"Lord Of The Rings" Developer Apologizes for 'Underwhelming Experience': "The Lord Of The Rings: The Gollum," released on May 25, was widely criticized for its unpolished graphics and widely criticized for its performance issues, has issued an apology for the game's "underwhelming experience."

"We acknowledge and deeply regret that the game failed to live up to the expectations we set for ourselves and our dedicated community. We sincerely apologize for any disappointment we may have caused."

Filling the void in Gollum's story between "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, the game is already poised to become one of the worst-rated games of 2023, with Gollum released on PC, Xbox and PlayStation (with a Nintendo Switch version in the works), It currently has a score of 41 on Metacritic. Reviews of The Lord of the Rings Gollum have described the game as "a throwback to a time when licensed games were synonymous with low quality" and "about as much fun as walking barefoot across the flaming plains of Mordor."

It may be one of the worst games in PS5 history, but it's also one of the best games ever made.

Players and critics alike decried its muddy, outdated graphics, and side-by-side comparisons between the game's trailer and the visuals at launch spread the word about the noticeable drop in quality. You don't have to search the internet for memes mocking everything from the spartan UI to the frequent crashes to the font choices. This game is more at home on the PS2 than the PS5.

Daedalic's message continues, "Creating a story with Middle-earth as the playground has been the greatest honor and the greatest challenge we have ever faced." We genuinely value your feedback and have actively listened to you, read your comments, and analyzed your constructive criticisms and suggestions."

The studio added that it is working on fixing bugs and performance issues players are experiencing and will update users on its progress. Future patches are almost certain. However, beyond fixing a few performance issues, it is not clear how much of the game remains fixable.

Daedalic made its name in the late 2000s and early 2010s as one of the last game makers in the world to continue making quality point-and-click adventure games; past titles such as "Deponia" and "The Whispered World" were generally well received, especially for their sharp writing and stylized visuals, and were praised by fans. It is not clear what caused Gollum's launch to be a flop, but one has the feeling that the premise may have been.