Well folks, we finally have the latest video
game set in Middle-earth - Return to Moria and thank Aule, I’m so happy to report that this is
NOT a Gollum game situation. I’m actually really looking forward to diving into this game again
tonight in a livestream here on the channel - and will be giving away 3 PC copies to a few lucky
winners in the live chat, so be sure you tune in! But first I want to share my review for
The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria. Now, I think it’s important right off
the bat to preface this review by saying, I’m definitely NOT a video game reviewer. Rather
I am a Tolkien fan who enjoys video games, but plays them fairly sparingly. Outside
of Middle-earth games, I really only play titles I’m really hyped for, come with high
recommendations of friends, or fun family games. And aside from playing a little bit of
Minecraft with my kids, this is my first true dive into the survival/crafting genre. With that
point of view laid out - let’s get to the review. I think anyone in the Lord of the Rings
fandom who enjoys video games probably still has some level of PTSD after the
experience that was the Gollum game. And I certainly saw a good number
of comments here on the channel of folks conveying skepticism about Return to
Moria after seeing what we got in Gollum. Thankfully, diving into Return to Moria feels like
a breath of fresh air for Lord of the Rings fans who, I think, haven’t seen a truly good video game
experience since Shadow of War six years ago. Now, before anyone freaks out - I’m setting Lord of
the Rings Online aside in this assessment. At this point, after going strong for 16 years,
LOTRO is pretty much in a category of its own. One thing I’d say Return to Moria has over
the previously mentioned Shadow series is the lore. There’s no forging of extra rings
of power or human Shelob equivalent that I’ve come across in this game. The premise
stretches things a bit by having Gimli’s time in Middle-earth overlap with the reclamation
of Moria, closing a gap of at least 50 years. But honestly, if you’re a developer with
the chance to have John Rhys-Davies return as Gimli in your video game to
send players on this adventure, you probably make that lore tweak 10/10 times.
Without delving too deeply into the story points, after being trapped inside, you discover
there’s some dark magic on the inside of the West Gate (also known as the Doors of
Durin). You then have to survive the long dark of Moria, discovering hidden wonders,
and battling foul creatures along the way. In the early going alone, I’ve found
signs of the Fellowship’s presence, marks left by Gandalf properly referred to
here as Tharkûn (his name among the dwarves), signs of the ancient friendship of
elves and dwarves in the Second Age, and the forge of Narvi - the great smith who was
friends with Celebrimbor and together built the Doors of Durin. The marks left by Gandalf
are from the time pre-Hobbit when he went seeking Thorin Oakenshield’s father, Thrain.
I’ve also been finding Ranger scrolls, which I think could be an account of Aragorn’s travels
through Moria before the time of the Fellowship. And while in the books Durin VII is the one who
leads the dwarves in reclaiming Moria, it’s been teased that this final reincarnation of Durin
could play a major role later in the game. And if this game does dive into Durin’s reincarnation and
what it means to the dwarves, it will be great to see, especially after Rings of Power threw this
aspect out the window for no apparent reason. So while there are some tweaks to the lore,
I think the game definitely shows a care and love for the lore that we haven’t seen in a
video game since…Lego Lord of the Rings over 10 years ago. And even expanding to adaptations
as a whole…well let’s just say it’s been a while. It’s also been a while since we had a truly good
multiplayer experience in Middle-earth. I cannot tell you how many hours I spent back in the
day playing co-op on The Return of the King and War in the North. I loved these games so
much that I am still hanging on to an old XBOX 360 so I always have the option of playing
them. These games are 12 and 20 years old, and in all the time since, we’ve gotten
nothing to scratch that co-op itch. Lo and behold, co-op multiplayer is the ideal
gaming scenario with Return to Moria. I have a couple criticisms against this game and
one is that the single player just isn’t nearly as fun to play. I did a few hours of
solo and found it to be kind of frustrating, but once I hopped on my launch day
stream with just one extra player, the enjoyment skyrocketed for me. It instantly
brought back all the fun of playing with friends - we were instantly strategizing,
building settlements, splitting up to gather resources, and banding together when you’re
threatened by orcs or other foul creatures. This game was definitely designed
with team play in mind. And I think you’ll find as more and more reviews
come out that people who played this game with others will generally be more
favorable than those who played alone. Now, I’ve seen a fair number of comments dunking
on the game saying it looks bad or outdated or that it’s just like Gollum, which I honestly can’t
help but laugh at. Having played more of Gollum than I think the average person could tolerate,
I can tell you the experience is night and day. One thing Return to Moria and Gollum have
in common is that, unlike Shadow of Mordor, or Spider-Man 2, or Jedi Survivor, this is NOT
a AAA game, meaning they were never budgeted or designed to compete with such games in terms
of graphics or stretching next gen capabilities. And there seems to be a contingent of
commenters who believe every game has to have this massive budget to be good, which
I just don’t agree with. The big difference, I think, between Gollum and Return to Moria is
that one attempts to be something it never had the potential to be with the resources
devoted to it, resulting in a sloppy, underwhelming experience for gamers. The other
seems to know exactly what it is and seeks to make its experience as enjoyable as possible, while
displaying a genuine love of the source material. Now, I’ve often said, myself that I’d love to see
a huge open world AAA Middle-earth game like so many other franchises have gotten in recent years.
Still, that doesn’t mean anything less than AAA is worthless - and I think this game is proof of
that. There are hours upon hours of fun to be had here, and I think some folks are really going
to miss out by being too quick to dismiss it. Personally, I find it a major strength and win
for Return to Moria that it knows what it is and doesn’t try to be something it’s not. This goes
for the game design as well as the pricing. One of my biggest complaints about Gollum is that
it never had any business being priced at the ludicrous $60 that it was. At the time, I said it
totally deserved the ridicule in part because it was priced like a AAA game. And in retrospect,
I should’ve been even harder on it score-wise considering the price it launched at rather than
the $ amount I said it should’ve been going for. Now, Return to Moria, a game that is infinitely
better, comes in at $40. Quite a bit lower than AAA pricing and I think in line with what is
reasonable for a game like this. Keeping in mind what I said about single vs multiplayer, I think
if you’ve got a team of fellow dwarves to team up with, and love Middle-earth, you’ll definitely
get your money’s worth in entertainment. As I said in the intro, I am not the most
well versed in the survival/crafting game type. I’ve played a bit of minecraft here
and there with my kids, and that’s it. So if you’re a big fan of survival/crafting
games and want to know how this stacks up, I definitely recommend watching some reviews
that can better speak into this topic. Personally, as someone who does not have a
particular affinity toward survival/crafting games, this game has enthralled me much more than
I thought it would. I’ve never gotten sucked into minecraft or similar games, but Return to Moria
has me hooked. It’s been a good long while since I played a game where I was itching to get back
to it and found myself thinking about it when not playing it. Since our launch day stream,
I’ve found myself going through things in my head thinking - “oh, I should’ve looked for more
statues to repair in that early area” and “ok, once we fire up the next game, we should
set up a big base by Narvi’s forge. No doubt, a large part of my love for
this game comes from the fact that it takes place in Middle-earth and centers around
my favorite race. But as we saw with Gollum, just having a game set in Middle-earth, and
even caring for the lore, does not guarantee it will be any good. The game still has to
execute being a competent game that is worth spending hours of time playing - and Return
to Moria accomplishes that for me. It feels like someone built this game to convert casual
gaming Tolkien fans into survival/crafting fans. Now, this review has been largely
positive thus far - and it should be because I really enjoy this game.
But that doesn’t mean, in my mind, there isn’t room for improvement. Personally,
I didn’t have any performance issues whatsoever except two very small instances textures
not loading properly at random points. I do think the character creation could be
more robust with more options for face types, hair styles, beards, and the jewelry that
goes in them. Though, I didn’t mind the simplicity in the moment, because it only
took me about 5 minutes to create my dwarf and get into the game itself. Still, I’m
looking forward to customizing my dwarf more with armor options and would enjoy
seeing more customization going forward. Speaking of getting into the game, I also
appreciate that we only have two short cut scenes - one before and one after the character
creator - before being plunged into the game. Because my gaming time is kind of limited,
I’m always bummed out when it takes me 30+ minutes to get past all the introductory bits
and into the game proper. Return to Moria plays it smart - it gets Gimli in there to hype us up,
and plunges us right into the long dark of Moria. As I said earlier, I think multiplayer
is a far superior experience to single player and highly recommend teaming up with
others if you want to have the most fun. The combat is ok. It’s nothing
particularly special or complex, and I could see where people mind find
it repetitive, but the raids by orcs present an ever-present threat and can
be triggered by the amount of noise and light you’re putting out - which all feels
true to what Moria should be. I didn’t have any expectation for the combat to be super
intricate, so this didn’t bug me at all. I also think this game has potential
going forward. If this game is successful, which it seems it has been thus far
based on the charts on Epic Games, I could see improvements and additions being
made in the future. If some future update or even expansion came out adding the ability
to mine north to Goblin Town or perhaps fast travel to other realms like Erebor or the
Blue Mountains, I would jump at that chance. I can also understand the bit of frustration
some folks have had that the PS5 version got pushed to December and that XBOX is releasing in
early 2024. I can respect that they’re taking the time needed to get this thing working from
day 1 on those consoles though and if the PC version is any indication, it should be worth
the extra few weeks for PS5 players in particular. Here’s the deal - while everything
I’ve said before this is, I think, worth mentioning and discussing there is one
thing I will always prioritize when it comes to any video game - FUN. As I’ve said before, this
is the absolute most important thing to me. Any Tolkien fan will tell you that Shadow of Mordor
does some pretty ridiculous things lore wise. But, those games are phenomenal and an absolute
blast to play. War in North felt a little odd to me back in the day with its vertical
splitscreen, but the fun outweighed any awkwardness I experienced. On the flip
side, Gollum had some good lore moments, but was an absolute slog and I could
only bear to play it for two streams. At the end of the day, Return to Moria
is the most fun I’ve had in Middle-earth since the Shadow games. And it’s the best
Middle-earth multiplayer experience in at least the past decade. The fact that it has
solid lore and displays a love of the source material makes it all the better. And perhaps
the biggest win is the choice to center this entire game on the dwarves. They’re not
only a perfect fit for survival/crafting, but there’s something about them that
just makes them incredibly fun to embody. This is demonstrated not only in crafting,
digging, and facing off against orcs, but in one of the most delightful and wholesome
elements in the game - singing. As you’re mining, you’ll find inspiration will strike and you
can start singing, with other players able to join in. You can sing things like the poem
“The King beneath the mountains” that movie fans may recognize from the Desolation of Smaug
or “Riddle of Strider” that begins “All that is gold does not glitter”. Down the line we are
also treated to the Song of Durin. Songs are a great part of Tolkien’s books and it’s wonderful
that the game embraces this - using it to not only pay homage to the books, but to embrace the
mirth of dwarves in their natural habitat. When it comes down to Return to Moria as a
whole, I have a hard time looking at this game as anything other than a success. I can’t for
the life of me understand how anyone can play this game and think it and Gollum are in the same
league…they aren’t even playing the same sport. Return to Moria knows what it is
about and neither overpromises nor under-delivers for me personally. While I’ve
seen some folks point to better games in the survival/crafting genre, as someone who
doesn’t play survival/crafting games, Return to Moria has caused me to
joyfully dive head-first into it. And while there’s always Lord of the Rings
Online to play cooperatively with others, I think Return to Moria brings a simplicity
to the table that differentiates it. LOTRO can be pretty daunting for new
players with its complexity, and I think Return to Moria provides a
much easier on-ramp for casual gamers. Now, if you have games you find better in
this genre, or you’re disappointed that a big AAA open-world Middle-earth game still
eludes us, I totally get and respect that. But for me personally, as a casual gamer who loves
LOTR and the dwarves in particular - who would not otherwise be playing survival/crafting - this
game feels like it was built specifically for me. I’m giving Return to Moria a 9/10 -
Playing this cooperatively has been the most fun I’ve had with a Middle-earth
game in such a long time that it feels like a breath of fresh air after facing
the suffocating darkness of Mirkwood. It does a nice solid job with the lore and the
world of Middle-earth, but most importantly, it’s a blast to team up with friends to Reclaim
the lost realm of Khazad-dum. For those who have played the game, let me hear your review in
the comments. I’d love to see what folks from all different gaming backgrounds think of
the game. In the meantime I’ll see you in the Mines tonight on my stream! Thanks for
watching Nerd of the Rings and Baruk Khazad!
