Free Range Games, the developers who worked on The Callisto Protocol, is about to release The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria, their newest and the only survival crafting game set in the 4^th age of Middle Earth.

70 years after the last Lord of the Rings story takes place, Lord Gimli Lockbearer issues a call to the bravest dwarves to return to the Misty Mountains and form a company of dwarves to reclaim the lost riches and rebuild the Dwarven Homeland of Moria, known as Khazad-dûm.

Return to Moria can be played alone or with up to seven friends, each bringing their own challenges. Play solo, and resources will be in abundance, making it a survival horror game where you could be quickly overwhelmed by dangerous enemies. Play with friends, and they will have your back and help, but resources will be in much less supply, and you will have to focus on what matters and who gets the new shiny axe.

Upon starting the game, you will have the ability to create your very own unique dwarf with the character creator because it makes no mention if your character is male or female, as you will have a mix of hairstyles, beards (yes, female dwarves may also have beards), clothes, and even 10 different voices and what language they speak. The developers have re-created an entirely usable and speakable language for the game.

The game world takes place deep underground, where you will have to excavate the mysteries of three legendary mountains. It is a unique meld of developer-crafted points of interest from the lore of Lord of the Rings, grand chasms with waterfalls and vistas, and the randomness of procedurally generated terrain and encounters to make sure that no two adventures are alike. As you delve deeper into the earth and knock down a rock wall to unlock the next area, it might be a treasure room with riches or a band of orcs getting ready to ambush you.

Other key game features include the survival system, as you must explore to excavate resources, hunt, and gather food, as well as manage your food, sleep, temperature, and even light and noise levels, lest you draw the dark things under the mountain to your presence.

Build your base with beautiful dwarven architecture on a scale only seen in movies. Do you want to start from scratch, or do you want to add on to an already-built structure from the past? But be warned: structural integrity will play a key role in design, lest your painstakingly created fortress come crumbling down due to a lack of support.

Craft and loot legendary Dwarven weapons, armor tools, and even buildings. As you explore Moria, you will mine precious resources, unlock old Dwarven recipes that have been lost to the ages, rebuild ancient forges, and smelt ores, including the fantastical mithril, to craft awesome weapons and armor.

Battle: While exploring the Undermountain, you will cross paths with orcs, trolls, and all sorts of unspeakable shadows that lie below. But they also don’t take well to new neighbors, as they will periodically attempt to raid your base.

And last but not least, celebration. For every new area discovered or ore mined, there is always a story to tell, and what better way than with song and drink? If you play with friends, your character will be inspired by locations and events, and you will have the option to sing a fabled dwarven ballad, adding each player’s character voice to the mix and providing bonuses to the activities you are performing.

Return to Moria promises to deliver a different gaming experience every time you play. The game will be released on the Epic Games Store and on PlayStation 5 on October 24th, and on Xbox in early 2024. The PC version will support up to 8 players, and the PlayStation version will only support up to 4 players at launch.

Are you as excited as I am to visit Moria? Let me know in the comments below.