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 RU-vid. 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!"
@@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 $60.00."
I feel like if maybe you took Gollum and placed him into the genre of horror inspired by Little Nightmares and Bramble King, you could potentially make this concept work. Treat Gollum's journey of harrowing self destruction like the horror it is and subtly tell the player that everything that happens to him is both self imposed or deserved yet beyond his control, rather than treating him like some kind of anti-hero or whatever they THOUGHT the fandom was thought of him.
you really need to think, at any point during development did someone say 'hey this looks like trash' or were they all extremely proud of their product. If they were proud that is absolutely sad
Not my place to accept such an apology, though I will note they also need to apologize for charging 10$ for lore content to hide the fact this was not a 59$ game but a 69$ one.
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.
@@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 😢😢😢😢
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
This might be my favorite video on RU-vid. 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
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 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 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 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
@@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....
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 😭
@@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
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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 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.
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
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.
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.
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.
"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
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.
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.
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.
@@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.
@@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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
What I find interesting is that your "friends" insult you and hate you, but then after that you're best friends, and then after that they hate you again. This truly is the Lord of the Rings of strand-type games.
The sad thing is they literally had an easy-in for a Gollum story. Literally just have a band of adventurers discover him, then find out about the Ring, and then it devolves into a free-for-all where Gollum has to manipulate the adventurers into killing eachother so he can get the Ring back. Literally Gollum's entire character is that he is obsessed with the Ring. He wouldn't give a damn about some slave tasks; he'd sneak out the first chance he had and move far away from the slavers so he doesn't risk being separated from the Ring again. So when you have a character that simpleminded, you need to play with the scenario to make their true strengths shine.
@@thestartoyou No it wouldn't. Gollum is a simple character where there is only ever going to be one choice, get the ring in the fastest way possible. Morality just doesn't fit his character despite his split personality. There just isn't room for player input of choices.
@@thestartoyou Honestly this game probably would fit better into that category or perhaps point and click instead forcing it into boring broken platformer like this, and fun fact the developer is actually very good when it comes to that genre, idk why they wanted to make it this way..
