When it comes to survival games, 'The Lord of The Rings: Return to Moria' does meet the criteria. You gather resources, loot chests, build up a base, fight/defend against enemies and bosses. Unfortunately, that's about it. If it wasn't Lord of The Rings themed, I would not have given this game a chance. The reasons why? Gathering resources and chests, building a base, the combat, the content.
When it comes to resource farming, this game has some ups to it. I do like farming and cooking in the game, but you can't really get into that until later. The lack of resources in a single world (unless you have Durin's Folk) leaves it difficult to get into mass production and major build expansion. Waiting for hordes to come and attack just to farm some black diamond is bizarre to me, and feels dry.
*The idea to sing while mining is an amazing detail to Tolkien's work, I'll give it that. The issue with mining resources comes in the form of "how long does it take to mine a single piece of ore", and "is this pickaxe really better for mining". If you're early in the game, and it takes you 2 minutes to mine a tiny floating piece of iron, it stands to question if I'm actually hitting the resource or not. The answer? You are. The setback? You'll be calling every horde in the area around you to your location, just because physics doesn't add up here.
*When it comes to chests and hidden loot? It's nice to open a chest and see some good items. Unfortunately, in this game, most chests contain nothing (fitting for LOTR Goblins. Not fitting for a survival game). The chests that really matter are the ones you find in Balin's footholds, and the orc camps. Great loot, but you can't destroy the chests, and you can't use the chests after being looted. Something that doesn't seem annoying, but it is when you're trying to build a base right where the chests are.
*As for loot on the ground or in barrels? I rarely touch those, unless I need cloth, scrap metal, Ironwood. It's lackluster.
When it comes to base building: something I personally like to do in a survival game, and something I really wanted to work in this game for the LOTR detailing. Let's just say I find it hard to build in this game.
*First, if building is your thing, keep in mind there is only 4 directions you can rotate your structures. If this game was built along that axis, then it might be okay. When you want to build a symmetrical shaft that leads into the deeper mineshafts in the game, it's awful. Having to mod the game just to get better building formatting is lazy.
*Next, you have issues where building structures clipping causes epileptic like visuals, or outright just explode the entire build. Never trust the color green if you're building. I've learned altogether to only build walls, and hope the enemies can't get in.
The combat... probably the one thing in the game that makes me ALT F4. Mind you, I can get upset at a game, but at least I can see skill level as a common denominator for me. In this game, it's not skill. The weapons are cool, and to utilize them in different areas of combat is unique. It's not unique when you have limited inventory space, and the combat format in the game seems to be against you.
*Let's talk about the actual combat. Say you're fighting an orc in the caves of the pilgrim road. You go to swing, but it looks like that orc is 5 cm off the ground on a rock. You try your hardest to swing your great sword or spear at them, but they're just so high off the ground! (Sarcasm btw). Because an orc has the high ground, you can't do anything. When you have the high ground, the orc can still do everything, you can't hit them, and your left questioning life choices. Combat is against you in this game, and it's not because of skill, but because of hitbox design.
*Speaking of hitbox design... Let's say that orc who is now off the rock is in front of you also has a friend, Mr. 1 tap goblin. He's maybe across the room, and you think "okay, they're far enough away, I'll take the orc down now, and get the goblin". Then, as you go to swing, you somehow change the automatic targeting system from the orc in front of you, to the goblin ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ROOM. You 1 tap Mr. 1 tap goblin, and the orc then proceeds to do unspeakable things to you, namely kill you.
*If you ever thought that enemies spawning literally right underneath you was something you love, you found your game. I get that goblins can dig, and orcs can follow through those tunnels. MAYBE NOT A TROLL. If they tunnel under you, in a realistic standpoint, you're trapped in a hole. In a survival game, to balance proper gameplay, you don't have enemies spawn and plop right on top of you to the point where your character noclip slides over.
*Stamina... Expect to have no stamina throughout most of the game. Unless you're willing to give up inventory slots for consumables that help with that. You're gonna probably die, because you can no longer roll, block, or power attack.
Alright, now it's time for content. Something I wish there was more of. I have 60 hours as of writing this review. Not a lot considering my other gameplay hours on other games. That says something. My first time completing the game, it took me maybe 10 hours, because I wanted to get a feel for the game. Durin's Folk took me about 6 hours. That was all solo. Now I'm playing with my older brother, and it's still just as dry and straight forward.
*For story, there isn't much, and the narrative for how we are this amazing dwarf doesn't really get explained. They had the perfect opportunity to make our dwarf a specifically named character, and instead gave it to an NPC.
*You can't expect much in terms of building progression until you can mine Granite or Adamant, because the other structures seem kind of bland. Unless you have DLC.
*Gear progression is okay to an extent. I def wish there was more gear we could make. Having only some weapons craftable instead of all? Ex. I want to be a two handed axe dwarf all the way, but once I get silver, I have to do something else to make sure I can fight the enemies in the coming area. I understand there are supposedly some new pieces of gear in sandbox, but I'm playing story, and want to have the ability to access all gear.
*Bosses... Playing the game, spoiler free, defo was surprised by the lore drop boss at the end. I was concerned we'd be a dwarf fighting a maiar, but that's not the case. That fit the story well. I do wish the bosses were more challenging in the sense that they had special mechanics to them. Only 2 had those mechanics, and they were pretty basic. I do wish there were more bosses. There are (5?) bosses to my knowledge. If there were more, I completely forgot about them. In a small game like this, 5 is enough. If the boss fights weren't hack and slash. Durin's Folk did add 1 boss, but I did basically forget about it almost immediately. The lore is really where the bosses excel. Hearing about each one, and how they tie to the world of middle earth is neat.
I've been playing this game ever since launch. I followed the development when it was still in the works. Even to this day, I'd say it's still in the works. Unfortunately, I've heard back in April 2026, they no longer plan to add new expansions, and considering some of these bugs and glitches have been here since day 1, they probably stopped with patching the game as a whole. I love the game, because I've grown with it, but would not recommend as it's still very much a work in progress.
