After interviewing a total of 32 former and current employees of the studio, the report outlines that the failure of the project can be attributed to a bunch of factors ranging from poor management to extensive crunch and developer incompetency. Daedalic Entertainment didn’t have experience working on a 3D game with AAA levels of ambition since it was always known for its 2D point-and-click adventure projects.

Add to that the rather measly budget of $15 million for such an ambitious project, the team wasn’t able to hire the required talent to realise those ambitions. The developer allegedly tried to get more funds for the game, but those pleas were consistently rejected by at-the-time owner Bastei Lübbe. In addition to this, the developers were forced to work long hours by CEO Carsten Fichtelmann and COO Stephan Harms- all of which came together to create a stressful environment.

But despite all that crunch and hard work, Gollum just wasn’t ready to be released. So when marketing for the game started, the developers had to resort to damage control measures to minimize the outrage that would happen. It’s a sad state of affairs that such malpractices continue to be a persistent problem in the games industry.

Now, new details have emerged on that apology letter. As reported by German YouTube channel Game Two (spotted by @Knoebelbroet on Twitter), Daedalic Entertainment apparently had no knowledge of the letter or its content, with publisher Nacon reportedly having overseen the entire process.

On top of that, Game Two also claims that, as per two anonymous sources, that letter was written using the AI-operated chat software ChatGPT, and was published without being checked or proof-read. Perhaps that would explain why the beginning of the letter refers to the game as “The Lord of Ring: Gollum“. An embarrassing situation all around, to say the very least.

Shortly after the launch of The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, it was confirmed that Daedalic Entertainment would be focusing only on publishing going forward, with future internal development being shut down, and that, as such, the studio’s second Lord of the Rings title had been cancelled.

Otherwise, there are bug fixes for issues like quest markers disappearing, objects becoming non-interactable after restarting, progression blockers, loss of mouse focus, etc. Check out the full patch notes below for more details. The developer says at the end, “To all our players, thank you for your patience. We sincerely hope these changes will help you enjoy The Lord of the Rings: Gollum.”

Without mentioning any other upcoming updates and improvements, this could be the last patch that the game receives. The Lord of the Rings: Gollum was released on May 25th for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5 and PC after delays, and received several negative reviews. The developer apologized for the same, while Daedalic has confirmed it’s shifting away from development to focus on publishing.

As a result, the internal development team was laid off, and their rumored upcoming Lord of the Rings title cancelled. There’s still plenty to look forward to in the universe, at least for MMO players, with Amazon Games Orange County working on The Lord of the Rings MMO. It’s coming to PC and consoles with a release date to be announced.

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum: Patch Notes 2.2

• Adjusted DLSS default mode from “off” to “auto” to prevent stuttering and performance issues when playing with RTX without DLSS.
• Resolved a low reproducibility bug where parts of the environment could be missing.
• Fixed an issue where quest markers could disappear after continuing from the main menu.
• Fixed an issue where interactable objects become non interactable after restarting.
• Fixed Bugs in the checkpoint system to improve the titles stability and clear annoying gameplay bugs
• Corrected the issue of the Bird losing the player’s chosen color in the breeding mission.
• Fixed the Bell in “Thranduil’s Halls – Cellars” being placed before the player placed it.
• Resolved a malfunctioning interactable object in “Thranduil’s Halls – Cellars”.
• Fixed a conditional blocker that caused Gollum to die if restarting during the beetle conflict.
• Fixed an unresponsive situation where the Pause Menu overlapped with a Game Over screen.
• Addressed the issue of losing mouse focus when opening settings.
• Fixed a blocker in the tower of light where the guard could see the player after spawning.
• Increased the chase radius for the “Cruel Woman” chase to prevent save games where the player cannot keep up anymore.
• Fixed a locked camera issue in the cart sequence in the “Sewers”.
• Improved Bird Training Spy Mission and Morning Visits, fixing several bugs.
• Resolved missing environment issues in “Tower of Light”.
• Fixed cog wheels spinning in random directions.
• Fixed nervous hands achievement behavior.
• Adjusting DLSS mode and sharpness when loading a save from a previous version.
• Fixed background sequence causing blocker behavior in Sewers.
• Overall fixes for background sequences.
• Fixed a Game Over screen in the tutorial when restarting from the main menu during the chase sequence.
• Fixed a possible bypass in Tower of Light Day 6 that caused a blocker.
• Fixed a softlock in Shadow Mountains when jumping off a cliff during a checkpoint.
• Added required checkpoint to Great Halls Low Day 1.
• Fixed malfunctioning trigger in Beast Pits Day 3.
• Fixed unresponsive menu issue after quitting from Gamma settings.
• Unloaded sublevel issue in the Black Pits cart mission fixed.
• Halls of Grond & Execution chambers – fixed and adjusted rotating wheels.
• Fixed extra camera shakes.
• Gollum Groom is now covered correctly by translucency while still respecting DOF and refraction.
• Fixed possibility to end the Sewers without killing both orcs.
• Fixed some localization issues.
• Fix excessive camera rotation during frame drops.
• Solved the issue of no sound in the cutscene of Cook’s death.
• Fixed Kings Grove missing sublevel when the escape orcs quest started.
• Resolved tutorial checkpoint issue in the chase mission.
• Fixed German conflict menu choice being displayed as French.
• Fixed several VO subtitle inconsistencies.
• Fixed Pause Menu malfunctioning after initial load of the game.
• Refresh animation state when Gollum is pushed by another character in crouch mode.
• Added missing “Hold” to Food tutorial in German and both traditional and simplified Chinese.
• Fixed a blocker in Mines Day 2 where the environment would unload before reaching the 3rd tunnel.
• Redundant collectibles removed for ending levels.
• Fixed unresponsive puzzle door in Ruins Outside when loading from Main Menu.
• Fixed blocked progress after the throttle tutorial when restarting from a checkpoint.
• Fixed Gollum floating at the beginning for Chapter 2.
• Fixed a softlock in Outer Gardens where Gollum would be detected immediately after spawning.
• Resolved Gollum staying in the shadow form even after exiting the shadow volume.
• Fixed softlock in “Queen Cascades” where it’s possible to avoid quest dialog when loading checkpoint.
• Fixed missing Mell water spot VFX when loading checkpoint.
• Fixed missing Grashneg lantern issue when loading checkpoints in Shelob’s Lair.
• Fixed unresponsive map / collectible screen when spamming open / close buttons.
• Improved NPC navigation around Gollum.
• Fixed a conditional blocker when returning from haze in Haze Gate.
• Kings Grove – fixed incorrect quest marker when loading checkpoint.
• Fixed wrong spawn location, direction, and missing quest marker on a specific checkpoint in the Finale.
• Fix for wall running not always triggering correctly.
• Riverpath fixed invisible 2 elves’ issue at the end of the level.
• NorthTower flying platform room improved visual effects.
• Fixed a conditional blocker in Breeding Hills when the spymission NPC group became immobile.
• Added a missing intuition path and relocated a wrongly placed intuition path in Riverpath.
• Fixed malfunctioning door hole in Ruins Outside when transitioning from the Main Menu.
• Fixed incorrect visit number in Cells when returning with the lights to the cook.
• Fixed NPCs in Tower of Light Day 9 not being aware of Gollum when returning from the Main Menu.
• Fixed punctuation in Lore Compendium.
• Resolved the issue of input hints flickering.
• Fixed the title remaining unresponsive when opening the Pause Menu while selecting Gollum or Sméagol before the inner debate.
• Synced data for DLSS Support, setting Fidelity fx2 to 0 when DLSS Support is false.
• Fixed blockers in North Tower when reloading a checkpoint and trying to interact with the winch.
  Added missing localization files.
• Fixed fluctuating groom when the game is paused.
• Fixed an issue in Bird Breeding where the inquisitor wouldn’t move or play the dialogue when reloading a checkpoint.
• Resolved an unresponsive door puzzle dialog blocker in Ruins Outside.
• Fixed the issue where falling due to stamina loss while turning on a bar prevented Gollum from climbing afterward.
• Fixed missing environment issue in Kings Garden on the 2nd visit.
• Fixed misplaced damage volume in Kings Garden.
• Discarded input when the controller disconnects.
• Added an input to close the message window of the disconnected device.
• Fixed the bush not restoring its state after reloading a checkpoint.
• Resolved missing environment in Mirkwood Chase when loading a checkpoint.
• Fixed a conditional blocker in Mines when restarting after picking up the last tag.
• Fixed the delivery bridge environment in Sewers when reloading.
• Adjusted the wrong Grashneg scale in Sewers.
• Fixed infinite Game Over screen in Construction Low when sweeping through a specific checkpoint.
• Fixed the wrong state of the door when transitioning from Tower of Light to Bird Breeding.
• Resolved incorrect camera spline in Shelob’s Lair during the 2nd chase.

Redfall

Initial reveals of Redfall didn’t look terrible. The lighting, shadows and overall mood that Arkane Lyon was going for looked intriguing and could have made for intriguing supernatural action. Things took a turn when it was confirmed not to launch with a 60 FPS Performance Mode on Xbox Series X/S.

Nothing could have prepared us for the actual game, though, with its broken animations, lackluster facial animations, terrible effects, pop-in, bland world with lifeless textures and overall lack of polish. The 30 FPS mode wasn’t the worst on Xbox Series X, but the motion blur still isn’t ideal. Having no animated cutscenes throughout the game feels like the cherry on top of this dumpster fire of a presentation.

AEW: Fight Forever

When AEW: Fight Forever was announced, it was hyped as paying homage to WWF No Mercy on the Nintendo 64. You can feel that with the perspective and some of the idle animations. However, it also feels like it wants to be a major wrestling title with its price without doing the appropriate groundwork with its mechanics, animations, features and much more.

The animations during actual combat look and feel incredibly janky. Some wrestlers barely resemble their real-life counterparts, and the glitches and bugs, like wrestlers clipping into the environment or phasing through ladders, are just terrible. The fact that so much work went into nonsensical mini-games rather than polishing the overall presentation – like having full entrances, fleshing out Road to Elite or improving the character creator – says a lot about the overall focus.

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum

On the one hand, you have to feel bad for Daedalic Entertainment. It probably wanted to make an adventure game and explore different avenues for the legendary character, like the moral choices between Smeagol and Gollum. However, unlike Deponia, it went with an action-adventure focus in full 3D. It also focused on some of the least interesting parts of Gollum’s life imaginable, like spending time in prison guiding a bird and then, get this, guiding a fellow prisoner.

Throughout all of this, the facial animations, texture quality, environments, and so on look horrible. The performance is also horrid with all the glitches, clipping and whatnot. If priced lower, The Lord of the Rings: Gollum may not have received much blowback. Unfortunately, at $60, with day one DLC costing extra, it just looks so much more awful.

Crime Boss: Rockay City

When you’re watching glitzy, edited trailers for it, Crime Boss: Rockay City looks decent. The lighting and shadows aren’t the worst, and sometimes, the city seems to come alive due to multiple light sources. On closer inspection, the textures on environments, characters and weapons look off.

The enemies animate in such a rudimentary manner. All NPCs suffer from almost no facial animations, and the big-name Hollywood actors fare only slightly better, looking uncanny at best and wooden at worst. One could forgive this if the script was better or the gameplay was compelling, but alas.

Ravenbound

Ravenbound could have done something with its lore and presentation. Not many games dip into Scandinavian folklore with its dark themes and whimsical yet terrifying creatures. Unfortunately, it seems that developer Systemic Reaction’s reach exceeded its grasp. The massive open world feels dull and lifeless with the same enemy camps and the same-looking enemies with the same limited animations (right down to the same telltale charge before an attack).

Texture quality in the environments and on models is poor, while Ravenbound’s performance was very iffy at launch (visibility during rain while activating Ravensight was non-existent). All in all, its mid-tier presentation needs a lot of work and polish.

Wanted: Dead

Wanted: Dead is a game that badly wants to emulate the look and design of sixth-generation console titles. Which is fine, but it didn’t need to look this poor. The textures on characters and environments already look pretty average, but outside of finishers, the character models animate stiffly with little by way of facial animations. There’s a constant jank to it all, but at least it’s over-the-top and crazy, right?

It feels like the same problem as AEW: Fight Forever – that developer Soleil wanted to make a throwback title instead of polishing the presentation but slapped a “homage to the classics” label on it to excuse the same. “It’s supposed to look like this, you see!” Regardless, the overall result is awful, even with the random wackiness.

Farming Simulator 23

It should be reiterated – when I saw the critics panning this game, I had to do a double take because Farming Simulator is generally well-liked. Farming Simulator 22 sold over 1.5 million copies in its first week and has 94 percent positive user reviews on Steam. So how did we get here? Farming Simulator 23 didn’t release on Xbox, PlayStation and PC like other platforms.

It arrived on iOS and Android and was ported to Nintendo Switch. The production values are not up to par, and the overall scale, sense of freedom and feature set also suffer from this paring down. The worst part? Despite looking so middling, it runs terribly on Nintendo Switch.

Redemption Reapers

Considering the experience of Adglobe and Binary Haze Interactive on the stunning Ender Lilies, the shift to a more realistic style for Redemption Reapers is somewhat puzzling. Given the post-apocalyptic nature of this medieval world, the gritty monotone visuals make sense, but they still feel overly washed out at times. While the cinematics look decent, the environments look extremely dull.

Character models also feel low-res, with animations that could have been better. It’s harsh, I know, especially since it doesn’t have the biggest budget, but even Harvestella from Live Wire (who also worked on Ender Lilies) looks better.

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty

It’s not that the aesthetic of Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is bad. Team Ninja has always done good with its action hack-and-slash titles (except maybe Stranger of Paradise in terms of fidelity), and Wo Long’s showcase of Romance of the Three Kingdoms is quite good. Unfortunately, it’s weighed down by dull textures, lackluster facial animations outside of cutscenes and average-looking environments.

Its fidelity is probably on par with Nioh 2, which isn’t terrible, but considering the latter is a 2020 title originally exclusively for PS4, you’d expect some improvements at this point. Of course, the fact that Wo Long continues to have performance issues on PC also doesn’t help.

Greyhill Incident

Once again, when viewing the Greyhill Incident in trailers, it appears to be a low-budget B-movie-style game that could offer some fun and decent visuals. However, you’re exposed to wooden animations and awful character models during gameplay. The facial animations fare worse – the little grey aliens have very little, not even when taking damage or getting shot in the head.

Expected, but still lame, as their bored walking animations make you ponder their existence instead of feeling threatened. At the same time, while it does offer some interesting lighting and shadows, Greyhill Incident piles on the motion blur and washed-out textures. On the bright side, at least it’s true to the name with all the “grey” you’ll see.

Greyhill Incident

What could have been a B-movie horror game turns into an unfunny, painfully unaware low-budget horror game. Aliens invade your small town, and you go around “saving” people. You fight the aliens sometimes, and they’re as threatening as inflatables at a pool party. Throw in lots of awful dialogue, dumb objectives that are difficult to parse, a nonsensical plot, terrible voice acting and bugs galore, and the Greyhill Incident is just one of the absolute worst games of the year.

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum

How do you mess up a Lord of the Rings game, that too with one of its most recognizable characters? The Lord of the Rings: Gollum makes it look easy, focusing on bland events in Smeagol’s life with asinine mechanics and tedious objectives. The stealth is poor, and Gollum’s character is nothing like the books or films, not that the script does a good job of delivering something original. Such was the failure of this game that Daedalic Entertainment has stopped game development entirely, halting another Lord of the Rings title (rumored to be a sequel to Gollum) and focusing instead on publishing.

Stray Blade

Stray Blade does have some potential with its lore and art style. Unfortunately, this is quickly undone thanks to the annoying protagonist, frustrating combat where you can dodge some attacks and parry others (not both), poor and limited enemy design, progression-blocking bugs and more. Improvements have reportedly been made to the combat post-launch, but its other flaws still stick out.

Redfall

Arkane Austin’s Redfall could have capitalized on improved communication and paved the way for other high-profile Xbox exclusives like Starfield and Forza Motorsport. Instead, it crashed and burned, packed to the brim with bugs, dumb AI, a sparsely populated and boring world, lackluster enemy variety, stupid vampires, terrible weapons, horrible dialogue – and, of course, performance issues on PC. Playing on Xbox Series X/S is torturous, thanks to no aim assist or advanced control settings. Top it off with no matchmaking, and this “co-op experience” just sucks.

Crime Boss: Rockay City

With the initial announcement, Crime Boss: Rockay City appeared to have poured most of its budget into big-name Hollywood stars. Unfortunately, it didn’t give them much direction or compelling dialogue, and the gameplay feels completely superfluous. Missions feel like little more than shoot-outs against tanky foes, and the campaign is forgettable at best. What could have been a pulpy take on Payday’s heists ends up as a bug-riddled, cheesy mess.

Ravenbound

Despite Systemic Reaction’s previous titles, like Generation Zero, being middling, I was genuinely stoked for Ravenbound. A rogue-lite set in a fully 3D open world based on Scandinavian folklore sounded interesting. The actual game was a different story, with baffling design decisions for combat, the Hatred system, exploration, long-term progression and more. Underwhelming performance and bugs didn’t help either, and it all just felt so poorly put together. Like Stray Blade, there have been improvements, but it’s got a ways to go.

Beyond Contact

Though published by Deep Silver, Beyond Contact passed completely unnoticed when it was released last April. It’s a sci-fi survival open-world title with base-building and real-time combat with a bright aesthetic, which is all good, but it messes up so much. Most materials do nothing, base defense is poorly balanced, farming is way too much work for little rewards, and the less said about the combat and tanky enemies, the better. Beyond Contact could have been interesting and settled for being fundamentally mediocre.

Rendezvous

With titles like A Space for the Unbound highlighting the game development talent in Indonesia, it hurts to see stuff like Rendezvous. It’s marketed as a “2.5D cyber-noir pixel art action-puzzle adventure.” Sure enough, its aesthetic is very sharp and eye-catching. However, it offers little beyond that than annoying puzzles and stealth to go with its boring combat and half-hearted narrative.

Mia and the Dragon Princess

Wales Interactive has a reputation for FMV-style games, with some standouts (The Complex) and duds (I Saw Black Clouds). Mia and the Dragon Princess sadly falls into the latter category. The story, about Mia and the mysterious Marshanda as they meet and go on the run, is baffling and full of throwaway characters. There’s a lot of fight choreography courtesy of – I kid you not – “Ginger Ninja Trickster”, and you can make some choices which don’t lead to any satisfying conclusion. Is it a good or bad thing that it’s over quickly? You decide.

The Last Worker

In The Last Worker, players control the last human worker who struggles in a world of automation and corporate greed. So it’s a shame that the protagonist Kurt isn’t particularly likeable or the writing very interesting. Some solid gameplay could have saved it, but unfortunately, The Last Worker offers awful mini-games and some poorly handled themes. Not even VR and unique mechanics can help.

Clive ‘N’ Wrench

Dr Daucas has stolen Professor Nancy Merricarp’s blueprints for time travel. It’s up to Clive (not that one) and Wrench, a monkey and not a talking wrench, to venture through time to stop Daucas. Making a compelling 3D platformer can be challenging, and Clive ‘N’ Wrench sadly fails where it counts. Controls and combat are terrible, and the performance leaves much to be desired (watch out for projectiles from enemies running at a different frame rate). It may have been something with more time and polish, but unfortunately ends up awkwardly skirting by.

Colossal Cave Reimagined

A 3D remake of the 1979 text-based adventure, Colossal Cave Reimagined comes from Ken and Roberta Williams, known for legendary adventure games like the King’s Quest series under Sierra Entertainment. Sadly, it’s let down by underwhelming visuals and outdated design, like annoying mazes and instant deaths. While the puzzles are decent, the remake feels unnecessary at best and downright frustrating at worst.

Curse of the Sea Rats

A Metroid-style title with hand-drawn animations and somewhat cute visuals, Curse of the Sea Rats ultimately wastes its potential. The rats may as well be human, without any unique mechanics designed around them (much less interesting scenarios for each of the four playable characters), and the world design is as confounding as it is boring. Cap this off with balancing issues, where some enemies are far more challenging than the bosses, and you have a fairly lop-sided, dull adventure.

Farming Simulator 23

At first, I did a double take on seeing Farming Simulator 23 rated so low. How could this be, especially when the previous entries were so beloved? It’s because this year’s iteration launched on mobile devices and ported to the Nintendo Switch. The result is a pared-down experience with limited freedom, fewer features, horrible performance and visuals, and a much higher price tag than the mobile versions.

The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR

Considering how well-received Until Dawn: Rush of Blood was on PlayStation VR (read: not very well), there was concern that The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR could repeat those mistakes on PlayStation VR2. Unfortunately, it’s worse, even with powerful technology and new features like eye tracking for scary blinking moments. It doesn’t present an interesting story or offer much beyond rudimentary rail shooter segments. Performance issues also bog the entire thing down, which isn’t something you want to highlight on Sony’s next-gen VR.

REDFALL

Redfall always looked like it was going to be very different from Arkane’s traditional offerings, but the general expectation was that, given the studio’s innate talent and impeccable track record, it would at least be a good, well put together game. In the end, it definitely wasn’t. Not only does Redfall almost completely lack the strengths one usually associates an Arkane game with, it’s not even good at the new things it tries, with everything from its open world and its co-op gameplay to its loot mechanis coming with major issues. Add to all of that some significan technical hiccups, and what you have is a game that woefully falls short of expectations for an Arkane joint.

THE LORD OF THE RINGS: GOLLUM

Let’s be fair here, no one really expected The Lord of the Rings: Gollum to be anything more than middling or passably enjoyable at best- but we also didn’t expect it to be literally one of the worst games in recent memory. Daedalic Entertainment’s stealth action-adventure game took its sweet time to finally release, and when it did, it stumbled with its first step and fell flat on its face. Nothing about The Lord of the Rings: Gollum works. It has boring quest design, little to no exploration, broken combat and traversal mechanics, and a deluge of technical and performance problems that make it nigh on impossible to get through. You don’t play The Lord of the Rings: Gollum. You endure it.

LAYERS OF FEAR

For a while, Bloober Team has been pumping out psychological horror games that range from middling to genuinely good, and this year, the studio went back to the very beginning to bring back Layers of Fear. Combining, connecting, and reimagining the first two games while adding its own new content on top, the new Layers of Fear looks excellent and has a fascinating premise- but as is often the case with Bloober, it doesn’t do justice to that premise. It ends up being a fairly dull, repetetive, and rote game that relies on its visual prowess to the exclusion of almost everything else. We can only hope the Silent Hill 2 remake fares significantly better.

TCHIA

We’d had our eye on Tchia for a while before it launched, with Awaceb’s tropical action-adventure game looking increasingly promising with each of its pre-launch showings, and though the final product is certainly not without its merits, it didn’t quite live up to our expectations. Yes, it has a gorgeous setting, and making your way around the island is fun, for the most part. But the game’s mechanics and systems never quite manage to get their hooks in, leaving us with a pretty but fairly unremarkable experience.

CRIME BOSS: ROCKAY CITY

Over the years, many have tried their hand at the co-op first person shooter heist genre, and very few have managed to enjoy the kind of success that the Payday series has seen. Crime Boss: Rockay City was certainly eyeing that throne, and with its star-studded cast of actors, it looked like it might actually take a big swing. The actual game itself, however, was not only disappointing, it was just downright terrible. Whether you’re playing its single player roguelike campaign or diving into its co-op offerings, the game’s aggressive mediocrity taints every second you spend with it, with its awful voice acting, bland design, repetitive loop, and boring core gameplay dragging down the experience into the doldrums.

RAVENBOUND

Ravenbound has a promising premise on paper as an open world roguelite set in a world inspired by Scandinavian folklore, but when you actually get down to playing the game, you realize that it’s woefully underbaked in almost every way that matters. Its world is a vast one, but given how empty, bland, and vapid it generally feels, exploration ends up being significantly de-emphasized. Combat can get repetitive instead of decent enemy variety, while the game also does itself no favours with its poorly balanced difficulty curve. Add to that an unfortunately healthy dose of technical issues, and you get a pretty underwhelming game.

FORSPOKEN

A big new AAA open world IP from Square Enix? To say that people were curious to see how Forspoken would fare would be an understatement, even back when it was called Project Athia, though unfortunately, it didn’t even come close to matching expectations. A premise that’s interesting on paper is let down by annoying characters and poor writing. An open world that should have been begging to be explored ended up being empty and uninteresting. The combat system, while flashy and enjoyable, failed to make up for deficiencies in boring quest design. The fact that Forspoken failed to meet Square Enix’s commercial expectations was, ultimately, not surprising in the slightest.

THE LAST OF US PART 1 PC

Frankly, we’re still baffled that this was allowed to exist. Naughty Dog, more than almost any other studio in the entire industry, is associated with an obsessive level of attention to detail and quality assurance. Polish and Naughty Dog go hand-in-hand- which is why it’s so surprising that The Last of Us Part 1’s PC port might be one of the worst PC ports in recent memory. Even looking at brief clips and individual screenshots, it was hard to believe that something this broken had been allowed to release. When you actually played it, it quickly became apparent that the state of the game was somehow even worse. It’s a real shame, too, because this will forever be remembered as the manner in which this legendary franchise made its PC debut.

LEGO 2K DRIVE

Unlike many other games on this list, LEGO 2K Drive is not without its merits. Its world is vibrant and colourful, it has an impressive suite of customization options for building any kind of car you want, and, as you’d expect from a LEGO game, it’s very kid-friendly and easy to get into. It is, however, also quite vapid. What you see is very much what you get, and with that lack of depth, LEGO 2K Drive ends up like a shallow experience that runs out of steam too quickly, whether that’s because of its how uninteresting open world exploration is, or its lackluster optional content, or any number of other issues.

LEAP

LEAP isn’t exactly a game that’s grabbed a whole lot of headlines, so to say that expectations were high wouldn’t exactly be fair. But this is still very much a game that doesn’t do justice to its interesting premise. The sci-fi competitive FPS boasts slick visuals and cool traversal options, but all of that gets bogged down in its tedious gameplay loop and how unsatisfying its moment-to-moment gameplay largely feels. Especially in a genre that’s this competitive, LEAP fails to make a mark in any meaningful way.

STRAYED LIGHTS

We don’t want to be unfair on Strayed Lights here, because for a game developed by a small team with a unique vision, it does actually get some things right. The story, the music, and the aesthetic, for instance, are legitimately solid and worthy of praise. There’s plenty else in the game, however, that drags the experience down, from its frustrating combat to the lackluster platform to its technical issues. The fact that there are parts of the game that are genuinelty good makes the parts that aren’t feel that much more frustrating.

STRAY BLADE

You’ll never see us turning down the chance to play a new Soulslike, especially one that’s trying to shake up the genre’s formula the way Stray Blade was promising it would. But though there’s something to be said about the idea of viewing the genre through a less gloomy lens, the actual execution of many of the game’s core pillars leaves a lot to be desired. The clunky controls, uninspired level design, and technical issues combine to make Stray Blade quite a frustrating experience, even if it isn’t one that’s totally without its merits.

CRASH TEAM RUMBLE

Again, in the name of fairness, it’s worth pointing out that Crash Team Rumble is definitely a game that you can have plenty of fun with- especially for fans of the series, given how well it translates that Crash feel into a MOBA experience. As it stands right now though, it’s also pretty barebones, with its launch offerings, especially in terms of the modes on offer, being quite limited. Of course, we’re hoping that Crash Team Rumble will be supported so well that including it on this list in retrospect feels like a mistake- but with live service games, you can never tell how long of a lifespan to expect.

GREYHILL INCIDENT

A small production in every way possible, criticising Greyhill Incident would almost feel unfair under most circumstances- but unfortunately, there’s plenty to criticize in this game. The core premise of a survival horror game where your main enemies are aliens is certainly an interesting one, but from its awful dialogue to its painfully shallow mechanics to the mind-numbing level design, Greyhill Incident messes up (to say the very least) in too many ways to be anything more than a disappointment. And even that might be a generous description.

RISEN (PS4)

In the many, many years since its launch, the original Risen has amassed a reputation as one of the RPG genre’s proper diamonds in the rough, though with its 2023 port, there was way more of the rough than there was of the diamond. Janky animations, disappointing and minimal updates to the gameplay and visuals, clunky combat, and technical problems combined to paint the ageing experience in what wasn’t exactly the most flattering light. Maybe this is one flawed gem that should have been left in the past.

As reported by Games Wirtschaft, Daedalic Entertainment has announced that it’s shutting down its entire internal development pipeline. The studio will no longer make its own games going forward, and is instead pivoting to focusing exclusively on publishing titles developed by external partners. That, unfortunately, means the internal development staff at Daedalic – at least 25 employees – is being laid off.

“We value each and every member of our team and it is important to us that the transition goes as smoothly as possible,” the studio said in a statement. “Therefore, we will support our former employees in finding new opportunities within our network.”

As reported previously, Daedalic Entertainment was working on another Lord of the Rings game, development on which started in 2022. That project has also now been shut down as part of the studio’s restructuring.

Daedalic Entertainment was acquired by Nacon for a sum of €53 million in February last year.

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum was looking like a curious prospect since the day it was announced quite a while back, attached as it was to one of the biggest properties in entertainment media, and thanks to its promise of a unique Lord of the Rings game that would differ from anything we had seen in the past. And, well, it did do that- though perhaps not in the way anyone would have wanted, from the people who made the game to the people who played it. The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is probably one of the biggest flops of recent years and has ben universally panned by critics and audiences alike, and it’s baffling to see it get to this point- even if there were plenty of warning signs in the years leading up to its release.

German developer Daedalic Entertainment announced The Lord of the Rings: Gollum back in 2019, and it was the briefest announcement it could possibly have been. The developer just released a logo, confirmed the name of the game, and as the name suggested, confirmed that the game would be shining the spotlight on the infamous halfling turned slave to the One Ring- and that was pretty much it. Of course, announcements of this sort aren’t exactly a rarity- though Daedalic Entertainment did say at the time that the game would be out sometime in 2021. For a game that was just a couple of years out from launch, not even seeing a single gameplay screenshot at the time of its reveal probably should have been the first red flag. Or an orange flag, at the very least.

Roughly 14 months later, Daedalic Entertainment showed the first glimpses of the game with its first batch of gameplay screenshots, though roughly a year after that, in early 2021, it was confirmed that The Lord of the Rings: Gollum had been delayed by a year, with a new launch window set for sometime in 2022. In 2021, we did finally begin getting glimpses of the actual game in action, first with a very brief sneak peak early on in the year, then with a much meatier showing a few months later during a presentation held by publisher Nacon (where a Fall 2022 launch window was also narrowed down), and then finally with a new cinematic trailer at The Game Awards in December 2021.

By the time 2022 rolled around, The Lord of the Rings: Gollum felt like a much more tangible prospect than it had until a year before that point, with Nacon and Daedalic Entertainment continuing to roll out new trailers and details for the stealth focused action-adventure title over the coming months as well, which also saw a September release finally being nailed down. A couple of months before release, however, the game was delayed yet again, with a May 2023 release being announced afterward. That, at least, was a date that it did manage to stick to, even going gold roughly a month ahead of launch- though when The Lord of the Rings: Gollum finally did hit, one couldn’t help but wonder how it had taken four years to get to only get to a point where it was, in so many ways, a broken game.

Instantly upon release, it was criticized widely by critics and players alike, and that criticism encapsulated what felt like every aspect of the experience. The visuals and the ugly character designs, the litany of bugs and technical issues, the shallow and repetitive gameplay, the terrible enemy AI and how it dragged down the already-rudimentary stealth mechanics, the mind-numbingly boring quest design, the voice acting and the writing, and so, so much more. In the weeks following its release, nothing in The Lord of the Rings: Gollum has been exempt from criticism. Many have called it flat-out one of the worst games they’ve played in recent years, and looking at the game, that sort of extreme criticism doesn’t even feel like it’s exaggerated.

And though the game has now become something of a goldmine for memes (perhaps taking some of the heat away from Redfall), The Lord of the Rings: Gollum’s failure is also something of a letdown, because at the very least, the game did have an interesting idea at its core. We’ve played as all manner of heroic and fabled characters in The Lord of the Rings games over the years, but not once did anyone imagine that there would one day be a game where Smeagol would be the protagonist. And he’s not a character that designing a game around should be impossible.

On paper, in fact, The Lord of the Rings: Gollum did have identify a few of the right areas where it could have delivered a solid Smeagol experience- using the character’s split personalities to drive an emphasis on choice and consequence mechanics, using his unique physical attributes to design an experience that was focused on stealth and parkour, using his particular perspective to view the well-known LotR story from a different lens. All of those ideas were the right ones- but again, they were right only on paper, because The Lord of the Rings: Gollum completely fumbled the execution of pretty much every single one of them, down to the last one.

And that’s the really disappointing bit- that in an increasingly risk-averse industry, Daedalic Entertainment decided to take a risk and set out to create a Lord of the Rings game that you wouldn’t necessarily expect to see. That they failed to make good on the unique promise of the premise they settled on is, to put it mildly, a bit of a bummer. Of course, the aftermath of the game’s launch has been a bit of a nightmare for the studio. No developer ever sets out to make a bad game, and seeing something you poured so much of your time into being roundly criticized by one and all can’t be easy, to say the least. There’s no denying, however, that the criticism for The Lord of the Rings: Gollum has been justified. More than justified.

Interestingly enough, recent reports have suggested that Daedalic Entertainment has another game based on the Lord of the Rings property in the works. The studio recently received a grant worth a little over €2 million in June last year from the Federal Ministry for Economics Affairs and Climate Action in Germany, which pertains to the development of, as the grant puts it, “a new project that will transport the player into a lush world full of mythical creatures and magic” and “tells a story from a character’s perspective that has never been told before”.

Looking at that description, you’d think it’s just referring to The Lord of the Rings: Gollum itself, though apparently, the grant money hasn’t been used for the panned action-adventure title’s development at all, and is instead related to the development of a different project based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s works, with the project’s completion currently planned for the second half of 2024, and development having started last year. A sequel to The Lord of the Rings: Gollum? A different game focusing on a different character? Maybe a weirdo game based on Treebeard?

Of course, the more important question is, should Daedalic Entertainment even go through with this project? Maybe the information is outdated and the developer has decided, in the aftermath of Gollum, that it isn’t going to proceed with the second game after all. Or maybe the studio is moving forward with the new title’s development- in which case, we really hope they take as many learnings as they can from the disaster that was The Lord of the Rings: Gollum. After all, there’s no shortage of learnings here.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

As spotted by Games Wirtschaft, it seems Daedalic Entertainment received a grant worth a little over €2 million in June last year from the Federal Ministry for Economics Affairs and Climate Action in Germany. The grant mentions it pertains to the development of “a new project that will transport the player into a lush world full of mythical creatures and magic” and “tells a story from a character’s perspective that has never been told before”.

While that description might make it seem like it’s just talking about the recently-released The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, Games Wirtschaft reports that the grant money has not been used for its development, and is instead related to the development of a different project based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s works. As per the grant, the project’s completion is currently planned for the second half of 2024, with development seemingly having started last year.

If this is indeed for a new Lord of the Rings game, will it be a direct follow-up to Gollum, or will it perhaps be focused on a different character?

Sure, I’ll play The Lord of the Rings: Treebeard.

In the aftermath of overwhelmingly negative reception, the developer has taken to Twitter to offer up an apology to players, stating that it “deeply regrets” the state the game has launched in.

“We would like to sincerely apologize for the underwhelming experience many of you have had with The Lord of the Rings: Gollum upon its release,” Daedalic Entertainment wrote. “We acknowledge and deeply regret that the game did not meet the expectations we set for ourselves or for our dedicated community. Please accept our sincere apologies for any disappointment this may have caused.

“Our goal as a studio, and as passionate The Lord of the Rings fans, has always been to tell a compelling and immersive story-driven adventure. Crafting a story with Middle-earth as our playground has been the greatest honour – and the biggest challenge we have faced so far.”

While many of The Lord of the Rings: Gollum’s biggest issues are baked into the game’s very design and are unlikely to ever be salvaged, Daedalic Entertainment says that it is working on fixing bugs and technical issues.

“At Daedalic, we understand that a game’s success relies on the enjoyment and satisfaction of its players,” the developer’s message reads. “We genuinely value your feedback and have been actively listening to your voices, reading your comments, and analyzing the constructive criticism suggestions you have provided.

“Our development team has been working diligently to address the bugs and technical issues many of you have experienced. We are committed to providing you with patches that will allow you to enjoy the game to its fullest potential.”

In our review of The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, we gave it a score of 5/10. Read the full review through here.

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is available on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.

A few words from the " The Lord of the Rings: Gollum™ " team pic.twitter.com/adPamy5EjO

— The Lord of the Rings: Gollum (@GollumGame) May 26, 2023