Free Range Game's hairy spelunking simulator comes hot on the heels of The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, a low point of the year and a horrible adaptation of Tolkien's IP. While it isn't as abjectly awful as Daedalic's folly, The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria is, sadly, also a disappointment.
This is a survival adventure that sees the dwarves of the Fourth Age gather to retake their subterranean metropolis under the Misty Mountains. Since dwarves are objectively the best race in Tolkien's universe, it makes perfect sense to build a game around their penchant for digging greedy and deep.
It succeeds in part; progressing through Moria and unlocking its mysteries is initially engaging. The warm presence of Jonathan Rhys Davies as Gimli gives the impression this will be a fine time for fans. There are pockets of rich atmosphere and a loving exploration of lore. Your dwarf can even sing while picking away at ore veins.
Alas, these scraps of quality are diluted by sluggish combat and a tedious crafting loop. An obtuse tutorial leaves your created dwarf cold and afraid in the ruined city. You're given vague goals and a general destination, with hints on what to do but rarely where to find materials or how to build important items. You hunker down in outposts and scrounge together food and materials, following a talking bird to your stout companions.
The menu system is clunky, requiring constant swapping of items on the hotbar. Enemy encounters are unexpected and partially random, so being able to intuitively equip a weapon is sorely needed. The survival genre has introduced many quality-of-life improvements over the years, like quick crafting and smooth inventory management — features this game seems to have overlooked. Combat is also consistently poor, lacking impact and ruining the potential of some epic enemies later in the story.
Things pick up with multiplayer. It's fun to plunder the depths alongside other dwarves. A shared experience also highlights the oppressive solitude of raiding Moria alone.
Another miss for the Rings franchise, then. There are bursts of quality here, and the potential for fun when playing with others. However, it ultimately fails as an adaptation and a survival game.
Comments 30
Why're new lotr games cursed man 🥹
Maybe someday there will be a good new LotR game...
Disappointing.
I was watching Nerd of the Rings play it and they looked like they were having a blast with it, but the issues did come through on stream too.
I'll still give it a try but that score breaks me a little.
So the next attempt is the Weta adventure game? At this point I'd settle for PSN releases of the old PS2 games.
Rings of Power, Gollum and now this - not been great for Middle Earth as of late 🙄
It's kinda wild they will let anyone use this IP.
My wish would be for Larian studios to make a LOTR game is the style of BG3 but slightly less hardcore.
Had a great time with this one all the way through. Sounds like the reviewer just doesn’t like survival games.
@Damage99 this is true, so there is an inherent bias there, which should caveat my review. However, i've put an ungodly amount of time into No Mans Sky, Subnautica and Valheim in recent years. These are games that have streamlined the survival grind to an extent that genre haters can enjoy them. I just don't think that's present here.
@Camlambelot War In The North is an immensely underrated game
@Camlambelot Every time a game comes out with quirky AI companions that you use in combat...I shed a tear for the majesty of press button to Great Eagle
J.R.R. Tolkien is certainly turning over in his grave.
This has been a really bad time to be a LOTR fan. First Rings of Power craps all over the lore, and now we have two video games in the running for worst game of the year. Tolkien must be spinning in his grave.
"Since dwarves are objectively the best race in Tolkien's universe..."
Those are fighting words!
The janky mods for the Mount & Blade series are better than the last few official LOTR games.
The Tolkien estate piss around about what time, characters and books the rings of power could reference, but sign off to these games that already sound bad on a conceptual level!?
Not saying rings of power would have been great without these lore constraints, but it might have alleviated some of the problems and given the writers room less of a headache.
The more I see a lot of these new LotR games fail, the more I start to think about the cancelled Whute Council game and how awesome it could have been.
Anyone wanna make a LotR game? Surely it won't be too hard to get the license.
@naruball Lord of the Rings: Extreme Kart Racing coming up!
@rpawlos15133 sounds good. I say we can make it in a month.
@naruball @rpawlos15133
YOU SHALL NOT PASS on my inside line
Lotr went from shadow of war to shadow of its former self.
I’m currently playing this co-op with my girlfriend and we are enjoying it. The problem I have is the many bugs that are here. These range from streaming issues where you have to wait at a door for the next area to pop in before you can advance, to little things such as my game brightness randomly changing. The game also doesn’t run as smooth as you would think, considering you’re confined to small passage ways and areas. We never had any issues with the tutorial being vague though and have found it quite easy to progress.
@Kiefer-Sutherland Definitely got the brightness issue, thought it was my TV at first, generally happened during combat. Also got stuck in terrain...a lot.
Can't wait for Gamemill to get the LotR license next.
Might be something I check out for under $20 but oof. Sad news.
This feels like a ps plus extra game
@Camlambelot I won’t deny it looks good. I mean it better with the amount of money spent on it. It’s too bad the writing couldn’t hold it all together.
What type of clown world do we live in?
We have Massive Entertainment doing a great job and making a solid decent game, but hindered by a feeble licence (Avatar).
Then you have one of the greatest licences of all times (Tolkien), squandered painfully on mediocre games and TV series.
Do the entertainment industry hate money or something?
Just do a remake or re-release of "Battle for Middle-Earth I & II" and the PS2-era games. LotR fans would be much happier.
Time to let Tolkien rest in peace.
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