The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria Reviews
The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria is, at best, a mediocre base-building and environmental exploration game, but most of the time it does everything worse when compared to other similar works. Add in the disappointing combat experience, a forgettable story, and a lackluster aesthetic, and there's something here that's bad as a game, even worse as part of a universe as incredible as the one created by Tolkien.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria is a cheap attempt at capitalizing on the survival game hype through the mass credibility of the books. It borrows almost each and every element from contemporaries, but none of them work well.
Another miss for the Rings franchise, then. There are bursts of quality here, and the potential for fun when playing with others. However, it ultimately fails as an adaptation and a survival game.
There are moments when The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria hints at what it could have been, such as when you’re mining a rich vein of ore in some dark tunnel, and your dwarf becomes inspired to sing. They’ll clear their throat and give voice to a story of trolls and orcs and the beating that will rain down on them if they cross your path. The game briefly feels alive, the story making the cold mines warm. But then the song stops, and you’re still mining, and all you have to look forward to is a long walk back to the forge.
I just didn't really want to do any of the other things Return to Moria expected me to.
The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria doesn’t give a ton of reasons to play it over its genre peers – and its poor combat, building, and mining mechanics make those other options sound even more appealing.
The Lords of the Rings: Return to Moria has some very solid ideas. A game set in the Fourth Age is incredibly interesting and exciting. This is why it's such a shame that Return to Moria is not a success. There is a lot of heart in it, sure, but the core gameplay loop just isn't engaging enough to make the game worth buying over other survival titles, even if you are a big LOTR fan.
The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria is a middling survival crafting experience set in J. R. R. Tolkien’s fantasy world of Middle Earth. The lore, voice acting, and the characters are probably the only interesting ideas this game brings to the table, as the rest of the gameplay loop of mining, building, crafting, and surviving isn’t anything that propels the genre forward.
The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria is the kind of game that doesn’t do anything well enough to satisfy any of its intended audiences. For survival fans nothing is done better than titles they’re already playing, and in fact does plenty worse. And for diehard Lord of the Rings fans, the strange lore deviations and limited vision of Khazad-Dum and the canonical events portrayed aren’t any more attractive.
This is a competent survival game, adding nothing to a formula long since perfected by games like Subnautica, games that it falls far short of. It relies on the pull of Tolkien to keep players pushing through, otherwise it would be all too easy to give up on your mission and do something else, anything but mining. There are moments of magic, like when your team of dwarves begin to sing, deep harmonies echoing off the cavernous walls. But these moments are too few and far between, and the lore can only take you so far. As a space to hang out with fantasy-minded friends, Return to Moria is a nice jaunt. I just wish there was something more to do than swing this damn pickaxe at another damn wall.
If Lord of the Rings and "survival-crafting" combo sounds good to you, this is the game for you. Still, you'll have to work hard to overlook its faults.
Review in Turkish | Read full review
The world here is huge and it will take you tens of hours to discover it all - there is a lot to discover. If you have a group of friends who will go with you and you enjoy a game focused on survival, production and combat and the mysterious world of dwarves, you are in the right place. But if you're looking for an engaging story from Middle Earth, you won't find it here, unfortunately.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria offers an intriguing set-up, and Moria is a compelling location to explore. However, even with decent progression, the fundamental gameplay - from building to combat - leaves much to be desired.
If you're a fan of the universe, Return to Moria is a reason to re-immerse yourself in familiar sights and sounds, but for anyone else it's just another survival game.
The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria is a fairly mediocre survival game that partially rides on the popularity of a well-known brand. Unfortunately, at that price, I am in no way able to recommend a trip to mystical Moria, even if you are a huge fan of the LOTR.
Review in Polish | Read full review
When your dwarf is filled with joy and bursts into singing while mining, a little of The Lord of the Rings atmosphere springs to life. Exploring some areas without any care in the world is another moment when the game feels enticing and hints at the sandbox gameplay that could have been. But suddenly, you are reminded that the whole place is a procedurally generated mess with barely any memorable locations, combat is dull and flawed, mining is extremely limited, and the repetitive walks to the base with the goal of storing your recent loot become tiresome. Return to Moria is one for diehard fans only, and even those have to consider just how passionate they are about dwarves and survival in dark places.
Don't be a fool of a Took and rush into Moria. An authentic and authentically grueling game.
The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria is interesting, but niche. Anyone who is a fan of both the survival genre and Lord of the Rings will find a gameplay title that will require dozens of hours to be properly explored, especially with other players in multiplayer. However, it is worth highlighting that, for the uninitiated, there are other more innovative and/or inviting options.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
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 overshadowed by the name it carries: Free Range Games have indeed managed to recreate the atmospheres that Tolkien's fans will love but, in terms of gameplay, the game fails to shine as it should.
Review in Italian | Read full review