The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria

Play it on: PS5, Xbox Series X and S, PC
Current goal: Make a handsome dwarf

In the interest of keeping you all apprised of the goings on of my best friends and I, one of them took it upon themselves to buy the other two copies of The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria without prompt. Apparently, he saw it for himself and deemed that the others would love it based on the several days of game time that we previously dumped into a similar survival game about dwarves, Deep Rock Galactic. Rather than just return to that game, we are now spinning up new adventures in this one.

For those not in the know, Return to Moria is a first-person survival game set in the popular Tolkien fantasy universe. Set after the events of the books and films, it follows a party of dwarves who set out to reclaim the titular city, which previously fell to the Balrog that you see Gandalf fighting in Fellowship of the Ring. In action, Return to Moria seems like a pretty straightforward survival game in which players mine through the dark tunnels of the abandoned city under the Misty Mountains, harvest resources to craft more advanced tools, and proceed through procedurally generated mines. Having sat in on a party chat when my buds were playing it, it seems like a fun enough time, but I’m going to finally check it out for myself when I find some time this weekend and see if the Lord of the Rings-ness of it all is a compelling enough hook. —Moises Taveras