The Lord of the Rings is a cultural icon that needs no introduction and has been the inspiration (officially or otherwise) for a vast number of games across many genres. 2023 has perhaps not been a golden year for such titles, however, with the disastrous release of Gollum leaving a bad taste in even the most devoted of Tolkienist’s mouths. Return to Moria is a very different kettle of fish, however, and offers to shine a spotlight on the often-overlooked dwarves of Middle Earth.
Rather than a direct adaptation of any specific part of the novels or films, Return to Moria presents a side story that sees the dwarves attempting to reclaim their home following the collapse of Sauron’s empire. In a nice connection to the Peter Jackson trilogy, John Rhys-Davies returns as Gimli – now named Lord Gimli Lockbearer and acting as chief instigator and narrator. This small detail adds a welcome touch of continuity and class to the game.
I’ll be honest right at the start of this review – I have struggled to make as much progress here as I normally would due to the high difficulty level. I have mostly been struggling in single-player mode and the game is truly designed for multiplayer with little concession for a Billy no-mates. That being said, I got to play with a colleague and will discuss that later. In single player though, the mines are unforgiving and every move is fraught with danger.
Return to Moria looks good for what it is, with nice lighting effects and a decent range of customisation options for your dwarf. Obviously, most of the game itself takes place in almost complete darkness so visibility is limited. Because of this, the occasional gap in the roof where beams of sunlight find their way in are as welcome as they are visually appealing. Most of the rest of the time you’ll have to craft torches and fix beacons in order to see much further than the length of your beard. Enemies are mostly goblins and other critters, and they look as if they’ve escaped straight from the movies.
You begin the game having fallen into the mines following an explosion. With no equipment or weapons to hand, you have to start collecting materials to craft enough basics to get you through to the first settled site. This opening works well as a tutorial and introduces you to the fairly intuitive crafting menus – at least at first. As more options become available it proved to be far too easy to craft or build the wrong thing and never really clicked for me. After a short period of exploration you’ll come across the ruins of a settlement that will be your initial base.
Once you’ve found a place to call home (and even though the mines themselves are procedurally generated the base is consistent across seeds) you’ll be tasked with venturing deeper into the mines in order to find the source of a dark magic that blocks your exit. From here on a familiar loop of collecting resources, crafting equipment and exploration takes over. Basic resources include wood, stone, coal, and iron, with the latter two requiring you to find veins to exploit. As you explore you’ll come across broken statues to rebuild. Successfully doing so rewards you with blueprints for new items or equipment but often these will be split into several parts and the random nature of the game can lead to extreme frustration.
Frustration is pretty much the name of the game here – certainly in single-player at least. The first time you play, enemies will disappear upon sight until you have reached a certain point in the list of opening tasks. I found, however, that subsequent attempts did not afford me this luxury and you could be overwhelmed before you even find somewhere to sleep and save your progress. In multiplayer this is less of an issue as you can watch each other’s backs but the single-player experience was not great. In my session of multiplayer, we had a lot more fun during the early stages – although Dom did decide that fixing up a pub was a higher priority than making progress.
