The Lord of the Rings: Gollum

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is a third-person stealth-platformer that puts you inside the cracked skull of Tolkien's most tragic figure, covering the largely uncharted period between Gollum losing the One Ring and his eventual reappearance in the Fellowship's story. On paper, that is a genuinely compelling premise. Gollum is one of literature's great character studies, a creature split between obsession and whatever flicker of Smeagol still survives. Daedalic had real material to work with. The execution, unfortunately, does not honor that source. The core loop involves climbing, ledge-traversal, and stealth sections where you avoid Orcs and Nazgul while the two halves of Gollum's personality argue with each other. That internal dialogue, rendered as a choice system where you favor either Gollum or Smeagol responses, is the closest the game gets to interesting RPG territory. The split-personality mechanic has some charm in the early hours, and a handful of scenes genuinely capture the pathos of the character. The problem is that the choices rarely branch in any meaningful way. The narrative payoff for consistently favoring one personality over the other is thin, which is a serious disappointment given how rich that psychological tension is in the source material. The platforming itself is functional but stiff. Gollum moves with an awkward weight that makes precision jumps feel unreliable rather than skillful. The stealth sections are basic even by 2015 standards, with enemy AI that oscillates between oblivious and unfairly alert. There is no real build variety, no combat system to speak of, and the world, while occasionally pretty in a washed-out Mordor palette, is mostly empty corridors dressed up with lore fragments. Those lore fragments, small notes and environmental details aimed at Tolkien fans, are genuinely one of the better reasons to spend time here if you care about the extended universe. Who is this actually for? Hardcore Tolkien completionists who want to experience every corner of Middle-earth, including the corners that should probably have stayed dark. Players hoping for a rich RPG, a tense stealth experience, or a narrative that rewards multiple playthroughs will find almost nothing here. The mixed Steam reviews are honest. This is a game that launched rough, in a year crowded with better options, and the 40 percent positive rating reflects real frustration from a fanbase that wanted Gollum's story told well. If you are the kind of person who has read the appendices twice and would sit through a mediocre experience just to hear Gollum hiss about the Precious in a new context, there is a narrow window of enjoyment available. Everyone else should treat this one as a curiosity rather than a commitment. Monika, Scout Team