North Beach Games
The dwarves in JRR Tolkien's works are, as the author himself says, “mostly a tough, emaciated race, withdrawn, who remember injuries (and benefits)” and “who love things that take shape in the hands of the craftsman rather than things that have a life of their own”.
Is it secrecy and greed that explain why The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria was exclusive to the Epic Games Store for its first year? No one can say for sure. But the survival crafting game has launched on Steam and Xbox today, joining its PlayStation and EGS platforms and bringing a 1.3 “Golden Update” to all of them. Steam Deck compatibility is on its way to Verified, and a number of handheld features are already in place.
The Golden Update grants new and existing players a procedurally generated sandbox mode to complement the game's (also generated) campaign, new weapons and armor, crossplay between all platforms with up to eight players, special sliders for difficulty settings, and… a pause function in offline single-player mode that apparently didn't exist before.
Launch trailer for Return to Moria on Steam and consoles (and its Golden Update).
What are you actually do In Return to Moria?You, a dwarf in the Fourth Age of Middle Earth, are tasked by Gimli Lockbearer to go to Moria (i.e. Khazad-dûm) to recover the treasures there. However, each Moria is different and is created from randomly generated seeds. You dig for materials, use materials to craft equipment and goods, build base camps with stations and facilities, and of course, fight the things you awaken in the depths.
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The campaign is procedurally generated, but tells a story with a beginning, middle and end. And runes – lots of runes.
North Beach Games
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Dwarves? Underground? Making things? Yes, of course.
North Beach Games
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There will be goblins.
North Beach Games
Not only does a release on new cross-platform platforms give you a chance to try out a potentially overlooked gem, but this is also version 1.3 of the game. Reviews of the game upon release in October 2023 were very similar on one thing: it needed more time to develop.
PC Gamer found that the game stayed true to Tolkien's lore, the depictions of underground spaces were fascinating, and the building and combat were alternately silly and harrowing. But bugs, stuttering, clipping errors, and incomprehensible oddities marred the experience considerably. polygon criticized the game's tile-based layouts and tedious backtracking. “With a few patches, this could become a survival game that can compete with the more popular titles in the genre,” wrote Ford James.
In a “Quality of Life Showcase,” game director Jon-Paul Dumont details how the game has evolved over the past 10 months. The map is color-coded and easier to read, background music and transitions have been improved, combat improvements make the game feel more immersive and grounded (another point of contention in the review), and player complaints about inventory management, cooking, building, and crafting have been addressed.
I haven't played the game long enough to form an opinion, but I'm always excited to see the work of a team actively working on bug fixes after release – immersing themselves in the work, so to speak.