Daedalic's catastrophic Lord of the Rings: Gollum saga may finally be grinding to a conclusion. The patch notes for a beefy "major update" that dropped last week conclude with a note that, to my reading, pretty strongly suggests that the studio is putting a bow on it and calling it done.
Gollum was on unsure footing almost from the start, as gamers questioned (rightly, I would say) why anyone would want to assume the role of Tolkien's tragic, clammy villain in the first place. A planned 2021 release gave way to 2022 and then 2023, pointing to some serious problems in development, and while I held out hope that the game would surprise us all as a sleeper hit (or even just with basic competence), it was not to be. It bombed badly: We scored it a relatively high 64% in our review, saying that for all its flaws, Gollum "is an oft-beautiful and oddly endearing adventure," but it currently holds a 39 aggregate review score at Metacritic, and a "mostly negative" user rating on Steam.
It was bad enough that Daedalic quickly apologized for the mess, saying it "deeply regret[s] that the game did not meet the expectations we set for ourselves or for our dedicated community." It also committed to releasing updates "that will allow you to enjoy the game to its fullest potential."
As we noted at the time, Daedalic's statement led straight into an obvious question: What exactly is Gollum's fullest potential? Bugs can be fixed but you can't patch out essentially crappiness, and while I suspect some of the backlash against Gollum may be overblown (nuance is tough), the fact is that technical troubles are really only part of the problem: The greater issue is that people just don't like the game.
That may be why today's 2.2 update has a certain ring of finality to it. The patch promises a wide range of bug fixes and performance improvements, but it concludes with a very brief message from developers that to me comes off very much as a sort of, "Goodbye and good luck."
"To all our players, thank you for your patience," Daedalic wrote. "We sincerely hope that [these changes will help you enjoy The Lord of the Rings: Gollum."
There's not much of a reaction to the patch announcement on Steam, but the few responses that have been posted are generally pretty upbeat, and a few of the posts encourage Daedalic to keep working on it. I suspect that's unlikely: According to Steam Charts, there are currently only seven people playing the game. Daedalic also recently announced that following the failure of The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, it will eliminate its internal development division and focus on its publishing business instead.
I've reached out to Daedalic to ask about the possibility of further Gollum patches, and will update if I receive a reply. The full patch notes are below.
- 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 KingsGrove 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.
