The Lord of the Rings Return to Moria

Introduction

The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria is Free Range Games' survival-crafting game, published by North Beach Games. It arrived on Steam on 27 August 2024 at NZ$43.59, following an earlier Epic-exclusive launch in October 2023. Set in the Fourth Age of Middle-earth, it sends a company of dwarves led by Gimli's descendants into the depths of Khazad-dûm to mine resources, build structures and fight through procedurally generated tunnels, solo or with up to seven other players. It sits at 80% positive ("Very Positive") across 7,913 English-language Steam reviews. This review read the 100 most-helpful negative reviews of 1,561 total, plus a sample of the 100 most recent English reviews.

What the store page promises, versus what reviewers describe

The clearest, most repeated theme in this review's negative sample is a specific gap between marketing and experience. "The description says 'Restore the long-lost ancient kingdom of Khazad-dûm' and 'resurrect old mines and refire their forges.' The videos and screenshots show a company of dwarves running back and forth, building, mining and fighting with orcs. Instead you are alone for the whole game. You can restore the kingdom but no one ever comes to settle it," reads one detailed review. Another makes the same point about the premise itself: "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... Instead the game is about ESCAPING Moria after accidentally falling into a hole." This review found the same specific complaint — a promised settlement-building, kingdom-restoration experience against a delivered solitary dungeon-crawl — independently raised across 15 of the 100 negative reviews read.

Repetitive generation and real performance problems

Layered on top of the expectations gap, reviewers across every year sampled describe the procedurally generated tunnels as repetitive once the initial novelty fades. "There is an awful lot of rinse-and-repeat locations. Every time we entered a room to find another crevasse, it took [the same shape]," reads one review with 89 hours logged. A separate, also recurring complaint concerns performance: "the game is very poorly optimized. Even on a mid-high range build, my computer works SUPER hard," reads the single most-upvoted negative review in this review's sample, with 891 votes. A related balance complaint appears specifically: some reviewers report standard enemies proving tougher than boss encounters, and some crafting resources feeling too scarce for how frequently recipes call for them.

A decline, not a settled complaint

Unlike several other games this outlet has reviewed where technical or design complaints fade after launch, this review found the opposite pattern here: negative review volume grew from the 2024 launch year into 2025 rather than declining, and recent sentiment (64% positive) sits well below the 80% lifetime figure. That combination suggests the core complaints — the expectations gap and the repetitive generation — remain live issues for current buyers rather than a launch-week rough patch the developer has since resolved.

Verdict

The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria delivers real atmosphere and a visually faithful recreation of its setting, which this review's own negative sample keeps acknowledging even while explaining its disappointment. What holds the score back is a genuine, well-corroborated gap between what the game's own marketing promises — restoring and resettling a living dwarven kingdom — and what reviewers describe playing: a mostly solitary, procedurally repetitive escape, compounded by real performance problems and a recent sentiment decline rather than recovery. Worth it for Tolkien fans prioritising atmosphere over gameplay depth — go in with expectations set by what reviewers actually describe, not by the store page alone.