History YMMV / TheLordOfTheRingsGollum

* FandomRivalry: A strange example, considering both games are considered pretty awful, but when ''VideoGame/SkullIslandRiseOfKong'' came out months later, "fans" debated on which game was the worse of the two, with many calling ''Rise of Kong'' "the next ''Gollum''." [[HilariousInHindsight Coincidentally]], both games are based on franchises that Creator/PeterJackson had made films for, and both characters were played by Creator/AndySerkis.

* FandomRivalry: A strange example, considering both games are considered pretty awful, but when ''VideoGame/SkullIslandRiseOfKong'' came out months later, "fans" debated on which game was the worse of the two, with many calling ''Rise of Kong'' "the next ''Gollum''." [[HilariousInHindsight Coincidentially]], both games are based on franchises that Creator/PeterJackson had made films for, and Creator/AndySerkis even played both Gollum and Kong in those films.

** 6 Iconic Gestures and Sayings [[labelnote:Explanation]]Prior to release, a screenshot of the Stream store page promising "Predorder The Lord of the Rings: Gollum™️ to receive the Emotes Pack DLC, which includes 6 of his most iconic gestures and sayings" became viral, both due to being an blatant cashgrab and amusingly artificial wording, ala [[VideoGame/WatchDogs Aiden Pearce's Iconic Hat]]. Post-release it's become a way to make fun of the game's perceived failings, such as asking if a bad animation or bit of dialogue is an iconic gesture or saying.[[/labelnote]]
** Calibri interface[[labelnote:Explanation]]The game's interface makes heavy use of Calibri, famous for being the default font in both Microsoft Office and Xsplit. This, in addition to being mocked as a lazy and poor design choice, made it incredibly easy to create fake but authentic-looking screenshots of the game to use in memes, which often make fun of its poor quality.[[/labelnote]]
** "Gollum won the argument."[[labelnote:Explanation]]The game features a mechanic where both of Gollum's personalities will argue over what course of action to take, and the player has to choose the right dialogue options to get the optimal outcome. Gollum winning the argument is accompanied by a smug-looking graphic of his face, which has gained some traction as a meme about giving into impulsive thinking or about the pointlessness of arguing on the internet.[[/labelnote]]
** Gollum on Normal Pills[[labelnote:Explanation]]A number of players noticed that Gollum's default expression looks uncannily similar to an already memetic screenshot of LetsPlay/{{Dream}} as he appears in the music video for his song "Mask". The similarities between the two faces resulted in many people jokingly portraying Gollum as the video's version of Dream, in particular claiming that the reason why he looks off compared to his film counterpart is because he took normal pills, the video's stand-in for Dream's ADHD medication.[[/labelnote]]

** The Lord of Ring: Gollum[[TradeSnark ™]][[labelnote:Explanation]]People quickly noticed that the apology for the game's status contained a [[TyopOnTheCover glaring typo]] in the first sentence, calling the game ''The Lord of Ring: Gollum''. The error almost immediately became a widespread subject for parody thanks to people perceiving it as a case of DiggingYourselfDeeper.[[/labelnote]]
** Orc Breeding[[labelnote:Explanation]]The "Lore Compendium" DLC, aside from the questionable decision to make the LoreCodex a $4.99 purchase, earned infamy for its Steam store page [[https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/2374462/ss_80631c3ee6711a01e47abe107c601b7acc519f5c.jpg?t=1685027071 choosing to highlight its "Orc Breeding" article in a screenshot]]. It has thus become an easy joke to make when mocking the game's DLC practices.[[/labelnote]]
** Gollum is [[VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles Riki]][[labelnote:Explanation]]Once it was discovered that Gollum is voiced by Creator/WayneForester, who played [[FightingClown Riki]] in ''Xenoblade Chronicles'', ''Xenoblade'' fans reacted with a mix of amusement and horror, making fanart and edits that replace Gollum with Riki. This includes Vinny of WebVideo/{{Vinesauce}}, who briefly broke out into a Riki impression when streaming the game.[[/labelnote]]
** "Gollum! Breeding halls. Now."[[labelnote:Explanation]]A bizarre and [[AccidentalInnuendo poorly thought-through]] line one of the orcs says to the player. It spread like wildfire, quickly becoming one of the game's most remembered scenes for all the wrong reasons.[[/labelnote]]
** Gollumlike [[note]]A snark labelling subsequently released licensed shovelware games as "Gollumlikes" (akin to {{Roguelike}} or [[SoulsLikeRPG Souls-like]]) by suggesting that ''The Lord of the Rings: Gollum'' was so notoriously terrible that it invented a new genre of bad video games. ''VideoGame/SkullIslandRiseOfKong'', ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDeadDestinies'' and ''Manga/JujutsuKaisen: Cursed Clash'' were some such games mockingly given this title.[[/note]]

** Gollumlike [[note]]A snark labelling subsequently released licensed shovelware games as "Gollumlikes" (akin to {{Roguelike}} or [[SoulsLikeRPG Souls-like]]) by suggesting that ''The Lord of the Rings: Gollum'' was so notoriously terrible that it invented a new genre of bad video games. ''VideoGame/SkullIslandRiseOfKong'' and ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDeadDestinies'' were some such games mockingly given this title.[[/note]]

* SpecialEffectFailure: All over the place. Aside from the general low quality of the visuals, this is most clearly evident in the Frail Man's beard, which is [[NoFlowInCGI stiff as a board]] and tends to flip back and forth between various positions that don't look right.

** Similarly, Wayne Forester's performance as Gollum has received mixed reactions for not matching the films -- while it's agreed Forester is a talented actor, Creator/AndySerkis's performance has been so thoroughly ingrained into pop culture that many players found it jarring how Forester doesn't imitate it at all, sounding much more like [[VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1 Riki]] at times.

* {{Narm}}:
** The game on a few occasions uses slow-motion to accentuate big, risky jumps that Gollum makes. Not necessarily a bad editing flourish in other contexts, but the fact that the game is giving ''Gollum'' of all characters the action movie 'slow-motion leap away from explosions' treatment turns it into unintentional hilarity.
** The fact Calibri is used as the main font completely ruins the immersion and makes the overall amateurish design of the game very evident. The only way this could any be worse is if they had used Comic Sans instead.

* OvershadowedByControversy: Downplayed, but it's not unheard of for people to not know anything about the game except that it was received poorly and the developers used [=ChatGPT=] to send out an insincere apology letter.