The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria™

I love the concept of this game but the way the stamina and exhaustion mechanics work, make this game nearly unplayable. You can buff up however you like, no matter, because less than 2 minutes into the day, you're plum out of stamina and severely exhausted. Also, the weapon and gear progression is genuinely wrong. you have to struggle your way through areas that are way above you, just to finally craft a suitable weapon that wont be useful at all in the very next area of progression. the game is too punishing with little to no reward. Truly unfortunate

"Let them come. There's still one Dwarf in Moria that still draws breath!"

I'm glad I only paid like $2 for this, because this might be one of the premier cases of "I don't think the devs played their own game" I've ever experienced. It's not awful. It's not unplayable. But it's a chore riddled with design decisions that make absolutely no sense and all add up to a very tedious experience. It's a shame, because I wanted to give this game a shot, but after finishing the third biome I feel absolutely no interest in grueling through this noise solo.

TL;DR - DO NOT buy this game unless you [b] really [/b] want it, and on STEEP discount only (even then...) [hr][/hr] I was excited for this game when it was announced way back in 2022. Love me dwarves, and we hadn't had a solid new LOTR game in a bit. I picked it up during its launch sale after it finally arrived on Steam following its year as an Epic exclusive. A few months ago I finally sat down and fully went through the game with a friend after my previous attempt to play solo stalled. It was not worth the wait, and I'm disappointed in how disappointing it was. This game is an overall subpar Survivalcraft experience with mind-numbingly boring combat and a Middle-earth coat of paint doing most if not all of the heavy lifting. While Steam says I have nearly 200 hours "played", more than half of that was either AFK or wrestling with its building system. I really did want to like this game, but the longer our playthrough stretched, the more I yearned for it to reach its end. The [b] only [/b] positive praise I have to give is for the worldbuilding and environments. It was nice to run around and explore the storied halls of Moria. Strip away that Tolkien/Middle-earth paintjob, however, and I guarantee you this game would have gone on to be even more obscure than it already is. It is absolutely nothing without the Middle-earth licensing. [hr][/hr] [b] The Combat: [/b] is crap. Genuinely 1/10 combat with the only thing keeping it from a zero being that it exists at all. Right click to shield bash and knock down lesser goblin and orc enemies into left click spam - that's it, that's your melee combat. That or blocking. Ranged combat is lackluster and slow if you use the crossbow. The aim reticle is also every so slightly off center, making everything from aiming shots to mining leftover pockets of ore annoying. You [i] can [/i] charge your attack up to twice, but it was hardly ever worth doing when you can also attack 2.5 times and deal 1/3rd the damage of a level 2 charge each attack in the time it takes to reach a level 2 charge (granted, some weapons like axes have a cleave effect on the charge attack, but otherwise pointless). Enemy AI is simple and boring to fight. The bosses including the final boss are all nothingburgers. In short, [b] combat sucks. [/b] [b] The Building: [/b] is frustrating. Structure pieces snap together, and love to do so at downright infuriating points. Wall sections will connect to a placed wall and floor section at tiny differences in height unless both are placed absolutely perfectly and in a correct order, floor tiles might snap to each other awkwardly if you put walls down first - the list goes on. If you want to rebuild/replace a certain portion of your build, good luck. Pieces also have set snap locations to them, so if you want to build near (but not connected to) another piece you've already placed, again, good luck. Trying to place multiple decorative elements such as banners symmetrically made me want to tear my hair and eyes out. And sometimes, you simply can't place a piece where you should be allowed to, or where you even already have before. I could go on even further but this review is long enough already. In short, [b] trying to build something grand and cool ends up becoming a test of your patience. [/b] [b] The Survival elements: [/b] largely become trivial once you get going. By the mid point of our journey we had food, ale, and Lembas bread (full restore) in abundance to the point I was frequently fast traveling to and from an old camp to store the excess. The energy mechanic and how it interacts with fast travel (draining your stamina a bit every time you use it) is cumbersome and annoying. In short, [b] the survival elements suck. [/b] [b] The Equipment unlocks: [/b] are placed annoyingly. Having to unlock your gear by finding and fixing statues throughout the new region would be fine if it weren't for the fact your current equipment loses about 90% of its effectiveness in said region (you also have to fix 2, sometimes 3, statues before unlocking an item's recipe). You go from dealing, say, 50 damage to an enemy in zone A to a mere 12 against enemies in zone B. When these new enemies have 200-250 health, you suddenly go from a heroic dwarf stuck in Moria to a noodle-armed wimp scurrying away like a rat from any fight. Armor likewise becomes massively worse, going from 100% durability to zero in only a few hits. In short, [b] the cadence of equipment upgrades is jarring and makes for an unheroic experience. [/b] [b] The Armor system: [/b] deserves a special mention because its very design at least to me feels juxtaposed with the game's health and healing food systems. Armor in this game provides 100% damage reduction until it breaks. Portable food, while it can be used to refill stamina some, is for healing. Having both these together felt like two opposing philosphies at play: armor is there until it's suddenly not, food is nigh-useless right up until you suddenly have need for it. In short, [b] this game has a weird combo of full-negation armor and HP-replenishing food that don't integrate well with one another. [/b] [b] The Character Creation [/b] (if you care about that stuff like I do): is okay. It gets a passing grade overall. Most of the hairstyles lean more feminine than masculine imo, there are only 2-3 good male faces and maybe 2 okay female ones (none of them make me think 'average dwarven woman'), and most of the voices don't sound all that great (again, 2-3 good male ones while most of the female voices sound like 'Laura Bailey doing a silly voice' or just 'Laura Bailey'), but the good beards are pretty darn good. Still could have used more big, beautiful, braided ones. Too many of them look like what you'd see a fantasy game offer as options for human characters, not dwarves. In short, [b] you can make a good looking dwarf. [/b] Lastly, from all I've read, the major (and final) "Durin's Folk" DLC did not nearly live up to the hopes and expectations of the community, and its bugs were not even fully fixed. I don't own it, I probably never will, but it doesn't sound like it's worth it. All other DLC is cosmetics and some additional build pieces (one of them has an apiary, might be worth getting). All this to say I certainly do [b] NOT [/b] recommend this game. If you really want to get it and it's on a super steep discount, it's your money, but I can't say this game is really worthwhile at nearly any price above ~$10 and certainly not for $30USD.

This game is fun, if the premise of dwarf-ing it up in caves from LotR sounds great to you, but it's buggy, and the developers are leaving it in this state. I can see why it's decisive, especially among the fans in spaces like the Discord, because this game doesn't really *feel* finished. But, if you're no stranger to early access Survival Crafting games, this has a lot to like about it. The large set pieces on the maps are gorgeous, and give you a feel for the wonders living in the depths of Moria. Combat may be tiresome for the more dodge-focused players, as a sword-and-board warrior through and through, the use of shields in the fighting system is pretty enjoyable to use. The game has an interesting system of blueprint distribution, as you unlock new plans for arms and armor from restoring ancient dwarven statues, rebuilding your culture in more ways than one! The usage of magical songs in the game, from enabling lots of mining to fighting back magical darkness is especially enjoyable! With all the good, it does come with some serious bad. It has some issues with it's random map generation, causing enemies to spawn in walls, or nonsensical caverns and constructions that act as distinctly un-fun barriers that don't even make sense as caused by ages of ruin. The game's UI could use another pass or two, often looking like place-holder bits and bobs to be replaced with real buttons later. In my opinion, worse of all, Return to Moria's "plot" feels very thin, even for a game with randomly generated maps. Aside from an intro cutscene and very rare meet ups with a Raven that I haven't heard from for 20 hours, the only sources of dialogue will be from orcs shouting hate at each other and you, and your character's short journal entries telling and not showing important developments in your story. The DLC "Durin's Folk" might help a little with that, but adding your story/plot in a later DLC isn't a recipe for happy players, and the DLC seems to come with it's own host of issues. If you like Suruval Crafting games, like Dwarf games, and can handle a.... Well, not a diamond in the rough, maybe a tiger's eye or malachite in the rough, it's worth a play. But, if you get into it, you're going to wish they'd taken another pass on what had the potential to be a great game.

This game is very shallow, it's still fun but this game is mechanically unsophisticated compared to other open world survival crafting games. Generally, the character interaction with the world is lacking in terms of weight and animation. The game features a considerable amount of verticality within the mines and buildings within, however grappling or walking over uneven surfaces feels clumsy. The game wants you to construct platforms in order overcome obstacles, cross chasms, or reach higher elevations to mine or veins. Despite featuring a variety of detailed and intersting tilesets for construction, they're only available for construction once you've established a campsite, otherwise you're limited to simple platforms for construction during exploration, which is a shame seeing as the tilesets for scaffolding are featured heavily in the game's environments. If the players could construct these scaffolded platforms during exploration, it would be far more immersive, and would blend into the natural environment.

К сожалению, нельзя сказать, что из попытки объединить сюжетно ориентированную вселенную с выживалкой-гриндилкой получилось что-то выдающееся. При игре в кооперативе очарование мира Толкина очень быстро рассеивается. Если на старте рассчитываешь увидеть продолжение истории о том, как гномы «копали слишком жадно и слишком глубоко», то уже ко второй сессии сюжет отходит на второй план: разные записки и пасхалки пропадают в чёрной дыре всевозможных записей инвентаря, а гораздо важнее становится эффективность добычи ресурсов и рациональность распределения группы по отдельным задачам. Сюжет здесь беззубый, пресный и совсем не запоминающийся. В определённый момент ловишь себя на мысли, что вехи прохождения игры – это не развитие истории, а переход от «кирки уровня 2» к «кирке уровня 3». Подача сюжета через «диалог с вороном» или «мысли вслух от гнома» – сплошное уныние. С таким подходом непонятно, зачем вообще замахиваться на именитую вселенную. Динамика тоже оставляет желать лучшего: за всё прохождение игра практически не меняется. Если видел 10 минут геймплея Мории, то, считай, видел всю игру. Отдельного упоминания заслуживает карта. В тщетных попытках найти по карте дорогу к лагерю от голода умрёт гномов не меньше, чем от орков. В игре про исследование подземелья сделать настолько неудобную и непонятную карту – это провал. Боёвка простенькая, но в кооперативе она работает, на удивление, неплохо. Иногда командное взаимодействие действительно спасает. Дизайн локаций, наверное, самая приятная часть игры. Кажущиеся бездонными шахты, огромные залы кузней, монументальные постройки гномов – в этом плане всё очень красиво и атмосферно. Не то чтобы игра прям совсем плоха, но от Мории ожидалось больше. Как симулятор дварфов-алкоголиков в шахтах игра может доставить удовольствие, но нужна крепкая команда достопочтенных гномов, чтобы за приятным общением и личной генерацией развлекательного контента не было заметно технических огрехов и скудной сюжетной составляющей.

To anyone playing this game, Gandalf would say: [i]Fly, you fools![/i]

games clunky nothing is as it should be the progression is ass no joke they just got hype and sales off the lord of the rings name....

Procedural generation is broken... bosses dont spawn in, ore wont spawn, areas are inaccessible. Trying so hard to have fun with this game.. but the devs intentionally made it difficult in ways that make it lame af. The more I play the more I realize that the game isnt fun... just my friends that I game with are. 3/10 its soul sucking disapointment.