10 Most Disastrous Releases Of The Current Generation

If you were unaware how bad the reviews for Gollum were, this picture of the eponymous Hobbit staring catatonically into the abyss should give you some idea.

You can understand why Gollum would be shaken when the game bearing his name was MetaCritic's worst reviewed game of 2023, receiving such rave notices as "Not so much an unexpected journey as it is one to avoid altogether" (via GamesRadar). Sadly, the game fully deserves its infamous reputation as dated visuals, tedious stealth mechanics and frequent progress-shattering bugs all come together to create a game every bit as unpleasant as its jewelry-obsessed protagonist.

Gollum's disastrous reception spelt doom for developers Daedelic Entertainment. Prior to Gollum's release, Daedelic had existed as a hybrid publisher/developer, creating their own games while publishing other works. Unfortunately, after a string of poor in-house releases Deadelic's development division was hanging on by a fingertip, and the hapless Gollum wound up gnawing that finger off like it held the One Ring (admittedly not the best analogy in the world, but it was either that or "Thanks to Gollum, Daedelic's development division is no more-dor").