14 DAY TRIAL // 
An Elven enclave exists deep in Khazad-dûm, a major surprise for a dwarf explorer who’s looking to take the entire place back for his race. It’s verdant, bathed in light, despite the depth, and seems like a great place to create a thriving base from which to further explore the depths. Unfortunately, the place is also inhabited by enemies, a mix of man and orc with an appetite for violence.
I have a decent sword and a shield, but four enemies are circling me, taking turns lunging with their swords. I block some of the strikes and take one down, but my health is taking a beating. I try to run away, but my opponents don’t give up, corner me near a gallery I have recently dug, and manage to kill me. All my stuff is left behind, including a decent stash of iron and my lembas.
I press E to wake up at my bedroll. It’s late afternoon already, which means darkness is coming and, with it, goblins that really want to destroy my hearth. It’s important to be prepared, so I cook some food to get back my health and go to the iron vein that’s nearby. I might be lucky enough to get the ore required to smelt some ingots and craft another sword. It beats facing enemies with the emergency wooden axe.
The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria is developed by Free Range Games and published by North Beach Games. I played it on the PC using the Epic Games launcher. The game will also be offered on PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X and S.
The title combines the lore of the well-known franchise with survival and crafting mechanics. Gimli Lockbearer, well-known to franchise fans, starts the story by inviting players to come to Moria, re-open the mines, and create a thriving dwarven community once more. All of this is set during the Fourth Age of The Lord of the Rings, which means it takes place after the core story. There are plenty of references and ideas taken directly from it, but the narrative isn’t very interesting on its own.
It might not offer new details on how the Fourth Age is progressing, but the game does have a very good character editor. I spend more than a few minutes simply taking in the variety of impressive beards and there’s a lot of variety for the other features. Female dwarves are also an option. Once the character is created, a cutscene quickly shows how easy it is to get into trouble when trying to reconquer Dwarrowdelf, Alone and with limited resources, gamers have to explore, mine, and fight to survive.
The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria is instantly familiar as a classic survival and crafting experience. Gather a few scraps of wood to create a torch, needed to avoid the nasty status effect of staying in darkness for too long. Get some metal to create a primitive pickaxe and an axe. The first is needed to dig, and the second is the first way to defend from orcs, goblins, and nastier creatures.
Gamers will quickly discover and activate a hearth and a few other associated buildings. The tutorial is decent and presents the basic ideas quickly. Collect resources, process them, unlock new buildable objects, create better materials and items, and then repeat the process. At night (weirdly, the mines of Moria have a full day-night cycle) fight off anyone who threatens the camp. Gamers also have to cook food and rest to keep their dwarf in shape.
Once morning comes, get back to work. Discover extra recipes, find more resources, become a better miner, and discover what the depths of Moria have to offer. The basic gameplay loop doesn’t offer any surprises for fans but is engaging and immersive. Combat isn’t very fun, especially when engaging groups of enemies.
The biggest issue of Return to Moria is the fact that it never pauses, even when exploring menus during a solo session. It’s a good idea to keep time running when players are working together to explore a space (multiplayer is cooperative and works well). But I really want to read some lore entries or consider what to build without wolves sneaking up on me.
Moria would be a great location for a video game but one that offers more freedom and doesn’t focus on combat this much. Give players control over a small dwarf group and challenge them to thrive as they push back the darkness, with the option to pause and consider both combat and building options.
The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria is decent looking but not impressive. Use a pickaxe a few times against one of the unbreakable walls to see how easy it is for the player character’s model to clip through the environment in rather unpleasant ways. The Lord of the Rings should be more present in the presentation, but Moria often is underdeveloped and, as a result, immersion is limited. The dwarf models are pretty impressive, especially when it comes to the variety and awesomeness of their beards.
The audio side is similarly lacking in inspiration. John-Rhys Davies does reprise his role as Gimli, which will satisfy fans of the movie series, but the other voice work is limited, with some line readings coming across as boring. Using a tool or weapon sounds like it does in plenty of other tree-punching titles. The soundtrack is decent and sometimes barely there, which would be a great idea if the mines themselves were more interesting in terms of ambient sounds.
The Good
- Good survival mechanics
- Plenty of crafting systems
- Moria is an intriguing place
The Bad
- Limited connection to Lord of the Rings
- No gameplay innovation
- A few graphical glitches
Conclusion
And gameplay is conservative and will only appeal to players who really like the loop of exploration, combat, resource gathering, and crafting. The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria should have pushed a few boundaries. Instead, it’s a game that has potential but will only be loved by a small slice of the public.
Review key provided by the publisher.
