The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria Reviews
Overall, The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria is an extremely solid survival crafting title, and stands proudly as one of the best Lord of the Rings games, as well as one of the best releases of 2023.
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 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 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 is a decently fun time. While not perfect, it's a unique take on a sandbox survival game.
Overall, Return to Moria is a good survival game that has made significant strides since its release. Generally, it provides a solid and fun experience, especially in multiplayer, offering a surprisingly deep experience. However, it still lacks that unique “something” and needs some final tweaks for a balanced experience. Nevertheless, it’s a great product that’s even more enjoyable in co-op mode.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Overall ‘The Lord Of The Rings Return To Moria’ completely took me by surprise and exceeded my expectations. Not being the biggest fan of survival crafting games I found myself losing time by becoming immersed in the world created for me. It’s an absolute joy to play and feels so authentic to the world of ‘The Lord Of The Rings’.
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
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.
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.
Return to Moria doesn't challenge the genre, and instead of just tries to be a good game, and in that it suceeds.
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.