The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria is here free to download on the Epic Games Store this week and I would venture to guess that you suddenly became much more interested in it. Because I know I am! For the “free” price, a 2023 survival game where you are a dwarf seems like the perfect addition to the dwarf part of my life.
The launch version of Return to Moria received a very impoverished review on PC Gamer, with the reviewer citing bugs and frustrating combat as its main problems. That was over a year ago, however, and Return to Moria has been updating the game regularly, to the point where recent user reviews on most platforms have been really good. It might just deliver on the promise we saw in early teasers last year.
In Return to Moria, you and your friends take on the role of a company of dwarves tasked with traveling deep into the procedurally generated land of Moria to reclaim the archaic mines and city for your people. As befits great craftsmen, your task is to create fresh wonders and recover archaic, legendary dwarven armor, weapons and tools scattered around the destroyed city.
Its greatest feature is that you can customize your own fresh structures, as well as build on ancient ruins, adapting over time to create your own Moria. The problem, of course, is that the noise of mining will attract the attention of creatures lurking deeper in the mountains: goblins, trolls, and other Shadow forces lurking in the depths of the world.
You know, nameless things and all that. I’m sure it’s no problem.
Return to Moria just received a gigantic free update filled with holiday cheer so you can decorate your mines. After a year of updates and freebies, it has also released its first paid content pack – cosmetic armor, weapons and recipes inspired by the horse lords of Rohan.
