Hello out there, Zap here. In this Return to Moria review you will get a little insight into
the new survival game with the dwarves from Lord of the Rings. I'll tell you how it plays, what
's in it and at the end I'll give you a rating. But above all, I would like
to give you all the information so that you can decide for yourself whether you might enjoy the game.
Return to Moria is developed by Free Range Games and published by North Beach Games.
So far there are
already a few titles that this studio has worked on, including The Callisto Protocol, Oddworld Soulstorm and Spelldriver. I
received a free test key, thank you for that. However, this shouldn't have any influence on my rating,
as I always test all games with the thought in mind of how I would feel
if I had paid full price. In order to be able to do tests with the multiplayer,
which is very important in this type of game,
we bought a second key, so it's kind of half and half this time.
► Background - Lord of the Rings Franchise
Lord of the Rings, the epic story of hobbits, elves and Sauron,
the worst evil in all fantasy worlds. In addition to the books
and the very successful films, there are now also series. And further spin-offs are being planned.
There have always been plenty of adaptations of the stories as computer games. Already on
the C64 and Amiga, but also for PC and consoles, there were many examples of sometimes quite passable
games, but also some real pickles, with the label of JRR Tolkien's fantasy saga.
Just this year, after long announcements and all sorts of expectations,
Gollum was released, developed by the German Daedalic Studio. And this game flopped so
dramatically that it was well on its way to being voted the worst game of the year
. Before a strange King Kong spin-off successfully applied for this position.
There is a relatively successful MMORPG called Lord of the Rings Online that has been
doing well on the market for 16 years. Amazon is currently also having a new online game
developed in-house in the Lord of the Rings universe by the creators of the halfway decent New World MMO.
Given the Gollum debacle, I was initially a bit skeptical about Return to Moria.
So now comes Return to Moria and offers a completely
different insight into Tolkien's world, from the perspective of the dwarves. With the studio
behind Callisto Protocol, it was somehow a little more likely
that Moria could become something. Return to Moria was released on October 24th, 2023 for Playstation PS5 and for
PC in the Epic Games Store. Unfortunately, Xbox and Steam-only players will have to wait until 2024.
► Game type - Survival Adventure We are a dwarf, or a whole
squad of up to eight dwarves in multiplayer, and are trying
to recapture the legendary mines of Moria. Orcs, goblins, rats, wargs and many other dangers
lurk in the depths and some ancient treasures and secrets await us.
We start as quite inexperienced young dwarves, with no equipment, no knowledge of tools, weapons,
armor forging or cooking. As with any other survival game, we then gradually
work our way through a so-called tech tree, i.e. a sequence of certain techniques.
We build a torch out of sticks, then a pick with stones and fabric.
At some point we can mine ores and learn to smelt and forge them. With further
progress, new materials and new building parts, tools, weapons and armor are added.
In most survival games it's more like one or a few basic buildings
that you continually expand, defend and upgrade. Moria, on the other hand, is
more of an evolving adventure. We go through the journey
through a very hostile area, the old mines of Moria, looking for an exit,
a path through the mountain and for this purpose we also set up camps to secure our journey.
So you keep building new camps and gradually securing the surrounding territory
. And once you've achieved that, you can scout out the next campsite,
Fight free, build up and then travel on again. The old camps
often lose their importance. But I'll tell you more about that later.
► Gameplay - Story and scope of the game The dwarves want the ancient dwarven city of
Moria back. Gimli himself plans to reconquer in his old
age. After being locked out of their homeland of Moria for a millennium, driven out
by orcs, goblins and the Balrog, they now finally want to return.
But in addition to the known dangers, there are other problems that stand in their way.
The doors can no longer be opened with Mellum. And when we try to blow it
up there is a collapse and we, as dwarfs, get lost in the mountain.
We play this dwarf, either in solo play or together as a co-op experience with friends.
So we have to survive in the old mine, explore it and try to find another exit
. Because the normal gates are sealed with a strange shadow curse. Maybe
we can also find out how this happened and who is responsible for it?
So we dig our way through the mountain and get deeper and deeper. As befits survival-based games, we are
gradually exploring new materials and recipes.
We move further and further from iron and wood scraps to steel and elven wood
until at some point we can use mithril and other rare ores, wood and types of rock.
We travel through the mine, often exploring very stylish
places and many dark tunnels. Everything is filled with goblins, half-orcs,
orcs but also many wild animals such as wild boars, wolves, bears, spiders,
elf deer and bats. Later there are also boss fights with really big opponents.
The aim of the game is
to find another exit on the east side of the mountains. But even after more than 20 hours of test playing time,
we and our little band of dwarves are still a long way off.
It doesn't even begin to seem like
we're even close to the halfway point of the journey. So I suspect
that it will easily take 80-100 hours or even more before you
can ever reach an exit again. But I don't have any more detailed information about it at the moment.
In contrast to many other survival games, Moria offers a rough storyline, which is partly
experienced through conversations with an Erebor raven. There are also numerous texts to
find, tablets, notes, and
you can also experience some little stories through the voice output when you listen to the orcs.
Small allusions to Gandalf, the hobbit companions or other characters from the books and films
also appear here . ► Gameplay - Character creation and characters At the beginning there is extensive
customization for our personal dwarf. We don't have to specify gender,
but we have the opportunity
to customize our dwarf with or without bust size, body proportions and beard as we want. And in the end there are
actually all forms of dwarven life, whether female, male or diverse,
it doesn't make much of a difference. Every form of dwarven life is equal.
The character editor offers an extensive range of faces, hairstyles, beards,
tattoos and decorations. Many of the details can
be colored in numerous variations. There are 8 different voices to choose from for voice acting and dwarf singing.
Overall the figures look okay. They're not the prettiest dwarves,
but the editor offers a good selection for customization and personal style.
Unfortunately, there are no character stats in Return to Moria. So there are no
options here, no RPG systems, etc. And we won't learn anything about it later either
. The progress our dwarves make lies purely in their knowledge
of ores, their equipment and the selection in the recipe book when crafting.
And this progress is always tied to the world, not to the
dwarf in question. We can take our character from one world to another and
all of the items will remain intact. But progress in the research tree,
if you want to call it that, remains in the save game, not in the character.
► Crafting and collecting There are tons of things
to loot and collect. We start with scraps of wood and use them to build a torch.
Add some fabric and stones and we have a makeshift dwarven pick. With it we can
hack our way through earthen walls, which, however,
have very little atmospheric distribution between the sections. Later there are also ore deposits and remains of the old dwarven people, such as barrels,
carts, broken buildings. We can hack some of them to pieces to make building materials.
Along the way, the dwarves can build makeshift platforms out of wood, for example to reach higher
ground or cross a small abyss. But for most structures
we first have to set up a camp, which initially requires finding a broken fireplace
that we can repair. If we have more materials and especially coal
available, we can also build such fireplaces ourselves
and anywhere we want Set up a camp if we want to.
In a camp we have various walls, doors, windows and floors at our disposal to
build our very own dwarven home. There are also numerous workbenches where we
can cook, refine materials and create new equipment or food. In the later game
there is also rune magic, travel stones and such complex things to research and
build. And almost every new material we discover brings with it new recipes,
expanding our possibilities the deeper we go into the mountain.
► Gameplay - Procedurally generated world Moria works with a procedural
world generation system, i.e. a random generator puts
together a world from a kit of prepared pieces that can look different every time you start the game. Well,
at least theoretically and partially that's how it's done.
As is often the case with such systems, the world only becomes interesting for
multiple play when there are enough components in this supply box
from which the random system can take parts. And
unfortunately that doesn't seem to be the case here.
The game is divided into individual sections. At the beginning there is a fixed
entrance in which the tutorial takes place and which is always exactly the same. This is followed by a
smaller section in which you can use iron tools. At some point you dig
towards the mines and learn about steel and how to use it to make tools and weapons.
But the main locations are always fixed places, only the corridors in between
seem to be randomly generated. And this unfortunately creates a problem for
replayability. In the second round, the arrangement and the paths are slightly different,
but the main locations are exactly the same. I think
that there can be a motivation problem, at the latest the third time.
Normally you can restart many survival games without any problem and start with a
very different world, and this often results in very different gameplay and
searching for individual things again. This is apparently not the case in Moria,
a clear minus. But these permanent places are really special
and exceptionally designed, which is again a plus.
► Gameplay - Combat, Survival and Exploration Our dwarves get hungry when they don't
eat enough. They grow weary, and while they are not afraid of the dark,
there is an added darkness in Moria that can frighten them. If you get
into cursed areas, you will be given longer-lasting curses.
But if we are well rested, we get a motivational boost and some foods are
particularly filling. So we often have buffs and debuffs on us that
can make our mine explorers stronger or weaker. Later in the game we can brew beer and
craft complex food, which will equip our dwarves for the really difficult challenges.
Moria is a heavily combat-heavy game. Not only are there camps of goblins or orcs to conquer when advancing into new areas
, but guard patrols also pester us in other ways
and random beasts passing by all the time. Most of the time these are groups of several opponents
who like to surround you and try to attack from behind
or push you into a corner. Sometimes there are coordinated attacks and sieges
by larger groups on our camps, which we should therefore definitely secure well.
During the course of the quest, horde attacks can even occur,
with dozens of enemies attacking us at the same time. A
situation that is both impressive and potentially frightening. So Moria is not a game for
pure, peaceful building. There are no adjustment options for difficulty levels,
attack frequencies or anything like that. In Moria you can't avoid fighting.
But if we die, it won't be a great loss. We respawn at
our last bound bed and nothing more happens. Similar to Ark or Valheim,
our equipment and the contents of our inventory lie
in a tombstone at the place of our death. If we collect this, we get everything back.
The combat system itself is stamina-based, meaning every sprint, every block, every dodge roll
and every punch costs stamina. And if this drops to zero, we will be almost
defenseless and the best we can do is leave. Although we should be careful with this, because attacks
in the back do extra damage. But of course stamina regenerates relatively quickly
if we don't do anything for a moment. You can also hide behind the shield.
There are no healing potions, at least for the first 20-30 hours. Smaller foods
only replenish our hunger bar, but do not heal. We can craft meals in camp,
it heals us. But we can't take this food with us, we can only eat it directly from the food table.
There are also complex food items to find that fill you up,
heal, and can be carried. But at least in the beginning, they aren't
available as craftable food. So if we are injured, we have to go back to camp.
Our equipment wears out and needs to be repaired at a repair shop,
otherwise it becomes unusable. And this especially applies to all pieces of armor. Armor
that we put on creates another
blue bar above our life bar. And when we get into a fight,
hits are first deducted from our armor bar. Then we get into real life.
However, once the armor bar is gone, it also means
that the armor is broken. And we first have to repair them in the warehouse,
which also uses up material. This circumstance requires us to plan very carefully
when we put ourselves in danger and where we risk getting into fights. Because being far away from the camp
could be extremely dangerous if we don't make it back alive.
This mechanic adds a special thrill to the fights and
makes blocking and dodging extremely important. Because avoided
damage is not a problem for armor and life, but every hit ultimately shortens
our travel range and forces us back to camp sooner.
There is a series of quests that roughly guide you in a certain direction
that you should go. However, you often come across tough opponents and challenges
for which you first need better equipment. And with storage mechanics and repairs,
it's always necessary to have a well-built home somewhere nearby.
This is how you tactically move forward through the mines. Explore the area
from a safe base , destroy enemy camps, slowly move forward and
then eventually set up a new camp further ahead. Then all over again.
At least in the beginning, you gradually carry everything from the rear storage to the front,
but later there is also a fast travel system that makes this a little more pleasant.
► Technology, graphics, sound Moria is based on the Unreal Engine,
which ensures largely stable gameplay. I didn't have a single crash during my tests
, nor did my partner, who tested with me .
The graphics offer a medium quality level of textures,
quite good lighting and often manages to create a very chic ambience.
There are sometimes even some scary moments in the darker sections.
The soundtrack is upper middle class. The sounds in the caves and the battle sounds
are okay. There is some voice acting, the quality of which is also between okay
and good. We had a bug in the test that in multiplayer all dwarves always
spoke with the voice of the host dwarf. That was irritating because our male dwarves
had more female voices, but in the end it wasn't really dramatic. I hope this will be fixed.
The on-screen texts are available in a total of eight languages. There are German
texts for tooltips and the numerous books, tablets, tutorial texts,
etc. But the voice output is in English or mixed
with actual Dwarven, if you choose that when creating the character.
► Return to Moria Test - Opinion and Conclusion At first glance, Return to Moria looks
a bit old-fashioned, but when you walk around in it, that quickly becomes lost.
As the story progresses you find elf caves or old dwarven mines
where everything is dripping and dripping with ambience, the graphics look really nice.
The controls during combat are sometimes a bit
imprecise and the hit feedback lacks a bit of finesse. But actually the
fighting is well done and fun. Only when you have a siege again,
or even attack a horde, do the numbers of enemies become a bit overwhelming. If you
are more of a pacifist and don't feel like fighting, Moria might not be
the right game for you, just as it might not be if you have arachnophobia.
A problem area in my opinion is that the entire character development actually only
consists of recipes and crafted equipment. There is no skill system, no character values
​​that could somehow increase or that could be improved or upgraded through anything. New
weapons make you stronger, new armor makes you a little more resilient, but that's almost it.
And RPG systems or decisions in character development are
completely absent in this game. Moria really wastes a lot of potential here, which I
think is a shame. The game could have been improved a lot
with an exp system, level increases and a few skills, increasing life energy or less stamina consumption through practice.
The unusual system with armor that only protects once and then
needs to be repaired really irritated me at first, but it got better over time
. Ultimately, this always gives exploring and fighting a special thrill that is less common
in games with healing potions and regeneration between fights
. Moria is very different here, but that's not a bad thing.
I really liked the world design. At first it seems a bit simple and box-based,
but once you get into the actual mines, the world gradually
opens up and the level design becomes very three-dimensional and much more complex than it
seems in the first few hours. There are some really beautiful places, some special features
that you can only discover if you really search every corner. And otherwise, Moria offers
all sorts of game features and experiences that you wouldn't otherwise expect in survival games.
Building consists of the steps of choosing a recipe from the building menu and determining
where it should be placed. If you have the necessary resources, it pops
and the item is ready, without any special animations. That could have been made nicer. In Moria, the
focus is not on building extensive buildings and, above all, on beautiful buildings
. It's more about having a defense and a safe place to retreat in
a very hostile world than in comparable games like Valheim,
Ark or similar games. There you often hang on to a base for a long time and make it
prettier and prettier. This is less the case here because you actually have to travel further.
But the possibility exists, and maybe you'll expand it anyway just for the love of building.
All in all, Return to Moria surprised me very positively. As a Lord of the Rings
fan, I really wanted to test it out. In addition, I have a special soft spot for dwarves;
I prefer to play
dwarves in all computer or tabletop role-playing games where dwarves are available. So a game just about the dwarves of Moria was a special thing for me.
But after the huge disappointment of Gollum, I was very, very skeptical about whether Moria
could actually be a good game. Lo and behold, yes, it's a good game. Not an extremely good one,
but it's guaranteed to be good for 30-50 hours of gaming fun, and since it can also
ensure a good time together with some fun with co-op play, it's doubly recommended.
The price of €39.99 is a little higher than what you are used to with Valheim. But if you
look at what some other survival titles cost, it's more in the middle range. So I'm leaning towards,
yes, Moria could definitely be 10 euros cheaper, but it's still possible. The Lord of the
Rings license probably just cost a little more and the money has to come back somehow.
For some it will be a hard blocker that Moria has so far only
been released for Playstation and the Epic Games Store. But Steam and Xbox versions should
also follow at the beginning of 2024, i.e. in a few months. So
a little patience and then all gamers can descend into the depths equally.
► Return to Moria Review - Rating If I put all of this together,
I get a very positive picture for Return to Moria. For the scope,
the good feel and the numerous possibilities in the game, I give a
basic rating of 85%. All in all, it's a well-rounded gaming experience and,
at least in the first playthrough, it offers plenty of depth (pun intended).
Since there were almost no bugs, I see no reason for a deduction here,
but I do see problems with the replay value and
there is a 3% deduction for that. This brings me to a final rating of 82% for Return to Moria. Unfortunately
, I don't know at the moment whether expansions, DLCs or larger updates are planned
. But I think there's a lot more that can be done with it.
Do you like being a dwarf, digging through Moria and beating up orcs?
Or are scary mine tunnels and lots of fights not for you?
Feel free to write me your opinion in the comments or in the Community Discord.
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certainly can't hurt and then I wish you a great day, ciao ciao, your Zap