- Publisher: Free Range Games , North Beach Games
- Release Date: Oct 24, 2023
- Also On: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
- Unscored
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Nov 9, 2023Certainly grab a copy if you are a fan of Middle Earth and if you like the crafting genre… or even just if you are a fan of Middle Earth, there’s more lore here to absorb whilst traveling the halls of Moria (or digging them out).
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Jan 5, 2026The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria is a fantastic multiplayer survival game. The mining is fun, the fighting is serviceable, and the progression feels really nice. The fact that it brought back Gimli and is set in the Fourth Age is really cool, especially since the player has a custom character in the story. Best experienced with friends, but totally fine to play alone. This title really deserves more attention than it got! Highly recommended to all fans of Middle-earth.
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Nov 7, 2023The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria tries to take a well-known license and connect it with the already classic ideas of the survival crafting genre. Unfortunately, the game doesn’t quite manage to deliver on either. There are some nice callbacks to the books and TV franchise but nothing to keep its fans engaged in the long term.
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Oct 30, 2023Overall, Return to Moria is a solid entry in the survival genre. It has some unique gameplay mechanics that are fun to explore, while the Middle-Earth setting lets a dedicated fanbase venture into the world in a new way. Aside from bugs that will hopefully be resolved in soon-to-come updates, I can see it being a staple among players. I know it holds a solid spot in my survival rotation.
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Oct 30, 2023Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria blends survival adventure and sandbox together fantastically. A very satisfying and rewarding experience all around.
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Oct 24, 2023Return to Moria, from Free Range Games, is a fun experience for fans of survival titles and Lord of the Rings. It takes some of the better systems from the genre and marries them to the lore and setting of Moria, the result of which is a world that fans can be excited about.
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Oct 30, 2023Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria doesn’t take any huge chances with the survival crafting genre. Still, the Lord of the Rings overlay and familiar character cameos help make its familiar loops seem fresh enough. In the mixed-bag pantheon of Lord of the Rings-inspired games, Return to Moria acquits itself quite well.
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Oct 31, 2023Return to Moria tickles the Middle Earth nerve of every fan, but overstretches your patience with comfort shortcomings and technical problems.
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Oct 25, 2023Sure the combat is a bit basic, the narrative middling at best, the enemy AI and actions are awful and highly predictable, the pacing too steady, and there are a fair collection of glitches when you mine and rip apart a wall with your pickaxe, but besides from these issues Return to Moria is good return for form for the usually rather fun The Lord of the Rings video games.
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Oct 27, 2023Return to Moria is just a survival game that doesn’t do anything particularly interesting, but it can be fun if you like the franchise and play with friends.
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Oct 29, 2023The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria is, first and foremost, a beautiful missed opportunity. If you are a fan of both survival games and The Lord of the Rings, we still recommend you step into the armor of a dwarf and experience what the studio has crafted, but the game is far away from achieving any modern standards in survival experiences, so stay away from it if you're not into Tolkien works.
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Oct 24, 2023The Lord of the Rings Return to Moria unfortunately fails to stand up to the sacred monsters of the survival genre. Net of the excessive presence of combat, a construction system that is not too successful and a technical sector that is not the latest trend, the Free Range Games game succeeds in its aim of immersing players in the magical world of the Lord of the Rings and guaranteeing them a few hours of fun, especially if in the company of a group of friends.
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Oct 24, 2023The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria is a decently fun time. While not perfect, it’s a unique take on a sandbox survival game.
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Dec 3, 2023Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria has the potential to be a challenging and enjoyable multiplayer experience. The loop of mining, crafting, and exploring is a satisfying one when overwhelming hordes of goblins aren’t haranguing you. There doesn’t seem to be any real optimisation for solo players so I’d probably stay clear unless you can get a band of dwarves together to brave the darkness of the mines.
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Nov 16, 2023An average survival game, with a functional but unremarkable gameplay offering nothing we haven't seen repeatedly elsewhere. It fails to captivate through its story or combat, with its only real strength lying in the immersive environment and the portrayal of the Lord of the Rings lore. This means that if you're not interested in Tolkien's world, Return to Moria isn't worth your attention.
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Nov 7, 2023The 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.
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Nov 3, 2023Though it doesn't stray far from the standard survival game formula and often lacks polish, The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria offers a moody, atmospheric descent through Tolkien's world - with plenty of lighter moments to be found along the way.
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Nov 2, 2023The formula for a game like this is well established, and while Return to Moria doesn't add anything new to the genre, it works just fine. It may seem strange, but it's boring in a somewhat safe and relaxing way – when the technical aspects works.
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Nov 2, 2023Return to Moria has a TON of potential, but overall I would say the worldbuilding and fantastic job they did on bringing Moria to life is what carries the title; not necessarily the survival mechanics or gameplay. Aside from singing mining songs with friends, I can’t think of much that it brings to the table that I haven’t seen done better in other survival games like Valheim or Conan Exiles. Return to Moria has definitely created an interesting and immersive world, probably one of the most lore-accurate ones I’ve seen in a while. I just wish that they had dedicated a little more time to making their combat and survival system as interesting too.
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Nov 1, 2023The lack of freedom in Return to Moria is probably one of its biggest faults. Along with that, the actual gameplay is not really doing anything fascinating with the concept. While the game can be fun, especially with friends, it is not that memorable when compared to other games in the genre. Besides the Lord of the Rings brand, it lacks anything truly special to make it stand out.
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Oct 31, 2023Lord of The Rings: Return to Moria doesn't mess with the formula we already know from survival games. The focus on Tolkien's narrative offers good moments, but still leads to a relatively linear progression, lightly sprinkled with references to the journey of the Fellowship of the Ring. The bugs and the overly basic combat bury too much of the fun that the game can offer, yet fans of the genre and The Lord of the Rings willing to sift through these problems may find some golden nuggets.
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Oct 31, 2023If you are a fan of Lord of the Rings and survival games, then you should definitely pick up Return to Moria. It offers a new side to the franchise that establishes a cozier take to these combat-heavy games using its entertaining building mechanics. I look forward to seeing how this unique aspect evolves the series, especially with the upcoming Tales of the Shire.
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Oct 27, 2023Return 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.
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Oct 27, 2023Don’t be a fool of a Took and rush into Moria. An authentic and authentically grueling game.
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Dec 18, 2023If 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.
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Nov 21, 2023Despite a strong premise and decent progression, this survival sandbox title falls flat in the gameplay department.
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Nov 9, 2023The 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.
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Nov 1, 2023This 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.
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Nov 1, 2023If 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.
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Nov 13, 2023The 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.
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Oct 31, 2023This is an awful lot of complaining, but once I stockpiled enough stuff, I did enjoy actually building with it. Return to Moria makes putting things together simple and enjoyable, as long as you meet a few basic requirements. Free Range uses logic in the best possible ways. It’s important if you’re building something top-heavy that would and should collapse without the right supports. It’s out the window completely for other things. Wanna stick a tiny wooden platform in a sheer stone wall so you can climb around? Do it! Does it make physical sense? No! But it does make exploring and building more fun.
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Oct 30, 2023I’d love nothing more than to play as Dwarves retaking their homeland alongside friends, but sadly, this is not the game to do that in. Besides the setting, there’s not much else to celebrate in Return to Moria.
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Oct 27, 2023There 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.
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Oct 27, 2023There’s a decent game in here somewhere, as the compelling progression loop and chaotic multiplayer capabilities can make for a really good time – I just can’t give you many reasons to pick this survival game over the plethora of better options when it’s only ever by-the-numbers at best.
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| This publication has not posted a final review score yet. | |
| These unscored reviews do not factor into the Metascore calculation. | |
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Nov 6, 2023Maybe Return to Moria is just what the license needed. It's simple in its survival or building mechanics, and approaches the story with force, but without presence. It doesn't stand out, but it's the best thing that could happen to The Lord of the Rings right now.
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Oct 30, 2023There’s a lot to like in The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria, and there’s an equal list of things that aren’t as polished. It’s the very definition of midtier, with all that implies. There are better survival crafting games out there, but none that offer a chance to see what nameless primordial things lie below the Mines of Moria. Always hungry, always waiting.
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Nov 8, 2023Return to Moria isn’t the worst offender in a sea of bad survival games, and there’s certainly enjoyment to be found exploring Khazad-dûm’s depths if you’re with friends — but as a mainly solo dwarf, progress is slow, combat is frustrating, and exploration features far too much backtracking in the linear world you’re in. There’s a certain satisfaction in upgrading my gear and taking out tougher enemies, and ultimately, I still want to get back to Lord Gimli. But the structure of the game is at odds with the mechanics, and the disappointing combat doesn’t help. A few patches could see this become a survival game that can hold its own against the more popular entries in the genre, but as it stands, perhaps the dwarves should’ve let the orcs claim Moria and built their new kingdom somewhere else.
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Oct 31, 2023It's so full of love and pretty reveals, and empty dwarf pubs that feel hand crafted, and overheard orc conversations where they bitch about goblins. If you have a group of friends that you already play games like this with, then I'd say it's well worth bringing campfires and cosy stew to as many corners of Moria as you can.