REVIEW: ‘The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria,’ Is Promising But Needs Improvement (PC)

Survival crafting games are all the rage these days, and The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria aims to stand above the rest. Developed by Free Range Games and published by North Beach Games, Return to Moria combines the survival genre with J.R.R. Tolkien’s popular Lord of the Rings saga in a package that shows plenty of promise.

Set after the events of the Return of the King, Return to Moria is about the Dwarves of Middle Earth reclaiming the legendary kingdom of Moria. Lord Gimli, voiced once again by John Rhys-Davies, has called on the Dwarves to take their home back from the orcs and goblins, and the player’s character is the first to heed the call. With the dark caverns full of danger, the task ahead will be challenging, but players can team up with up to eight total players to fight their way through the troubles ahead and bring life back to Moria.

The beauty of Tolkien’s world helps give Return to Moria an excellent backstory that draws in players right from the start. The characterization of the Dwarves and the beauty of Moria itself are lifted straight from Tolkien’s legendary work. It’s clear that Free Range Games cared deeply about how they represented this world. Unfortunately, that care remains surface-level throughout much of the story. There are moments where things develop a bit, but the characters met along the way, as players journey further into Moria, rarely ever stand out.

It is not too surprising that a survival crafting game lacks story depth since the main focus was always going to be the gameplay. Fans of survival games will feel right at home in Return to Moria, with familiar mechanics and progression. Crafting low-level tools and items in the beginning slowly turns into more advanced items as players make it further into the mines. It’s a familiar progression loop that makes Return to Moria approachable for newcomers and veterans to survival crafting games alike.

Having a base to go back to is vital in Return to Moria. Players must craft a hearth in order to build and use the appropriate workstations needed to make and upgrade items. There is also the ability to build the exterior of the base, with walls and scaffolding being arguably the most important items. These bases can and will be raided by hordes of goblins and orcs, so it is important to build a secure base that can withstand the onslaught.

The issue with building these bases is that, while it is arguably the most important part of game progression, it always feels like more of a chore than anything. There is nothing new or revolutionary about base-building in Return to Moria that another survival crafting game doesn’t do better. There is technically freedom to build wherever, but every new area has a handful of pre-set bases that can be restored and are usually in the most optimal position. It is nice to have those locations available, especially early on, but as you progress, it feels very limiting to be drawn into the most efficient spaces instead of being granted ultimate freedom.

Leaving to mine a handful of select resources needed to grow your base also feels quite limited. Only so many items can be mined or collected, and building a massive stockpile with minimal effort is easy. The only downside there is that those stockpiles can’t come with you, so the option is to either keep building bases as you progress or spend a good chunk of time backtracking through the caverns. Either choice can feel like a waste of time, unfortunately, with a good amount of playtime spent either building an optimal small base or walking the same path over and over again.

The gathering and building are limited, but they are at least worthwhile at the end of the day. The same can’t be said, however, about combat. Fighting enemies inexplicably provides no benefits, as enemies simply dissolve once beaten and don’t drop any items or resources for players. Running into a band of goblins comes with significant risk the further you get, but fighting them has no payoff in the end. Stale and clunky fighting makes these skirmishes even more frustrating. Hopefully, this sees an update as the game receives post-launch support, but for now, combat is much more of a hassle than it ever needs to be.

With all that said, once you get going in Return to Moria, it is very hard to put it down. The gameplay systems are standard and lack some more modern polish, but the gameplay loop is so addicting. It also gets exponentially more fun the more players you have in your party. There is nothing as satisfying as enjoying a keg with your Dwarven kin as you delve too greedily and too deep into the mysterious mountains. It’s that feeling that gives me hope that some post-launch tweaks will turn this from being just a mediocre game into one that stands out in an overcrowded genre.

Return to Moria has a decent core that could have used a little bit more time in the tank to reach its full potential. Hopefully, community feedback will be taken into account and post-launch support will focus on improving some of the basic mechanics. If they do that, it has real potential to be one of the better survival crafting games in recent memory.

The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria is out now on PC and releases on PlayStation 5 on December 5th.