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7 Reviews
The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria is a fun experience if you enjoy mining and building. Digging through the dark halls of Khazad-dûm feels satisfying, with plenty of resources to uncover. The mining loop is simple but addictive and the songs are so much fun. It really captures that Dwarven vibe. The building system is also enjoyable, letting you restore and expand the ruined halls into something impressive. It’s not the deepest survival game out there, but if you like gathering, crafting, and shaping your own Dwarven stronghold, it delivers a lot of charm.
Now DIG !!! But beware the horde.
Return to Moria isn’t your typical sandbox survival game. It’s more about exploring ancient dwarven ruins than building elaborate bases. I came in expecting a Valheim – style grindfest but the game doesn’t really reward that kind of play. Instead of hoarding materials and defending a fortress, you’re pushed to venture deeper and keep the story moving. The atmosphere is top-tier, with dark tunnels, creepy sounds and some genuinely cool lore moments. If you’re into exploration and progression over micromanaging your inventory, this one’s for you.
I’m a huge Lord of the Rings fan, so this game is a dream come true to me. Everyone who loves this universe will have lots of things to recognize and be passionate about. The Soundtrack is amazing as well as the singing (YES SINGING!). The dwarves sing as they mine and it gives you buffs, they sing as you find important and sacred places for their people. There is no reason to not try this game, specially if you can get it on sale!
I received this game for free because Epic Games Store was doing a giveaway.
I’ve always loved gathering resources and making things in-game. No matter the game, that’s something I always enjoy. This game does that very well, and it’s a big focus. It also goes a step further by adding a buffer for mining, but makes it fun by making a variety of songs to sing.
The cooking is rather simple, but each meal provides a buff if eaten at a certain time, which is something I’ve not seen in my time gaming.
On Normal setting, the enemies are not terribly difficult, even when it’s a horde coming. They’re challenging, but not terrible. So far, my biggest issue is a boss, but I also haven’t fought any really difficult enemies yet.
You will get tired if you go a long time without resting, but it doesn’t give you an option for how long to sleep. You’ll just wake up whenever, which is a little confusing and frustrating because accidentally waking up at night means it’s more dangerous to explore and gather resources.
Overall, I’m loving the game. I get to mine and forge, as well as explore. There are enemies and creatures to fight, but not an insane amount. All in all, a good game based in a fantastic and highly recognizable IP. I highly recommend this game
For me, Moria is a good game to play in between, but it’s really meant for multiple players. On its own, the game can seem very dreary and lonesome. In the beginning, I attempted to rebuild a few ruins with a friend, but mending them was sometimes quite difficult, and we couldn’t repair the floors, for instance. The singing of the dwarves whilst mining materials was always entertaining, but often the songs came late and the mining was almost finished, as well as the fact that my female character sometimes took over the male voice of the other player was strange. But these are all just little things that bothered. The game was very entertaining for what it offers: farming and looting are enjoyable, and exploring and discovering new places is made interesting with the room constellations where you have to dig your way through. I am still curious to see how much more content will be added to this game and what undiscovered things are still waiting for me.
Alright, it might sound a bit cliché, but hey, I absolutely LOVE anything related to JRR Tolkien’s world. Naturally, whenever I come across a game related to it, I dive right in, a habit I’ve maintained since the early 2000s: The Lord of the Rings: War of the Ring, The Lord of the Rings: Tactics, Lego The Lord of the Rings, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, Middle-earth: Shadow of War, and many more, because, as Lord Elrond said, “I was there Gandalf, I was there 3000 years ago!” And the latest addition to the list is, of course, The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria, which I’ll detail below (after my hours of gameplay).
The game unfolds during the Fourth Age of Middle-earth, after the events of The Lord of the Rings. It follows a company of dwarves led by Gimli (you know him, the bearded one with an axe, always eager to outdo Legolas in the number of enemies slaughtered) as they attempt to reclaim their homeland, Moria, and restore the lost kingdom of Khazad-dûm. So, you’ll be spending most of your time, whether bright or dark, underground exploring and mining to achieve your goal.
The game has some surprises in terms of level design. There are underground places you can’t even imagine, and you’ll notice that quickly once you arrive in elven land or plains. I won’t say more to avoid spoiling the surprise. The graphics of The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria are nice, and I was charmed by the lighting in different areas. However, when it gets dark, it’s really, really dark. Always make sure to have something to craft a torch with you; they will come in handy. And speaking of crafting in the game, it’s a key element for your survival.
The crafting system progresses in the game, which is obviously very interesting. Not everything is revealed, and depending on your progress or rather your descent into the depths of Moria, you’ll unlock new features. Whether it’s your outfits, weapons, food, exploration tools, everything happens gradually. You’ll need a lot of resources to craft everything, so don’t hesitate to grab what you find on your way.
Food is essential for your survival, as you can imagine. There’s a satiety system that prevents you from sleeping if you’re hungry. Almost all items take time to be made, such as ingots, beer, or even food. For the rest, once you have the items, it happens instantly.
You’ll also need to ensure you have a good structure to limit enemy invasion. Indeed, regularly, you might face a siege by a horde of enemies who will be after your resources.
What do you need to do to reclaim your lands? It’s simple and not long, no, just kidding, take note:
Travel with the Fellowship, Survive in Darkness, Base Building, Restoring Moria, Deep Exploration, Dwarven Crafting, Discovery of Magical Artifacts. Mining, and most importantly!! Dwarf Drinks and Songs! There’s nothing like a good beer and dwarf songs to boost morale (Hey, don’t forget that alcohol is dangerous for health; avoid it. If your head is as hard as that of a pure-blooded Moria dwarf, consume it in moderation, but try to avoid it anyway 😉).
Let’s not kid ourselves; The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria has some minor bugs. Rest assured, nothing that will spoil the overall experience (they’ll likely be fixed with patches).
In summary, Return to Moria is an exciting game, and you can feel that it was made by enthusiasts who offer players a new perspective on the world of Middle-earth. With its survival and crafting gameplay, captivating narration, it promises to provide an immersive and engaging gaming experience for Lord of the Rings fans.
Personally, I am finding a lot of enjoyment with my purchase and experience with the game. Return to Moria has a long way to go for sure, but is definitely incredible and blew me out of the water much more than expected and both anticipated as well, just needs deeper and more meaningful individual player progression i.e. leveling and so on. It runs well and is a beautifully consistent game with lots of fun to be had, unfortunately there are so many stats that players can’t seem to upgrade such as base health, stamina, movement/sprint speed, ailment resistance etc. Some stats are very vague, such as ‘Clank’. Combat needs a lot of refinement and polish as well as bosses needing to be overhauled & reworked, with more gimmicks and better rewards. With simple & convenient customization options, enjoyable multiplayer, functional non-laggy multiplayer servers, and to a degree, random world generation, your runs feel tailored and unique a little bit more each time. Fundamental difficulty over stat based punishments in one swing, and more depth to boss fights over ad/enemy spam spawning on player and swarming would be amazing as well.
The game surprisingly has much more contented than initially expected, and the game doesn’t seem to have very many bugs besides some enemies occasionally spawning in walls or getting sometimes stuck, and the grinding for materials for items isn’t way too tedious either. There are a lot of refreshing and enjoyable mechanics such as the planting of crops, cooking etc. The introduction of a lot of quality of life right away is also incredibly welcomed. Though the combat needs much work, it isn’t a bore to do, and is enjoyable.
There can feel like a lack of diverse enemy types, mostly having only a couple of types at a time, but this works well with the enemy factions and what ramps up in difficulty feels okay, though there are reskins like albino spiders and albino orcs directly under regular orcs and normal spiders, which can feel lazy, there also aren’t many with adverse effects they can cause to the player, the first doesn’t start until you’re around tier 3 items, which by then is only poison.
Most of my criticism stems from the cons I’ve already listed, and not much more – No item tooltips for stats, not enough unique enemy variety, unpolished combat, and lack of character progression for the characters themselves over just their equipment – Typically there are no differences between helmets or shields of the same Tier (II) and this includes masterwork shield. Wouldn’t recommend this to everybody just yet, however, if you have the time and the urge for a survival game – This is perfect for you. Enjoyable multiplayer & progression, a beautiful world and systems implemented for the player’s benefit, backtracking is usually of little concern, and can even be trivialized with the fast travel. It is a major step up from survival games that have recently come out. The only reason this review is an 8 over a 10 is because the game feels unfinished.