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The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria™
Moria combines exploration through procedurally generated mines with resource management, crafting, and base building. At $3.13 from 
Eneba, this is a particularly opportune entry point: the confirmed site-tracked low may suit anyone ready to head into the dark alone or with friends. At $14.99 from Eneba, this is the site’s confirmed tracked low; 80% of 10,323 reviews are positive.
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GGselTHE LORD OF THE RINGS RETURN TO MORIA REGION FREE STEAM КлючCredit/Debit Cardfrom~ RUB 315.74Buy nowAll-time low ~ $9.95across Steam & third-party storesat the recorded all-time low
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Price History
Past 36 months · Updated dailyHistorical Low~ $0.002024-12Current Low Across Stores~ $3.13Eneba
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01About The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria™
Explore Moria’s procedurally generated mines as a dwarf seeking to reclaim the legendary home beneath the mountain. Gather resources, craft gear, build bases, and face dangers in the dark, alone or in online co-op. 80% of 10,323 Steam player reviews are positive.
Credits
Developer
Free Range Games
Publisher
North Beach Games
Lowest recorded in 36 months
$0.002024-12-12 · Epic Game StoreBase game · same records as the chart above; USD history, not a regional Steam low.Language support
| Language | Interface | Subtitles | Audio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Simplified Chinese | Yes | Yes | — |
| English | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| French | Yes | Yes | — |
Show 6 more languages
| Language | Interface | Subtitles | Audio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Italian | Yes | Yes | — |
| German | Yes | Yes | — |
| Spanish | Yes | Yes | — |
| Japanese | Yes | Yes | — |
| Korean | Yes | Yes | — |
| Portuguese-Brazil | Yes | Yes | — |
Steam PC edition data · 2026-10-19
02Before you buy
Play modes
Explore and build alone or play online co-op with up to eight players.
Controller
The Steam PC version offers full controller support.
03Frequently asked questions
Are the mines the same every time?
The mines are procedurally generated, so the description says each adventure differs.
Can I play with friends?
Yes. The description specifies online co-op for up to eight players.
What survival systems are involved?
Survival involves conserving resources, finding food, and managing sleep, temperature, and noise.
Popular Steam reviews
Native-language selection · 10 reviewsSelected helpful reviews in this language show both recommendations and criticisms. This selection does not represent the overall positive rating; opinions reflect the version reviewed.
RecommendedSteam player
The problem with these reviews is that they demand my opinion on the game, and with "Return to Moria", I'm having a hard time sussing out my overall feelings about it. The game itself? It's one of many open-world survival games. You know the type; you start the game naked and have to build up your gear from local resources. This game's hook --the thing that sets it apart from similar games in the genre-- is that it's set in the "Lord of the Rings" universe. I suppose it does that fairly well; it doesn't quite ape the Peter Jackson aesthetics, but the similarity is easy to see and it looks quite nice, if a bit cartoonish. But it doesn't really do anything with the license; for all that it's called "Return to Moria" and features some known characters and monsters, it all comes across as pretty generic fantasy. Of course, this is somewhat expected, given the genre of game (survival games aren't known for their characters or narratives) but the use of the IP seems a bit wasted. Mechanically, the gameplay itself is fine. Set within the confines of Moria, it's not really open-world. The maps are procedurally generated, but there are very definitive borders; stone walls that you just can't hack through no matter how strong your pick-axe. This limits how expansive your constructions can become, and this may turn off some fans of the genre. Similarly, being constrained by the "Lord of the Rings" license, you don't get the same range of upgrades you might find in other games. This isn't a title where you start banging two rocks together but by the end you're building jet-packs and robot-miners. An hour into the game you'll have a pick-axe and be building wooden stairs; sixty hours later its pretty much the same, even if your pick-axe is now made of mithril and your stairs of adamant. The mining is surprisingly fun; there's a lot of procedural deformation that lets you hack away at the terrain and at buildings. It's not quite up to the standards of "Red Faction: Guerrilla", as a lot of that destructibility is limited to specific areas of the map, but it's still fairly impressive tech. My biggest problem with the game really has nothing to do with the game itself. Nominally, I think the developers expected players to enter the world, explore a bit, mine for resources so they could build up their equipment and bases that would then let them explore the next bit of Moria (there are five 'regions' in total, each locked behind certain tech upgrades). There would be a constant sense of momentum as you moved ever forward through the game. Except... that's just not how I play games. Give me a map, and I'll want to explore every bit of it. Give me a map where good chunks of the maps can be picked away, and I will mine every bit of rock until I hit the inevitable unbreakable borders. And when I entered the fourth region --a vast underground city of ruins-- I gazed at the wreckage and sighed, knowing I'd just have to repair every single building before I'd let myself move forward. You can imagine, this slowed by progress to a crawl... but what was I to do, not explore every nook and cranny, and not vacuum up every piece of loot or vendor-trash? Nosiree! I'm leaving Moria in a better state than I found it. It's only considerate, after all! Which is why, I am embarrassed to admit, I didn't actually finish the game. (Actually, it being a procedurally generated survival game, I'm not entirely sure it has an end, but I didn't even get into the fifth region). Ultimately, after 70 or so hours, I just ran out of steam. I don't entirely blame the game --a lot of the tedium I faced was of my own making-- but I might have lasted a bit longer if there was more variety and atmosphere. As it was, by hour fifty I felt as if I was just exploring for the sake of exploring; there was nothing driving me forward except for the fact that the game expected me to do so. The TL;DR is that the game is fine; it's an average example of the genre that will probably satisfy most fans of survival sims. But it's definitely not a game for an obsessive explorer and collector like myself. There's too much to explore, and not enough to collect. But at the same time, "Return to Moria" did occupy me for over 70 hours, and I don't consider that time entirely wasted. So that's gotta be a positive. If you're a more sensible player and aren't expecting anything too novel, it's fine; not great, but a fair example of the genre. But if you're an obsessive explorer/collector like me, maybe wait until the game is on sale.Show moreShow less
72.6 hours at review782 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
i really want to write a good review for this game because i'm enjoying it, but there are so many bad parts of this game i can't really recommend it to anyone unless they are a diehard tolkien fan. this game basically feels like it's in early access. - the game is very poorly optimized. even on a mid-high range build, my computer works SUPER hard to run the game and the framerate lag is terrible. it made my girlfriend's PC overheat constantly and shut off. it is not a particularly visually stunning or demanding game. i can only assume it's poorly coded - lots of graphical errors like textures and lighting glitching and flashing through each other and meshes that interact poorly - very little variety within the map makes exploring dull quickly. the game brags that has "seeds" and worlds are uniquely generated, but so many locations and caves look LITERALLY identical. it's immediately obvious. sometimes the paths and rooms spawn in the same way in conjunction so it's literal deja vu. identical path to an identical room x2. snooze - "levelling" is poorly explained/built - you're constantly expected to "upgrade" weapons an armour to better tiers and your dwarf will frequently exclaim that he needs a better weapon when fighting certain enemies, but i'ts never clear if they mean a different damage type or tier level; some enemies i get that remark on all weapon types, and the feeling of constant inadequateness is tedious - there is no open server system, so unless you have friends whose schedules regularly match up, you're on your own. the game does not seem to scale to player number. i have to constantly fight hoardes of enemies on my own which is challenging in a very not-fun way - the game encourages you to build and provides many wonderful crafting opportunities, but constantly generates prebuilt camps and areas that seem to discourage me from bothering. - furthermore, the "snapping" for build location assist is really clunky and i am constantly fighting it. the rules for when i can snap even simple wood supports is bizarre. building vertically into deep caves is a nightmare as the item i want to build flies up and down constantly. it's such a headache - cooking is a key part of the survival aspect of the game but buffs are really vague and unclear. i have to open a little stats menu that i cant see while actually playing the game and it doesnt mean anything to me really - buffs and debuffs in general are unclear. i played for 25 hours before even finding out there is a cost to fast travelling, but another 20 hours past that i still don't know what that cost is - it's generally quite buggy, with music often clipping and cutting off, my character getting stuck in the floor and walls, characters glitching through walls or getting stuck on staircases... this game has so much potential but it feels abandoned. i am very disappointedShow moreShow less
46.9 hours at review891 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
First things first, I am recommending this game purely from the perspective of a LotR mega-fan. If I wasn't one, I unfortunately wouldn't recommend it to a general audience. My thumbs up is as a mega-fan, to other mega-fans. The devs clearly care about the universe, and I think future games could be genuinely good. This is the reason I felt the need to write this review- the Very Positive rating (at the time this was written) could be misleading to a general survival game audience. With that caveat out of the way, onto the actual review. The core idea of this game is fantastic! Unfortunately, the execution was sloppy due to the developers focusing too much on current trends in the genre, instead of building something that actually fits in with LotR. What I mean by this is the game is basically a mediocre survival-crafter at best, with a LotR paint job slapped on top of it. The paint job can be cool and shiny in some places (almost exclusively related to the lore/world building), and truly repulsive at it's worst (procedural generation of the map, progression, building, art style, combat, wait isn't that literally every aspect of a game?!?). As I write everything out, it is making me more begrudgingly give that thumbs up. I think my opinion of this game is a great example of how new media related to old and beloved IP's can really ride the coattails of the wonderful lore it was originally built upon. And that's my point with the caveat above, if this was some random new IP in a previously unknown universe, I would be telling you all to avoid this game like the plague. It was those little snippets of: actually standing in a massively significant location from the lore, conversing with the legendary Gimli son of Gloin, uncovering secrets about the Dark Lords and the long-lasting impacts of their actions on Middle Earth. Those hidden gems scratched that itch of learning something new about my favorite fantasy universe enough to recommend this game to others that have the same itch as me. With the positives out of the way (yikes, that's it?), I will address my issues with this game as a gamer, not a LotR fan. As a reference point it took me 47 hours to beat the main story line on normal difficulty, entirely alone. I didn't use any guides or videos except one because I couldn't for the life of me figure out where to find rubies. Didn't do any farming or brewing, my dwarf survived entirely on mushroom stew, salted meat, and abakhs through the whole playthrough (take that how you will). This is pretty much spoiler free. 1. Procedural World Generation: this is the biggest gripe I had with the game. Why the devs decided to hop on board with this trend I will never understand. Procedural generation, at its core, is used to make exploration more exciting and encourage subsequent play-throughs. The system in this game is so janky it completely misses in both of those areas. I lost interest in exploration by the fourth zone (from then on I just rushed through to find the items I needed to continue to the next one), and I am confident there is nothing new I could see or experience in a second play-through. Some of the transitions between zones or even areas within the same zone are downright jarring, and make zero sense from a lore perspective. The in-game map is nearly useless, you pretty much just have to rely on memory at a certain point. In my opinion, the map should have been handcrafted start to finish and I will die on that hill. 2. Progression: it was hard to decide if this should be #1 or #2. I went with #2 because an awesome map that is fun to explore will still give you the motivation to push through a not-so-awesome progression system (sadly this game had neither). The progression is bad. It is super repetitive... the formula is almost exactly the same in each zone: enter new zone > current gear is weak against enemies which are a slight variation on the previous zone's enemies > find new gear recipes by rebuilding statues while avoiding enemies at all cost > mine new ore needed in those recipes while avoiding enemies at all cost > sometimes find special forge to craft new gear, or just craft at base > become unstoppable once you have upgraded weapons > faceroll the zone and orc stronghold > complete main quest objective > move on to next zone. Rinse and repeat. It's all the same, the strongholds are all identical, rebuilding the forges is all the same, the zones look different but there's nothing unique about progressing through them, the few actual boss fights (not warchiefs) are decent but few and far between. Mining basically one node of each new material was enough for me to get fully kitted out, the hardest part was finding the recipes in the first place. Lastly, you quickly realize there is almost no incentive to building multiple bases, it is purely a waste of time progression-wise and not fun at all due to a bad building system (will get into that next). With the current progression system, you are much better off getting firmly dug in to one location and expanding as you progress. Just always bring materials to make a campfire, a map stone, and a repair smithy wherever you go and you're set. It just shouldn't be that way, it should feel like you're actually clearing out Khazad-dûm, and establishing your own strongholds as you go. 3. Building: building just straight up sucks. There are two key reasons for this in my opinion. First, you can't really "clean up" or rebuild areas completely. Oh, you like this area and want to build a base here? Sure, you can, but you're going to have to deal with these ruins that you can't clear for... reasons, and they will make your base look like a decrepit hovel no matter how much work you put into it. There are so many areas where you just... can't destroy or repair things... WHY? Second issue is the grid system. It sucks, it's super limiting, and the worst part is it doesn't even line up with the existing structures sometimes... again... WHY?? You can't put anything on an angle, so if you wanted to build in a cool area that isn't aligned with the grid- well that's too damn bad, find somewhere else or deal with everything you build looking horrifically out of place. 4. Art style/graphics : I'll keep this one short, my review is turning into a LotR novel of its own. Art style was a miss for me overall. The game looks okay-ish here and there, but in general just... bleh. Really starts to weigh on you by the last couple zones. A lot of lighting issues, textures just look off, feels like a game from the Xbox 360/PS3 era. I was running the game on a 4070 Super. 5. Combat: in comparison to other survival games, combat is pretty much on par. The spots where it stands out negatively are the lack of diversity and enemy AI. Long story short combat is basically bonk everything until it dies- there is very little variation needed in strategy. While there are different weapon types, they are all pretty much the same each tier. I played around with all the different types early on and found that it was best to just get whatever one you unlocked first in the next tier, put the extra orc damage rune on it, and move on. Once you get the crossbow it replaces the bow, end of story for ranged combat. Enemy AI is decent sometimes but also pretty janky. They just spawn out of thin air a lot- I don't mean when they come out of the ground or jump from the ceiling, I mean like straight up out of thin air in front of you. I cheesed every single warchief because their AI was so bad with pathing, I also found that you can easily cheese hordes. I know I chose to do that and exploit the weak AI, but I only did it because combat became such a slog towards the end of the game I wanted to avoid it as much as possible. If you made it this far, I hope my review was insightful in some way. Thanks for taking the time to read through it!Show moreShow less
47.2 hours at review432 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
We played this game with three people, picking it purely for the LOTR aesthetic. It ended up being one of the most disappointing survival/crafting experiences I've ever had to deal with. While it nails the theme and the visuals, it fails when it comes to the actual gameplay. The biggest offenders, to me, are the procedual generation and the backwards progression. Select few landmarks aside, every location ends up feeling the same. I got lost wandering through identical-looking corridors chained together one after another more times than I can count (the map is well-known for being borderline useless). When we reached a new area, we were excicted to see what it had to offer, just to be met with the exact same, identical-looking corridors over and over again. It is incredibly disorienting and reeks of laziness. At least make them LOOK differently. But no, they're the exact same building blocks you've seen dozens of times already. It also doesn't help that the game does not use its assets with any kind of cohesion. We got to some ancient place that is apparently a big deal lorewise (I've only watched the movies once), yet the architecture was completely nonsensical. Dozens of stairs, randomly chained together, leading to dead end after dead end. Utterly disgraceful. It's so bad, it makes it hard to suspend your disbelief. No way were these built by master craftsmen. Next up is the progression. Like other people have pointed out, you always enter a new area with unsuitable gear, even when it's the best you can get. This means you always deal half damage (displayed in grey). In order to deal full damage, not only do you have to gather that area's resources, you also have to repair old statues to get a FRACTION of a new recipe. You have to do this while constantly dealing with hordes of orcs and goblins, all of which take half damage. To even have a sliver of a chance, you must always travel as a group, and even then it's complete butt. It is always you against 12+ enemies, that will absolutely spawn right next to you and in any location. It also doesn't help that the combat is incredibly stiff. Once you get your gear, you can deal with most of the enemies solo, but it is an absolute pain to get there. And it gets worse... Not only do enemies gain more and more armor as you progress through the story, you also end up facing tougher and tougher base enemies. These are fine with proper gear. Which you don't have. So you get steamrolled over and over and over. Did you also know that this game has raids? Every day or two, a horde of enemies will come after you (and/or your base). This is not a timed event, You have to kill a certain amount of enemies for the raid to stop. Using weapons that deal half damage. We had this happen three times while trying to fight our way through all the regular enemies IN A SINGLE HALL, all of which also call in reinforcements. In order to stop the raids, you have to find an enemy base and kill its boss. Again, with bad gear. And infinitely respawning enemies. Early on, it's challenging but doable. Later on, it feels like an absurdly thick brick wall, and it led to us simply quitting the game entirely. I am sorry, but we're all married people who only get to play together once a week. This is not how we want to spend that one, precious evening. We'll probably go back to Nightreign. Yeah, you read that one right. And on top of all that, we also encountered two bugs. One of us used the fast travel system and got sent to a completely different location, littered with enemies of course. On my end, when I encountered one of those regular "loading walls" (which clients get when the host has to load in the location for them), it did not let me pass as usual. Instead, I also got teleported to a completely different spot on the other side of the map. Also littered with enemies. This made regrouping needlessly difficult. I'm sure there are people who really enjoy this game. I can see why. After all, we spent roughly 25 hours playing it. However, we are only willing to put up with the same, bad design decisions so much. What do you mean my fancy, new weapon that I just unlocked, crafted, and enchanted deals half damage? Are you insane? What even is the point then? You might end up buying and playing this game thinking "Wow, those dumb people and their dumb reviews are so wrong. This is actually good", and I'd totally get it. I was like that, too. Trust me though, once you go through the same, annoying cycle a few times, you'll understand. As it stands, the reward does in no way match the amount of effort you have to put in. That is why I cannot recommend it to anyone. PS: Don't even think about playing it solo. PPS: The buffs are a joke and (like the rest of the game) are not worth bothering with.Show moreShow less
26.7 hours at review614 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
Played extensively on EGS and thoroughly enjoyed it all. Multiplayer works fine just look at the below for some information Note: Please ensure you have the correct build number on the main menu before playing. If you do not then you must complete the update before playing. Epic: 1.3.2.157411 [net.4.4.3.c36f37] Steam: 1.3.0.157618 [net.4.4.3.c36f37] PS5: 1.3.1.157841 [net.4.4.3.c36f37] Xbox X and S: 1.3.1.157145 [net.4.4.3.c36f37] All players regardless of platform can now host crossplay games! For Epic and Steam simply give your join code to anyone and they can join. For PS5 and Xbox hosts make sure you have crossplay enabled first. The host game screen will display instructions. Note: the game session limits still apply. Players on Epic and Steam can host an 8-player game. Players on Xbox and PS5 can host a 4-player game. Due to hardware limitations players who host from the Xbox Series S or the Steam Deck may notice reduced performance when hosting games. Moving Save files from EPIC to STEAM. For anyone thinking of moving their save game from Epic to Steam for the new Steam release, the following are the locations for those files. Important: Update your Epic game first and launch the game within the Epic client before moving to Steam or your transfer will not be successful! C:\Users<your user name>\AppData\Local\Moria\Saved\SaveGamesEpic - worlds and characters Epic C:\Users<your user name>\AppData\Local\Moria\Saved\SaveGamesEpicLocal - options Epic C:\Users<your user name>\AppData\Local\Moria\Saved\SaveGamesSteam - worlds and characters Steam C:\Users<your user name>\AppData\Local\Moria\Saved\SaveGamesSteamLocal - options SteamShow moreShow less
0.1 hours at review395 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
Reading the description of this game I thought it would be more focused on RECLAIMING Moria. Instead the game is about ESCAPING Moria after accidentally falling into a hole. I think I was expecting more of a base-building game where you were given missions by Gloin to explore, claim, and conquer Moria one step at a time, expanding dwarven control, until the Orcs were driven out and Moria was reclaimed. I expected survival-crafting elements, but thought they would exist to support a larger, grander framework. What this game actually IS is a classic survival-crafting game. Except instead of being stuck on a deserted island, you're stuck in dwarven tunnels. Since it's randomly generated there's no real attempt to recreate a logical Dwarven city - you can look online for maps of the Mines of Moria. This is a shame because I wanted the feeling of exploring an actual LOTR location, an actual city with districts and purpose, and the Endless Stair, and Kazad-Dum, and so on. As it is, each individual screenshot superficially looks like it was taken from a genuine LOTR location, it doesn't fit together into a logical whole. This doesn't feel like an ancient dwarven city that was once thriving and has fallen into ruin, it feels like a playground for a video game player to build, craft, and smack some orcs. I'm not saying there's no value in what it IS, but once I realize what it ISN'T I can't help but notice it everywhere. Why would an old neighborhood include a wall of dirt with a coal deposit? Did the old dwarves not bother mining it? My favorite part in the Hobbit movies was seeing the inside of the Mountain and the forges and imagining dwarves living and working there in its heyday. As silly as the scene was with the dwarves running and hiding from Smaug, the setting was fantastic. I wanted that feeling of seeing an ancient ruin fallen from glory and waiting to be reconstructed by a civilization of dwarves. Instead I'm just skulking down a hallway looking for the next bit of ore so I can make a slightly better weapon so maybe I can escape. In general I think the map generation could have been more interesting as a hybrid handcrafted/procedural style. The core of the map could have been the classic Mines of Moria map, with the side districts, mines, and obstacles and enemies all prodedurally generated. ESCAPE? While Orcs befoul the halls of my ancestors? So pathetic, creeping around like a cockroach instead of claiming my ancestral birthright and scattering the Orcs to the winds. I don't like downvoting a game because I don't like the genre. I don't like pure survival crating games, but that's on me, I shouldn't downvote a game because it's just not my jam. (I have a particular hated for durability mechanics. I went through the trouble of finding the resources and crafting the item, don't punish me for actually using it!) But after some thought I am going to downvote this game, not because of my dislike for the genre, because it squandered its potential. There is room for a much grander and cooler game in the Mines of Moria than a generic survival-crafting game. Imagine watching dwarven civilization spread as you clear one district after another of the foul Orcs, letting Gloin and the colonizers reclaim their homeland! Would it not be grand to conquer Moria, instead of desperately trying to escape?Show moreShow less
8.7 hours at review543 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
I've played this game since its launch on Epic a year ago (it released as an Epic exclusive). Epic says I have 648 hours played on the game at the time of this review. Feel free to verify it, my tag is FireManeDavy. The developers of this game are a tiny team, but, they are nerds for Lord of the Rings and that love shows throughout the game in its lore, plus its attention to detail. When this game launched, it needed some TLC. It has gotten that in the form of a handful of massive updates that add new content and fix tons of issues. I love Dwarves, I love LOTR, and I love survival craft so I love this game a lot. A year ago this was priced at $40 on Epic, I'd say I've gotten tons of value out of that $40 and now it's a steal for its new regular price of $20 or $25. The developers are really receptive to feedback and always help out in their discord. They deserve all of the good fame they get from this game IMO. Edit: I have adjusted some information in my original review. I am going to go more into depth with my review of the game and review the aspects for which I love it. COMBAT: This one is a huge one that seems to irk a lot of people. It can feel hack and slashy at times. But, you can change the difficulty settings to tune combat to how you'd like. In a world, scroll over to settings and difficult. You can change things such as: 1) Aggressiveness of enemies (how frequently enemies attack and how many attack you all at once). 2) Combat difficulty (how much health enemies have and how much damage they deal) 3) Patrol Frequency, Siege Frequency, and Horde Frequency (these settings change how often patrols and sieges on your base happen. For hordes, it affects how much noise you make and how frequently hordes can ambush you when it happens). There is a new item called Abakhs which are basically just temporary buffs to give yourself as well which you can find in barrels, crates, or chests found around Moria. Some such as the Power Abakh give you a boost to attack damage which can help you if you prefer to fight your foes, like me. You also have Cleansing Abakhs to get rid of poison, and a Resolve Abakh to get rid of despair and shadow. There are 8 different kinds. There are also a couple of other difficulty settings to adjust now as well such as mining drops and drops from enemies. Fine-tune combat the way you'd like it. I do think the telegraphing of enemy attacks could be better, but, the game stands to get better over time. BUILDING: This is not as robust as other survival craft games like Valheim. You have a grid system to place your pieces on and currently, you can only rotate the pieces 90 degrees. The building in this game shines in the late game, which is unfortunate because I feel like a lot of people base the building on the early game, where you do not unlock much in the way of building options other than function. There are tons of building accents to build, pieces that can be phased into each other, golden floors, golden walls, Dwarven banners, rugs, and furniture! There are also monuments of the various Durins to build. The only downside IMO is that you have to build some things within the radius of a hearth, not unlike Valheim where you have to build within the radius of a workbench. Building is one of my favorite things to do in games like this, I like building my own buildings and tearing down the RNG ones. Though, sometimes, the RNG ones are pretty nice and, if they're intact enough, I will repair it use it. Indeed, you do not have to build a base if you use an RNG building, but, it's more fun for me to tear things down, clean up an area, and then build my imagination of things. I love how everything looks when I have crystal lamps everywhere in various colors. Feel free to check out some of the cool builds we made before the update on the discord in the challenge #3 thread. One of my submissions is on there as well. STORY (SPOILERS) The story is simple. You are a company of dwarves led by a descendant of Thorin and Gimli himself who cannot get into Khazad-Dum. You accidentally find yourself in Khazad-Dum and must survive with the help of a loyal friend and raven of Erebor, Aric, son of Arac. Throughout the game, your character(s) will have dialogue on various things you see in Moria. With plenty of lore to find and read, including lore surrounding Balin's attempt to reclaim Moria. You encounter a dragon which uses dark magic to cast cursed runs and shadow all over Moria, preventing the dwarves from entering outside. After slaughtering a massive Troll King, and with the help of Thorinn, you learn an ancestral recipe to slay the dragon. The final fight is pretty typical. 2 Phases. 1st Phase a large arena with dialogue fitting of a Peter Jackson film of how the dragon's own horde is not gold, but, the bones of fallen dwarves. You go on to the second phase to kill the dragon. It ends with you walking out of Khazad-Dum and you being crowned as the new Lord of Moria. Not before a 1-on-1 talk with the Gimli himself. SANDBOX VS. CAMPAIGN What's the difference? For beginners, I recommend campaign mode. Think of campaign mode as a ride on a roller coaster. It is scripted and there is linear progression and certain areas that you progress through. The way you learn recipes is different as well. You will typically progress to new areas, rebuild statues to learn recipes, get new materials or gems that unlock other recipes such as upgrades to workstations, and then build those to level yourself with enemies. Or you can use Abakhs to level the playing field as well while you explore. There is a clear beginning, middle, and end to the game and your progression. Seeds can still vary, such as the rooms that make up those areas. In Sandbox, the equation is flipped a bit. There is still a "story" to beat the dragon. But, it is not linear at all nor scripted. There are 4 levels (floors up) and 4 deeps (floors down) that are their own miniature maps. Room generation is different and even room types are different as well. There are different weapons and armor that you wouldn't find in the campaign. But, like Valheim, you can bring your character between worlds and so long as they have things in their inventory they'd bring that with them. Everything is "scrambled" so to speak, the second you leave the "beginning area" where you find yourself in Moria and hop the wall it is randomly generated. Pros and Cons of Sandbox? Pros are: there tend to be way more resources to gather overall in the sandbox. Sandbox feels more like a traditional survival craft experience with unexpected areas at every turn. Every new area feels cool to explore (and that is true even in the campaign). Cons are: that the map is 2D atm. You have to get creative with waypoints when there are multiple floors within a "level" or "deep" that technically do not breach the height for the next floor. It does get a bit confusing too. But, it's not completely unmanageable with the filters in the map pane. MISCELLANEOUS THINGS I LIKE: SINGING: Singing for almost everything. I love the mining songs and the drinking songs. They give buffs too which is really cool. Singing to the monuments of Durin about his founding of Khazad-Dum honestly never gets old. QOL: Tons of QOL since this game launched. Ambient music while exploring and music when you're next to a hearth. It doesn't play constantly which is a good mix of their original intention of you hearing the vast emptiness of Moria, but, with periods of nice music too! Additional chests for increased storage space - and they look cool! Increased pallet sizes too are nice. Depositing similar items and sorting inventory is also a lifesaver. Scooping up tons of items on the ground by pressing and holding the pickup button was SO necessary (we remember the days of picking up everything 1 by 1). More voice lines! There's new voice lines after you finish a song. It's a small change, but, I enjoy it. Out of space. 10/10!Show moreShow less
21.8 hours at review271 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
This game is a huge missed opportunity. It's like 60% of the way there, but a handful of issues really hinder the experience. 1st --- Duplicative content. Initially exploring Moria is engaging, but it quickly becomes apparent that there is an awful lot of rinse-and-repeat locations. Everytime we entered a room to find another crevasse, it took a bunch of the wind out of our sails. Everytime we found an identical double staircase, it increased our frustration. Every time we cleared another orctown, it highlighted just how little unique content is in this game. Experiences like climbing the Eastern stairs are few and far between, to the game's detriment. 2nd --- Poorly Considered Weapon Upgrades ---- the weapons and armor lack meaningful upgrades which change the feel of the game. Each tier of upgrade is accompanied by an increase in orc's health and power, making each upgrade feel mostly meaningless --- I might have a flaming sword, but I'm still swinging the same number of times. In fact, throughout my 80+ hours of play, our dwarves NEVER STOPPED delivering lines complaining about how they needed better weapons, despite having the best weaponry available. On a related note... 3rd --- the option to put Mithril armor and weapons behind the end of the game is totally inane. I mean, like a totally bonedheaded choice. For people who think that the campaign is just a tutorial for the sandbox mode, after a game offers me so much repetitive filler over 80 hours, why would I possibly sign up for more? 4th --- Armors without identity --- it's telling that my wife and I preferred the variety of starting outfits over almost ALL of the craftable armors. The helmets, in particular, look so awful, and with so little variety, that she opted to go without entirely, while I spent the entire game using the Candle hat for utility. It's a real shame when you get access to new gear, and your first reaction is, "why is this armor so pink?" or "why am I making a new helmet with a dumb looking broken horn?" 5th --- Lacking Enemy variety Orcs, Uruks, Goblins, Goblinmen feel pretty identical, just with different numerical values. Bats and Moths feel similarly. Wolves and Wargs. Drakes and Fellbeasts. It just all feels so repetitive. 6th --- Lighting Underground lighting is difficult, but it's tragic when a game like this just ignores the fact that it is deep beneath the Earth. Shafts of inexplicable lights, perpetually burning torches (but braziers that require fueling), and bright luminate ores which cannot be mined are perpetual in the mines, and large rooms can often be inexplicable illumnated. I don't know that pitch black would be fun, but I wish that this game gave more reasons to use throwable illumination and make the darkness feel more palpable. 7th --- More variety in songs I loved the dwarven application of songs to the game. Singing at Durin's lamps/statues feels great, and my wife was happily singing along by the end of the game. Singing while mining or drinking, however, are highly repetitive and mostly frustrating. If there was some ability to "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" certain songs, it would go a long way to making your dwarven clan feel unified. As it is, whenever my compatriot started singing about the dwarves who tore up Bilbo's house, I teleported away. While we're at it, what's the deal with having a brewskin that requires you use it multiple times before getting the benefit? 8th --- Shortlived Buffs Many of the in game buffs offered by craftable items is woefully short. In particular, the Lore shelves are a joke. I LOVE the idea of them, but application is awful. You study for a few moments, and then have like 30 seconds or so to build as much as you can, and you might occasionally get a free building placement, but in my experience, even doing something straightforward like building a solid wall might yield one or two free placements, but the timer is quickly elapsed. I felt the same way about some of the other buffs, like Evening Ale and abkahs. 8th --- Building woes The experience of finding an old collapsed structure, claiming it, repairing it, and upgrading it IS pretty compelling. There is something satisfying about discovering something and making it your own. That being said, the rinse and repeat nature of the areas often retroactively makes bases lack distinction. Similarly, being tied to a 90 degree grid also dramatically limits building options. But all of that I can accept. What I can't accept is the jankiness of the building. Getting pieces to connect together can be a nightmare, and filling vertical gaps is often impossible. There's nothing quite so unsatisfying as putting quick platforms end to end, only to have them shift at the last moment get placed unsupported and break. I know building is tough, but there has to be a better way. Similarly, the shortcuts for crafting are so frustrating. X, C, V, F, B -- madness! 9th --- Huge letdown of an ending. The final boss was poorly handled. I'm not trying to spoil anything with details, but suffice to say that at the end, my wife said, "Was that it?" Not a ringing endorsement. So, overall, it was an experience we enjoyed, but I would never recommend it. Again, it's a shame, because with just a little bit more original locations (like the excellent Eastern Stairs) it could have really shone.Show moreShow less
88.9 hours at review507 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
This is a fantastic fantasy game. You can lose yourself in it. You can battle or you can build or you can do both. I love taking my time reading the lore and the history. You can be chill or aggressive. Play alone or with someone. I'm 70 years old and it beats watching soap operas or the Crazy Housewives of Where ever. Today we Dwarf.Show moreShow less
30.4 hours at review247 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
The game is fun for a few hours, but it quickly becomes apparent that the game has clearly been rushed to release with many copy/pasted areas and enemies throughout. Balancing is all over the place: bosses are often far easier than standard enemies. Many resources that should be abundant are finite and fairly limited. Without the Lord of the Rings licence, the game would be a 4/10 at best. Your time and money are better spent elsewhere.Show moreShow less
38.4 hours at review499 people found this helpful
Source: original Steam user reviews. Helpful votes are an archived snapshot, not live data. Last collected: 08/15/2026.