The Lord of the Rings IP seems to be everywhere these days, most notably with Rings of Power whisking players away to a whole new period. This has caused a bit of a resurgence in the video game industry as well with the release of titles like Lord of the Rings: Gollum, the upcoming Lord of the Rings MMO from Amazon, and the recently released The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria. And while that last title does some interesting things with the IP, it's a bit underwhelming when compared to other titles in the genre.
The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria brings Middle-Earth to the survival-crafting genre for the first time. That blend makes for a unique type of experience that some diehard fans may want to check out; however, it does not really do a whole lot with the concept. While it is not a bad game by any means, those looking for something exciting and groundbreaking will likely not find it here.
The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria picks up during the Fourth Age of Middle-Earth, after the events of the main Lord of the Rings series. It follows a group of dwarves led by Gimli as they attempt to retake their homeland of Moria so that they can restore the kingdom of Khazad-dum. However, things are never that easy, and soon players are plunged into the depths of the mines with no clear way out. It is up to them to search these expansive caves, restore their halls, and hopefully survive the lingering effects of Sauron's influence as well as a mysterious corruption plaguing Moria.
The game starts by having players build their own unique Lord of the Rings' dwarf. While the character creator is not the most advanced one, it does give players enough options that some may spend a bit of time perfecting it. Luckily, if they do not like the way they look, then they can change it whenever they want. Even though they may have no interest in doing so, having that option is always nice.
Once they have created their character, players will see a brief cutscene that sets the scene before being plunged into the depths of Moria. From there, players are instructed to find their first homebase, construct their first tools, and begin to mine their first resources. Survival-crafting fans should know how this all mostly works as it is pretty similar to almost every game in the genre. However, there are also a few new additions that give it that Lord of the Rings feel, and luckily Return to Moria does a good job of explaining these mechanics.
Mining works like it does in pretty much every survival-crafting game. Return to Moria Players have to construct a pickaxe, then they mine resources in various nodes around the caverns, and then must learn how to craft stronger pickaxes to mine stronger things. However, the game also injects a few new things into the mix that liven the feature up a bit. Not only do players have to track down certain foundries if they want to build stronger equipment, but they can also sing mining songs to get inspired during their time in the mines.
The actual act of mining does not feel that much different here, but Return to Moria makes a very strange choice with the way it approaches it. Instead of letting players mine in whatever direction they want, they can only mine through certain walls, with the rest being massive impenetrable barriers. Because of this, they are only able to explore in pre-defined directions, which feels like it goes against everything the genre was built on. These types of games tend to be about freedom, so cutting out that freedom can lead to a rather bland experience.
Exploration also plays a part of Return to Moria, as the game world is filled with destroyed bases and crafting equipment that must be repaired. While some of it can be built via the building menu, players will likely be relying on these destroyed objects for a while until they learn how to build them themselves. This forces them to branch out, build multiple bases, and explore every inch of the mines. Even though that keeps them moving, the actual exploration part may leave some a bit disappointed.
Exploration may be a core part of the game, but this is also when one of Return to Moria's shortcomings becomes the most prevalent. The world itself is boring to look, filled with corridors that look the same. Free Range Games seemingly wanted to capture the feeling of being in a deep mine within Lord of the Rings, and it did that well, but that does not make for interesting exploration. Once players have seen one hallway, they have seen them all. And while there may be new biomes scattered throughout the world, many of them are not that interesting to explore for long periods of time.
As players explore Return to Moria, they will frequently have to engage in combat. They will often run into groups of orcs, bears, or wolves that want to kill them, so they will need to utilize an assortment of craftable weapons to take them out. Additionally, they will also have to seek out prey to earn things like hide and food. Since Lord of the Rings is filled with fun action set pieces, that should make for some fun gameplay; however, the majority of combat encounters see the player constantly spamming the attack button until their enemy perishes. There are no fun combos, no unique moves, and almost all the enemies fight in a similar style.
Outside of exploration, players will also be doing a lot of base building. The base building mechanics let players construct their own unique dwarven huts wherever they want, but the game is also filled with bases that had been previously explored. So, instead of incentivizing players to build wherever they want, the game seems to want them to repair these bases instead. It does not make much sense to plunge countless resources into something new when they could spend less to repair what was already there, which also seems to go against the freeform nature of the genre.
The lack of freedom in Return to Moria is probably one of its biggest faults. Along with that, the actual gameplay is not really doing anything fascinating with the concept. While the game can be fun, especially with friends, it is not that memorable when compared to other games in the genre. Besides the Lord of the Rings brand, it lacks anything truly special to make it stand out.
The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria
- Released
- October 24, 2023
WHERE TO PLAY
Reclaim the Dwarven homeland of Moria Summoned to the Misty Mountains by Lord Gimli Lockbearer, players take control of a company of Dwarves tasked to reclaim the lost spoils from the Dwarven homeland of Moria—known as Khazad-dûm or Dwarrowdelf—in the depths below their very feet. Their quest will require fortitude, delving deep into the Mines of Moria to recover its treasures. Set in a procedurally generated Dwarven realm of Moria, no two adventures will be alike, and every expedition is traversable either solo or online with companions. Players can mine to craft greater gear and resources, but beware mining makes noise, and noise created in the quiet deep threatens to awaken the dangers below: where there’s clatter, there’s combat. Excavate the mysteries of three legendary mountains, extract precious metals, scrape to survive, and battle unspeakable forces to learn the secret of the Shadow that lurks within.
- ESRB
- T For Teen Due To Blood, Use Of Alcohol, Violence
- Developer(s)
- Free Range Games
- Publisher(s)
- North Beach Games
- Franchise
- The Lord of the Rings
- Platform(s)
- PC, PS5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
- Genre(s)
- Survival
The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria is available now on PC, with a PS5 release on December 5 and an Xbox Series X/S release in early 2024. The Best War Games was provided a PC code for this review.