The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria™

Yet another survivalcraft game with a decent foundation, brought down by head-scratching design choices and balance issues

Repetiv, Generic and despite really trying, not that lore acurate. The game is a pretty generic survival semi-open-world craft game where you progress by steadyly unlocking better gear, resources and crafting methods. Multiplayer is possible, but not necessary required, but helpful. Nothing of this is new, or hasnt been done better by games like Subnautica. The combat-system is pretty clunky and rather underwhelming. You lock on an enemy and then strike him until its over. If you have multible enemys or destroyable stuff next to you, you will have a problem. Health is also not regeneratet during fights or in the mines at all, so you better hold out until you are where you have to be. The mines themselves are lovingly created, the visuals quite good and the layout encorages creative traveling. They are also lore acurate for the most part, if with some libertys for gaming-purposes. The game does not deliver on its premise. You do not rebuild Moria, you do not do anything with the help of others (unless multiplayer) and the story is quite railroading. At the begining you are trapped in the mines and then you are forced to reach the other side to get out. The game is just a long walk, wich is balantly railroaded along a single path. The game becomes forced after some time. But the game is one thing above all: repetive. You use resources to craft gear, master a part of the path, defeat enemy, reach new part of the mines, need stronger gear, need new resources, meet stronger enemy, get everything, defeat stronger enemy, get to next part, rinse and repeat. After the sixt part of your journy the underlining mystery or the goal are not longer enough to keep you going. And since the game heavily railroads you along one path without alternatives you feel constricted. And then happens what caused me to quit the game. You reach the other side, you craft the thing necessary to leave the mines and then you meet the final boss. Without spoilers: The boss is a thing that in canon can not defeated by a single ordinary warrior. So you walk back, use your thing to leave the mines and your character says: "I cant leave, i still have stuff do do here. If i dont defeat this boss, he will kill the entire platoon the king send!" Ans so you are suposed to brave another part of the mines, get new gear, new resources, etc. EXCUSE ME!?? LEAVING THE MINES AND GETTING REINFORCMENTS WERE THE WHOLE GOAL OF THE ENTIRE GAME!!! And what makes you think that you can defeat something on your own that can apparently easily kill half an army? Because the story isnt suposed to be over you have to do the same repetive sh_t again that you have been doing the entire game, despite EVERYTHING about the situation at hand makes leaving and getting help the only rational choice. At this point i couldnt bear the repetitvnes of the game anymore and since there was no mystery or goal to drive me forward while the game forced me into an absolute stupid choice, i decidet to quit and stop playing. Seventy Hours of repetive, railroaded tasks and then the game pretends the maingoal cant be reached (escaping the mine), because your character is worried that hundreds of other dwarfs will be killed if you dont kill by yourself what will kill all of them. WASTED TIME. Do not buy this unless you are really into repetive tasks, repetive gameplay and balant railroading.

I wish I could recommend this for a single-player experience because the art-direction is really, really good. This particular take on dwarves and dwarf culture of Middle-Earth is incredibly compelling. Moria itself is really well-done. With a little stylization, the devs have made a compelling dungeon that doesn't lean entirely on graphical fidelity. Unfortunately the gameplay is just a bit boring. There's nothing really new here that other tree-choppers don't do, but it also doesn't do it with any particular finesse. The combat is incredibly rudamentary, the crafting is one-dimensional and leans on timers for any kind of difficulty, exploration is a little too by-the-numbers, and the building is neither particularly flexible nor particularly user-friendly. There's a lack of polish that becomes clear when the game attempts any kind of verticality, as jumping, climbing, and falling animations are incredibly sluggish and disjointed from the actual environment. Ultimately, the game just lacks the amount of polish I'd expect from an IP this big. I feel like everything this game brings to the table is done better by other games. That being said, this game isn't, like, offensively bad, just mediocre. I feel like the bones are good enough for a multiplayer experience, though certainly better games exist for that too. Ultimately, if your gaming group is really into LotR or dwarves in general you might get more out of this. Otherwise, I'd probably just give it a pass.

Short Version: A very mid crafting survival games with dwarves set in the world of Middle Earth. Combat is blah, crafting is not complex, and the plot is meager and uninteresting. The Long Version: So here is where the reviewer is coming from: I like games with dwarves in them, I like crafting games, and I know but am not obsessed with Middle Earth. I received the game in a humble bundle, played single player on normal difficulty without any DLC, and am current clocked at 8.7 hours while being mildly bored. Now, when I started this journey, I was a little curious and a little excited. The actual premise seems ripe for making a good game being dwarves retaking Moria from the remains of the Orcs after the Balrog was killed by Gandolf. Majestic underground locations with risk to body, sanity, and sobriety. Sign me up and take my money. Even the noise concept seemed like a good one considering the original material in the book with the "drums in the deep", although it turns out to be a lackluster mechanic. Anyway, the game really doesn't deliver. I experience bugs with creatures stuck in columns a lot; I had a camp under siege three times in a row with no one showing up to raid it. The stuff you can craft is not very large or very interesting compared to other survival crafting game, and the combat is utterly forgettable. The plot is miniscule and the references to Middle Earth are not particularly interesting. On the plus side, there is a lot of love in the character design and the voice work. The mining songs are a hoot. In general, the dwarf aesthetic is held well together throughout my playthrough and is wonderful. Thankfully, the code is also stable, even considering the bugs mentioned in the above paragraph. Ultimately, I am not sure who this for? Tolkein fanatics will find the Middle Earth reference meager and the plot as well. Survival crafting fans are not going to be blown away as there are several games will surpass it one way or another: Subnautica, No More Sky, Abiotic Factor, Valheim, Enshrouded, etc... It also not tops of the heap of dwarf game with Dwarf Fortress, Deep Rock Galactic, and Craft the World; I admit I am going out on a limb here, but I at least like all of these games a lot compared to Return to Moria. Maybe if you are a Tolkein, survival crafting, and dwarf obsessed person, then this game will give you a few hours of enjoyment; but, for only the truly fanatical is this going to be interesting.

Extremely soulless, with people only ending up playing because they're lotr fans who tricked themselves into thinking it had content to satisfy their starving appetites.

I had high hopes for this game, but it feels empty. it doesnt feel like theres ant purpose behind anything you do, and the game gets boring fast.

Game is Great i love the challenge

Really cool, survival and exploration game. Very nice LotR spirit and I mean dwarfs so yeah !

Pretty fun cooperative game with a TON of jank. There is jank to pretty much everything you do in this game which can be frustrating, but it is still a fun experience when played with others.

Si vous voulez voir et revoir et encore revoir les mêmes salles c'est le jeu qu'il vous faut. pas fameux tres repetitif.