousLuv what
@@lucre113 nothing
@@TheLudicrousLuv what?
@@TheLudicrousLuv real
This game really makes you FEEL like you are one of father's rats
*k i l l h i m*
STOOOOP
Thought I would get sick of this run down joke. Turns out it's still hilarious
😂😂
This got me 😂
did you just pull a remix from the main city theme from digimon world 3 for the ending?
The character you play as in this game is actually based on Dunkey's brother escaping after years of being forced to play video games blindfolded with an unplugged steering wheel for Dunkey's channel
And fed nothing but spaghetti
my little brother actually has the controller
@@GandalfsHashPipe Spagetti and Meatballs
yes
Seinfeld?
The fact Gollum literally looks nothing like Gollum is crazy
Should have called it Colin
One major about that: It's because games license from BOOKS not Jackson's movies. The movies likeness is "copyrighted" or they cant easily copy it. Mordor games were movie-licensed so they could copy the likeness easily. However, the model is kinda bad in the end..
@@SurrealLeaf ahhh thanks for explanation tho
@@SurrealLeaf Oh I just thought it was because he was like a younger Gollum, still partly Smeagol, not yet wholly physically corrupted by the ring.
I guess I gave them too much credit.
@@Th3UprightMan I mean I guess they could've done that as well. It's still bit awkward looking, I agree. Real shame too. The devs are actually really good at making some point and click games and not bad at 3D. Look at their ken follett's the pillars of the earth game. That artstyle is really amazing in it too and games not bad. But supposedly their publisher is super shady and probably big part of the plunder.
"You play as a slimy rat bastard doing slave labor in hell where everyone is coughing and dying and calling you names" that's just employment in America tbf
3:02made my laugh
I think the Smeagol game is a secret art of Daedalic Entertainment, which depicts the world of modern game-development.
You slave away in a dark building, being yelled at by more aggresive and powerful people, who was given more power because they were more evil and aggressive than others. They force you to work on something you don’t want to. And at the end if you produce something worthwhile, you “get extra bread for that”.
TY, just... thank you,
You are all misunderstanding this game. It is actually a masterpiece which was coded by smeagle himself and also made to feel the twisted and depressing, brain-breaking life of smeagle 😢😢😢😢
People hate the game because it’s too real. They want to escape capitalism, not play it.
you got extra bread?
Not the bread 😭
They did such an amazing job with this game. They wanted to make a dark, depressing, gritty experience. Not only is the atmosphere dark, depressing, and gritty. But so are the mechanics and gameplay. What a success
Good troll
It reminds me of Agony, except with less soul. Ironic.
I mean as a hobbyist game developer the point of game dev is to make the player feel a certain way. They seem to have made the player feel exactly how gollum feels so in that regard this game is a success.
reminds me of agony. I got to the second area before I couldn't take it anymore.
Truly this is the modern day’s Kane & Lynch 2
I never thought "he's one of father's rats, kill him!" would be stuck in my head, but here we are.
1:45 Agree 100%
I always thought who the fuck wants to play as Gollum
I know it's sad bad but it's absolutely hilarious that they released a game about Smeagle in this state. It just makes sense somehow.
There are no good games possible with this smegma character
It's hilarious they released a game about smeagle at *all*
Like, who wanted this? Any lord of the rings fan wants to play a game as like, an adventurer or warrior not the fucking meth addict who eats raw fish in caves
@@thalesv5973 what about a power fantasy game where he is the villain and you play as a beetle
I feel sorry for the devs, they've only ever made good, small 2D point and click games before this. Then their owners, a book publishing company, dumped making Gollum into their laps. And in the middle of production, shut down one of the studios working on the game and later sold the devs to a different company.
The game's quality was intentionally made to reflect the inadequacy of Smeagol as a character. It's genius.
Just imagine that there is probably someone out there who had $70 to spend on a game, had to decide between this and Tears of the Kingdom, and went with this.
for the price of this game, you could get Deep Rock Galactic, Project Zomboid, and then still be able to buy most of the DLC for Vermintide 2 during a sale.
@@WaffleShortage Or even 20ish cheeseburgers, now thats the steal
There are some crazy ass LOTR fans out there. Trust me on this.
But no, not even I fell for this. I can understand folks who bought, for example, Anthem day one because they thought it looked like a cool concept, but this? Nah.
I mean this would probably be better than those nintendo switch zelda games though
@@lafireteamplx3400 lmao funny joke
Damn, that digimon 3 east station tune at the end hit me hard with nostalgia
Quality dunk. I love when something sucks
Having to pay extra for him to say "my precious" says everything
WAIT REALLY?!
No fucking way
@@EdgieAlias The "precious" edition of this game includes emotes for Gollum, Elvish voice acting (this is not in the base game), and a lore compendium (also not in the base game). They sold basic features as premium content.
@@EdgieAlias The worst part about it, it has a fuckin cooldown...
@@Krawberry the cooldown is for gameplay balance.
The broken game was a metaphor for how broken Golleum is. In fact, the developers wanted to hone that message in by forcing players be stuck in a loop.
LMFAO
The metaphor really works seeing as how the only fitting end for this game is to cast every copy into the fiery chasm of Mt. Doom
The npc quotes are pretty accurate to how people reacted to the game
I dont know why but hearing Fortune's theme over this game cracks me up xD
I really appreciate how Dunkey never explicitly says that the game is hard to control and the platforming sections are unrewarding. It's shown through all the clips of him unfairly falling to his death that are sprinkled throughout the video.
He somehow did that in Zelda as much as humanely possibly too though, so that doesn't mean much.
He does it in every game.
Skill issue?
@@TheGuardDuck damn bro you’re so good at Sméagol game. Here’s your prize 🥇🍪
@@bluedistortions exactly, some people just love to make stuff up
@@TheGuardDuck I haven't played the game. I just have a decent level of media literacy.
what did i ever do to that orc
Be white
Hey Birdo!
Did you breed him?
Gave him the ol' forward facing berd model.