The idea that only having a €15M budget is what caused this game's issues is ridiculous. It's not a game that had good ideas and just failed to execute them properly; it's fundamentally bad on a conceptual level.
The setting and story concept are bad. When the game was first announced, I don't think I heard or saw a single discussion where someone was excited to experience playing through the story of Gollum in that time period in the story. Or even playing as Gollum at all - he's a great secondary character in the books and films, but he's hardly a character you want to play as in a video game. There's no room for character development either.
The game design is bad. It's just bad. No amount of time, money or polish is going to fix the terrible basic design principles the game is built on. And even if they had 10x the budget and hired a world-class lead game designer from the start, it still would have the issues with the story and character.
The whole project is one that shouldn't have left the brainstorming session it was conceived in.
witheyeandclaw@lemmy.world 1 year ago
“ reportedly enforcing uncompensated overtime, allegedly trying to pay staff below minimum wage, and a toxic work environment cultivated by an alleged abusive leadership.”
Saved you a click!
Draegur@lemm.ee 1 year ago
not only is it tragic that these devs were so mistreated, but it sucks even more that they went through all that bullshit to produce such a WET TURD
dustyData@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Nacon demanded AAA performance from a $16M budget game. This was a massive leadership failure. It’s a miracle it launched at all.
huginn@feddit.it 1 year ago
I think it’s a wet turd at least in part because they went through so much bullshit.
Infynis@midwest.social 1 year ago
Explains why the game was so bad