Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria Review

November 10, 2023 Pendragon

With thanks to the folks at North Beach and Free Range Games we’ve been checking out Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria for our full review. This survival crafting title looks to send dwarven explorers back into the dark, but we’re shining a light on it here. As ever, our full video review for Return to Moria is just below.

In addition you can keep reading for our extended written review. Both come with our common-sense parent’s guide to let you know if Return to Moria is safe for kids.

The Basics – What is Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria About?

Available on: PC (Epic)
Price:
Type: Fantasy Survival Crafting
Ratings: PEGI 12 | ESRB Teen
Download:

Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria is currently available on PC via the Epic Games store. While it’s been a little delayed for console, it will also be coming to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S|X within the next few months.

This one offers players the opportunity to create their own unique dwarf character and delve deep into the heart of Tolkein’s Khazad-dûm. Players can sink into the depths on their own, or in a party of friends, allowing you to tame the rocky wilderness and reclaim the lost treasures of Moria.

In true survival-crafting style, players will begin their journey with pretty much just the clothes on their back. You’ll need to find and mine resources to craft, smelt and construct your way deeper into Dwarrowdelf. The lost mines of Moria are (of course) populated with goblins, as well as orcs and a variety of wild creatures.

There’s a decent amount of combat as you head through the title, though as it gets more frequent the clunky control and limited combat options do really start to make themselves apparent. In addition, one nice mechanic is the amount of noise you make while mining, which may summon a dangerous orc horde.

As well as scouring for resources to build and craft, players will also find and restore monuments, collect artefacts and discover a number of nods to the franchise. Above all, players will be crafting their way to retake their homeland, and once again find your way back to your fellow Dwarves.

the dwarf creator allows players a fairly good number of customisation options

Is Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria Safe for Children?

Rating: Mostly Harmless.

Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria is rated by PEGI at 12 and above, and by the ESRB as T for Teen. There is violence here, but apart from a small amount when fighting wild creatures there’s nothing huge to note. When players or enemies die they simply disappear. There are fear elements to consider, with large spiders and traditional Tolkein orcs, as well as quaffing of beer as you’d expect from dwarves.

Overall this one is getting a rating of mostly harmless as long as you’re ok with predominantly bloodless combat, though there is online interaction so do ensure young people are protected through locked down parental controls.

The Run Down – Our Five-Point Rating for Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria

Gameplay – 3: There are some decent survival crafting mechanics here, but progression and exploration simply feels far too linear. We’d have loved to have more complex routes through Khazad-dûm rather than the grid system. The crafting and survival elements work fairly well, but combat is fairly uninspiring and Moria can’t seem to decide if it wants players to explore, or make a home.

Visuals – 2: Sadly while the dwarf creation models look great, environments and enemies are incredibly dated. Dwarven architecture repeats often, and while animations are decent, lighting, camera angles and overall visual quality could do with some work.

Audio – 5: It’s great to have John Rhys Davies back voicing Gimli, and there are some brilliant soundtrack elements as well. Effects are decent and unlike the environments we’ve travelled through we’ve not noticed significantly high repetition in callouts. The singing while mining does have some songs which fall a little flat, but overall the audio might be the best bit of Moria.

you’ll mine from one area to another, but exploration still feels pretty linear

Narrative – 3: There is a tonne of lore in game, from finding movie set pieces to notes left by Gandalf. The return of Gimli also helps to provide a link between books and films and this new fourth age setting.

Replay – 3: Procedural generation does mean that there is a new Moria to discover every time you start or join a new world. However the linear progress means that you’re mostly going over the same solutions, and finding very similar buildings and locations. Overall, with the grid-based mapping it’s just not one which is sucking us back in.

The Verdict – Is Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria Worth It?

Pixel Bandits That Is No Orc Horn Level for Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria is an entirely average 5 / 10. As a huge fan of the franchise I have been really looking forward to getting involved with Return to Moria. Sadly, fairly linear routes seem to try and keep things on the straight and narrow, rather than promoting exploration.

Moria has some really nice features, and if you are playing with friends or other players it does pick up a little. Sadly, however, the need to have to keep resetting up camp and transporting valuable resources in order to explore further, severely hampers things.

Return to Moria isn’t a bad title, and the mechanics are fairly solid for the most part, but it’s one which sadly hasn’t made me passionate about getting back into it.

As ever, to provide this review and common-sense parent’s guide, we received a free copy of Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria from the folks at North Beach Games.