Thanks for watching and don't forget to check out my new Website! - www.DogWaterGaming.com Also if you like Survival RPG's, maybe check out my review of Len's Island ua-cam.com/video/zpS8Roaw7ek/v-deo.html
SPOILERS There is no balrog in this game because gandalf killed it, remember? I have finished the game numerous times and to me this game is EXTREMELY shallow as a survival game. Once you defeat the boss, no more hordes happen in the game. There is nothing in the game that you need to get after you kill the boss. Nothing to collect, nothing to find, nothing to build, nothing. There is NO reason to continue to play other than to start all over again in a new world.
@@jairusstrunk94£30 should be enough for a fully fleshed out game the prices of games today have screwed with your head enough to think wanting a good game for £30 is greedy like £30 isnt a decent amount of money
Depends on if they got all the lore and locations right. No amount of good combat or destructible environments would have saved them from the fan backlash. My friend cared far more about having everything where it's supposed to be than he did about anything else.
From a Tolkien fan perspective....it actually has surprisingly a lot of lore references :) which isn't always treated well in video games, oh alright maybe exaggeration but the game is treating the book lore quite decently heheh. The game is indeed set in the early Fourth Age so there's some open space for new adventures...and we know that eventually in Fourth Age Dwarves did reclaim Moria according to Tolkien hehe...and it's obvious that the game is trying to make things feasibly fit, as we see that effort of Gimli is believable large scale project with Dwarves carving up new facade of the West-gate and so on and with the doors blocked they tried tunneling above hehe. Alright more seriously it's a fun game and it's nicely correlates with books sure it adds and expands on stuff extrapolating on things inventing some new stuff etc. but a lot of it has some basis. Not to mention....mining song are always for the win............especially if your character can sing actual songs written by Tolkien hahah. The survival crafting is usually not the type of games I was personally interested in...but damn it's fun. Well so far there's no proper open world RPG set in Middle-earth so let's get with what we have :).
@@vidstarr a weird thing to focus on :) but alright, obviously the game invents some things like that, or stretches the lore in places making Moria so crowded wtih creatures :) or inventing the new plants or crops (Aule's bloom etc.) I was more thinking about all the references to Balin's expedition and the members of that, the way it uses the lore in general, like the history of Moria, the influx of DWarves of Belegost and Nogrod in the early Second Age leaving the signs of those other clans was obvious extension , the Celebrimbor and Narvi references, and so on and on :). The things that were nicely explored like the crystal lamps (as Gimli said of the lights, the "shining lamps of crystal hewn" in the song of Durin and "we should make lights such lamps as once shone in Khazad-dum" etc.), the general reverence of the Dwarves for Durin and the lore on his 'awakenings' and 'reincarnation' so to speak :).
My friend and I are in the end game now. We enjoy teaming up on survival games like this and Valheim, and Return to Moria is proving to be no different. The learning curve is atrocious, but as a veteran gamer it's kind of refreshing to not be led along through the game mechanics. We're 4/5ths of the way through the story line and still discovering new mechanics that would have helped us Day 1. That has it's own fun. It has it's bugs for sure (random crashes, mapstones not working, and buggy building placement) but the storyline is fun and engaging which keeps us driven to persevere. It needs a lot of polishing, but this is a solid platform on which the developers could create a top tier game. Will that happen? Unlikely. But it's a lot fun for the time being.
I enjoy this game. I’m into it, it fits me. I tried to play Valheim and I did for a bit, it was ok but way too much and way too grindy for me. This game could use some polish maybe a little more love with certain aspects but it works. I play solo and with one or two people at a time. I feel coop is a good experience.
I played entire campaign earlier this year. I do love the concept and setting. Dwarves are among my fave fantasy races and LotR is by far my fave fantasy setting. So its a match made in heaven if you ask me. But yeah. When a friend asked me about the game I said that I enjoy it but building system is not very fun. I had one big base - one of the ancient foundries with lots of stuff in it. Simply because the location looked nice and was easy to transform into a nice looking base. I tried to build house from scratch once and never made such a foolish mistake again. No matter what I did celing broke again, again and again. It was a chore. Now game has Alpha Sandbox and reportedly there were improvements to building system. I would like to try it but prefferably with friends. For me the biggest sthrenght of this game is its campaign.
Played this on release, as im a mad LOTR fans! (They need to remake ROTK) Got all the way to the end zone discovering the final boss and i just fizzled out. The LOTR love couldnt even make me finish the game. Love ya content dude, looking forward to seeing what you create this year.
The Final boss fight was an overall dissapointment really. In the First stage, you have get bombarded with minions which in their quantity are more dangerous then the boss itself, it simplyy spits fireballs. And then there comes the second Phase of the boss fight, no minions, but almost the same mechanic. Destroy the Pillars so you can Progress in the fight. And once you did, you hit the Dragon a few times and she´s slayed. The first stage is annoying cause once your armor is ripped, you die constantly, the second part is laughable easy. All in all a big dissapointment in a gamers point of view tbh.
Been playing this game with my gf, we're thoroughly enjoying it, we're just starting to make some steam in the lower deeps, got a few of the recipe's, just trying to get ready for the watcher in the water
I truly do enjoy the lord of the rings, specifically the Dwarves and their lore. I am waiting for this to come out on Xbox so I can play it with my friends, but I have played it solo. The only thing I have struggled with is finding the monuments. I usually am moving on to the next levels without a helmet, or some type of armor because I just don’t find the monuments I’m supposed to rebuild. It can be frustrating, but the game is interesting and I bet it will be better with my buddies. Great review and I love how you went over everything in just under 13 minutes!
I want to check this out, but the price point and the Epic store exclusive have stopped me so far. And I'm a massive LOTR nerd. And I love Valheim. I appreciate the honest review and as someone with similar interests! I really hope to eventually check this out and also that it has some updates to correct a few things but yeah - no rush here. Thanks for the review.
I'd say picking it up on Epic is a decent idea right now, purely because their holiday coupon is still going on, combined with the game being on sale, you can get it for like $15 or something along those lines. :) I got the game at launch for its full price and I'm fairly satisfied with it (some of the points in the video I sort of disagree with, some strongly agree), but now it's even better as a few days ago a friend of mine picked it up after seeing the coupon + sale combo!
I just got the game on sale today, and have played for a few hours and i’m really enjoying it so far! I’m not huge on crafting survival games usually but i love lord of the rings and thought i’d give this a go, and have been pleasantly surprised so far.
There’s so many oversights with this game it’s insane. One being the buffs not lasting nearly long enough to make a difference with the amount of running and distance you must travel between objectives
Playing it rn, about 15 hrs in - quite enjoying it so far! Love the atmosphere, crafting and exploring, attention to lore and detail, and combat is simple yet pretty fun. The biggest disappointment so far has been building though - I love building stuff in games, but here it feels just so clunky and unsatisfying tbh. I wanted to enjoy it and once spent about an hour trying to build 2nd floor with stairs on my base, and it still looked so ugly - so eventually I gave up and just avoided building anything complex after that, sticking to exploration and combat. It's a shame really, but still quite a nice game
Im currently going through the game, and I want to preface this, for MY SITUATION, it’s pretty great. I’ve only recently decided to get into survival games, and though I’ve played Minecraft, it’s not really what I’m looking for. I’ve a pretty average fan of LotR and wanted something to ease me into the survival genre, and I think Return to Moria is doing a good job at that, specifically cuz it’s NOT trying to reinvent the wheel and it has great lore and a story to dig my teeth into while surviving the mines. I’m gonna keep playing and look more into games like Valheim after I’m done.
I think saying it flew under the radar is being kind. Like if i hadnt randomly stumbled into it , i wouldve literally gone on with my life never having heard of this game lmao.
I remember being so hyped for this game... Then it shits the bed with the Epic Store launch, the odd feeling combat and other stuff... But it has so many positives, the lore tidbits, the locations, the singing of shanties, the Khuzdul implementation... It angers me that it had so much potential.
I am actually really digging this game. There are not to many games in the Lord of the Rings universe and I feel like this fits perfectly. Anytime spent in Middle Earth is time well spent IMO. Sure it's not perfect but I think what the developers came out with is a great game. I really hope they continue to update it and release more cool stuff. Overall I am having a blast!
Been playing the game for hours, and just watched your video. I didn't know there was a fast travel mechanic either, and I still have yet to find the black diamond. I was feeling the same way when it came to building multiple bases and having to travel back n forth, it's getting annoying, so I can't wait to get that black diamond now because of how annoying it's becoming moving all over the place.
Have to play it coop, alone it's quite the mess, even after improvements. It got some probs here and there (for example why you need absurd amount of black diamonds for things like... building a ladder), but the main problem I had was the last part, where you suddenly got no statues anymore and no recipes. By this the actual usable weapons at the end (because everything else hist like a wet noodle), were limited for no real reasons, too. Overall it would be nice if the game gets expanded by actual rebuild and maybe trade - and some further build up beside random enemies warping into your base, but for example a real defense map, where you have to build up a fortress and alike against invading ord hordes. That monster just spawn in your camp and start to gnaw at your stuff is more annoying than anthing else.
As one who has gone through the whole game I can say that I think it is a solid game. Despite some bugs and the combat being rough at times I thoroughly enjoyed the game. The story was good and the lore bits they put in I really loved. But the gameplay is lackluster compared to many other games. To me it is only worth picking up if you are a fan and can immerse yourself in the environment and the lore. Other than that, the gameplay alone does not warrant 40 bucks. For people complaining about the base building once you unlock fast travel you can build wherever you want. Towards late game I just built in one area I wanted to build in and used fast travel, which you can get pretty early.
I think they should allow you to unlock fast travel earlier on, because otherwise it just ruins the early game experience. I haven't got to the end of the game yet, but I'm still enjoying it, so I'm happy to hear that it wont be a waste of time :)
@@sawmanUK you can unlock fast travel pretty early you just have to get lucky. In the elven quarter if you get lucky enough to get a black diamond from one of the camps you can get it then. If not then you are guaranteed to unlock it in the mines. It does suck moving from the first camp to the elven quarter but after that it should be fine unless you find another place to build.
I was really upset by farming in this game. It's sort of similar to Valheim where you put 1 and get 3 more, but at the same time it just seemed to be somehow bugged and didn't work properly. When I've planted 1st crop it grew in 5 minutes or so, after planting it second time I played for 2 real life hours and found it on stage 1/4 upon returning. Then I've decided to check for Elbereth's blessing and didn't find any (after 4 ingame days) even though it should grow by the time according to ingame description...
it's 2024 man, loud doesn't automatically = funny anymore lol some of that shit peaked wayyyyy too high =p overall great video and agree with review completely though
It's such a shame that the Lord of the Rings license is used to create these half-baked games that could be brilliant with more funding and a longer development cycle.
Return to moria was very good. I played through the entire campaign with a friend and we got 100 hours of lots of fun. The combat is janky. But the exploration, building, and crafting were AWESOME. My friend is insane about dwarves and moria and such. So when they got all the landmarks right and in mostly the right places he was super excited at the attention to detail. The singing while mining, and the dwarves talking in khuzdul were all amazing touches. It's a very good game and not "Half baked" in any way.
@@jairusstrunk94 what exploration what building ? Game is huge waste of time. You do the same exact thing over and over again. Run around get ores run around get ores all this game is. Game has potential just not with the current studio.Whole game right now feels like 2013 rp game.
@captainlongdik8724 youve just described the survival crafting genre. If you don't like the genre that's cool. You do you. But it's good for people who LIKE the survival crafting genre. You can say that same thing about every game in this genre. Minecraft, valheim, terraria, blockstory, etc etc ad nosium. You get ores, craft gear, so you can explore, to get ores and craft gear. If you don't like the basic point and game loop that's on you. What exploration? Moria you dimwit. A faithful recreation of a massive Dwarven settlement. The doors of durin, the dimril gates, dwarrowdelf, the whole time we played we were super excited finding new rooms and signs of the fellowship and ranger camps. Find cool spots to build bases in. It was great. This isn't a $70 triple A game. I'm not sure what you expected but it's priced at rhe same level as minecraft and valheim for a reason. Easily worth the $30
@@jairusstrunk94 Look primate im gonna try to explain it short and simple. What i described is mediocre game that pretends to be a survival game . Know the difference. Whole game is empty there is nothing to explore other than few locations. %90 of the map is copy paste same assests with little bit changes there and there. Those few easter eggs was so insignifiant i didnt even notice at first because of how bad the game design is. Other than that games story is nonexistent whole story felt cheap. As i said earlier game has potential not with the current studio. Game is right in its early access in terms of features,gameplay and exploration. Adding few well knowed locations doesnt make the exploration good if you had any idea what you are talking about. There is a reason game sits on poor reviews and sold poorly. This game is not worth $ 30 dollars by any means .
Yes, compared to Valheim its been a pretty inflexible survival game. To me this has more of an early 2000's on the rails rpg with survival lite and tedium resource gathering heavy.
Having a blast! Love the lotr lore for sure. I definitely agree with most points still. I just find myself wanting more insude the game. I actually enjoy the daunting casms but more stuff to f with would be a plus. Also im glad i dont have to drink but it not being a mechanic is odd for a survival game. I know they have the ale. But still. Even if it seems redundant it almost doesnt feel complete lol have just about every other survival mechanic.
I haven't watched to the end but I don't think you mentioned the fact that it costs 40 euros and thats pretty crazy for that game, I love Tolkien's universe, but for how much you have to pay for it, the game sucks. I bought it for 15 euros and for that price its decent. For 40 euros its embarassing, the algorithms are so transparent, everything is repetitive, the "towns" are all exactly the same, entrances to darkest deep are always the same, the same 3 spiders at the bottom, its all the same, every single forge you discover is the same, everything is the same, you can't name tag your portals so you have to remember them if you make like 3 in one area, if you destroy the middle wooden bit at the goblin spawner and move to another area, come back, the goblins are gone (alg. transparency) when i was playing the game when it came out on PC, you couldnt finish the game, because the game wouldnt recognize that you finished one particular quest, the wolves (before first patch) ... omg.. there was more wolves in flipping Moria than in entire middle earth it seemed.. they fixed it, and they are surprisingly skilled at finding you wherever you're hiding, quite literally walking towards you in such transparent manner... Buy it if you love Tolkien, otherwise they game would have been dead already. Its just the LOTR label put on it that makes the game playable
I just bought Gollum for a fiver lol Both youngest daughter and I have zero day LotRO accounts, my daughter has my lifetime founders account which I was gifted by Codemasters for being an alpha lead tester and I have a second founders without lifetime for my own messing about with, abs love RTM esp the post game building and I have been told by the firm the third mountain IS coming as is Xbox release so hold on folks more is on way from the devs of RTM.
def wanna try this again cause I did on release and as soon as I got to the character screen I knew the game was some cheap cash grab the customization was just awful and they all had such baby faces and then I play it and the whole game feels on rails with only being able to mine or build what they say and the combat and progression seemed bad and like i’d never stumble upon and forgotten creatures or lore and it just makes me wanna play valheim. Like you can’t come out with a survival game now and have it not be as good as valheim and you can’t finally bring us a LOTR game after all these years and have it pale in comparison to a game like LOTR return of the game made years ago smh 🤦♂️
It has nothing to do with other launchers its that Epic Games buys these devs out for temporary exclusivity which a lot of people including me dislike a lot. So I personally wont buy any Epic Games title or play on their store as it is a anti consumer practice as I like my games to be in 1 launcher and I dont need 6 libraries and 6 launchers on my PC...
The building system and procedural generation of some parts of map kinda disappointing in game. First of all - the integrity of structures what already generated in the game is pretty low! If you dare to set up camp in one very appealing house there is a HIGH chance that ONE SINGLE PUNCH can destroy one little specific block of the wall and that cna cause a massive fall of building! All that generated buildings in game just ignoring simple game laws of integrety and if something broke all building crumble. And apperently there are some parts of floor and celing that completley invulnerable! You can't demolish it in any cases so you will unable to build someting new there or just repare whats was destroyed. Second part - wery poor building system itself. Basicaly you able to build simple boxes with windows and some fansy decorations and collums. You can't ajust angles realy, there only two sides so you locked in 90 and 180. And whats makes it even worse - even in comperesen with Valheim you can't build farther that thre wall pieces up or two pieces of floor on the sides. And i even didn't mentioned very poor list of decor. And finaly locations... i know that making survival game realy includes procedural generation of map, but... it just feel kinda off when whe speeking about Moria! That place a solid enstablished in history of middle-earth and making it almost completley procedural generated is a very poor decision. All what we have is Durin's Gate, the Bridge , the Chamber of Mazarbul, Durin's Higway and Tomb of the Kings. There is nothing memorable in all places here, they all just look the same. Even if we talked about Durin's Bane, you can't realy tell if there are walked Balrog some time ago. All damage what he maked just look the same in every place in Moria. I wish this game have better. I realy wish. Maybe in some future game will be changed in a good way, well see. But some aspects of in is already can't be uprooted.
Hate to break it to you but their is no Balrog. Remember Gandalf killed it in the movies and this game takes place many years after the events of Lord of the Rings.
A GTA Lord of the Rings would be on another level. There's been rumour for years that GTA is doing a medieval title but i guess we'll find out in 10 years. I have played Cyberpunk just not that much and quite some time ago... new review for 2024 maybe?
@@sawmanUK i just started, its been fun… they dropped new dlc in December and redid a lot of the game… This is the second game I have played where I dont skip dialogue (the other being red dead)
tried it for 2 hours might've been a good game 15 years ago but 2023-2024 it's basically a art exhibitition since the only thing worth doing is looking around in this game. combat is super outdated to current standards, building is just awful, like mentioned there's no reason to invest time into building something you can appreciate like in others game due to you constantly moving places. This game should've gone for an rpg dragons dogma type route where you're just exploring, gearing up and more story focused etc. This game stands no chance as a survival building game since you're just so limited. wasted potential
This game was extremely shallow in content. No npc's no tameable animals, you can complete the campaign in a day and the sandbox mode is even smaller than the campaign. You can't repair many structures and monsters can spaen in your bases.
It's a simple game, I really love the atmosphere of the mines. You can literally hear the goblins scheming in the dark and, with a bit of caution, avoid enemy patrols
lmfao 🤣 I straight game raged in the very very beginning like what the fuck why am I not building correctly it’s misaligned what! Is misaligned and I almost broke the controller and I couldn’t figure out how to regain my health. I questioned myself as a gamer and tried again and got better at it. I think there’s no directions on how to do things so you kind of guessing unless you UA-cam it
@@sawmanUKI never mentioned space. If you don’t have an answer that’s fine, just say you don’t. And just so you know, all the balrogs fled when Morgoth was defeated. The one in Moria was like the only one that didn’t just disappear.
Wait you got health from berries...i want a refund... i literally have to run all the way back to camp every time to get health back(whitch results in me dieing more then actually progressing!!🤦☠️)
if combat would had not been so childish (lack of blood, dismemberment, execution animations) and ranged combat so lame, it could had been really fun. now making comical attack spins and goofy animations in general, orcs and goblins fall down without a splat of blood, and disappear soon. meh
Spoiler: The Final boss fight was an overall dissapointment really. In the First stage, you have get bombarded with minions which in their quantity are more dangerous then the boss itself, it simplyy spits fireballs. And then there comes the second Phase of the boss fight, no minions, but almost the same mechanic. Destroy the Pillars so you can Progress in the fight. And once you did, you hit the Dragon a few times and she´s slayed. The first stage is annoying cause once your armor is ripped, you die constantly, the second part is laughable easy. All in all a big dissapointment in a gamers point of view tbh.
The volume and craziness of parts of this video make it very hard to watch. You almost blew out my eardrums with the "singing" part that went on for too long.
Thanks for watching and don't forget to check out my new Website!
- www.DogWaterGaming.com
Also if you like Survival RPG's, maybe check out my review of Len's Island ua-cam.com/video/zpS8Roaw7ek/v-deo.html
SPOILERS
There is no balrog in this game because gandalf killed it, remember?
I have finished the game numerous times and to me this game is EXTREMELY shallow as a survival game.
Once you defeat the boss, no more hordes happen in the game.
There is nothing in the game that you need to get after you kill the boss. Nothing to collect, nothing to find, nothing to build, nothing. There is NO reason to continue to play other than to start all over again in a new world.
"If i dont see a Balrog ill be pretty disappointed"
Someone needs to rewatch Two Towers...
Frfr
I’m actually having a great time playing this game. Don’t take it so seriously. Fun exploring, fighting and working through the story line.
Yea , same but I can’t help but feel it could of done more 🥺
Until you finish the game and all there is to do is mine not much action after
@@everesth2751sandbox mode now.
@@sawmanUK how much more did you expect for $30? Isn't expecting even more a bit greedy on your part?
@@jairusstrunk94£30 should be enough for a fully fleshed out game the prices of games today have screwed with your head enough to think wanting a good game for £30 is greedy like £30 isnt a decent amount of money
the guys from deep rock galactic would have done a good job. Wonder how it would look if they did it.
Depends on if they got all the lore and locations right. No amount of good combat or destructible environments would have saved them from the fan backlash. My friend cared far more about having everything where it's supposed to be than he did about anything else.
From a Tolkien fan perspective....it actually has surprisingly a lot of lore references :) which isn't always treated well in video games, oh alright maybe exaggeration but the game is treating the book lore quite decently heheh. The game is indeed set in the early Fourth Age so there's some open space for new adventures...and we know that eventually in Fourth Age Dwarves did reclaim Moria according to Tolkien hehe...and it's obvious that the game is trying to make things feasibly fit, as we see that effort of Gimli is believable large scale project with Dwarves carving up new facade of the West-gate and so on and with the doors blocked they tried tunneling above hehe. Alright more seriously it's a fun game and it's nicely correlates with books sure it adds and expands on stuff extrapolating on things inventing some new stuff etc. but a lot of it has some basis. Not to mention....mining song are always for the win............especially if your character can sing actual songs written by Tolkien hahah. The survival crafting is usually not the type of games I was personally interested in...but damn it's fun. Well so far there's no proper open world RPG set in Middle-earth so let's get with what we have :).
Lore references, When I found the Sunions, I thought, that doesn't sound like Tolkien reference at all, but who knows, I could be wrong...
@@vidstarr a weird thing to focus on :) but alright, obviously the game invents some things like that, or stretches the lore in places making Moria so crowded wtih creatures :) or inventing the new plants or crops (Aule's bloom etc.) I was more thinking about all the references to Balin's expedition and the members of that, the way it uses the lore in general, like the history of Moria, the influx of DWarves of Belegost and Nogrod in the early Second Age leaving the signs of those other clans was obvious extension , the Celebrimbor and Narvi references, and so on and on :). The things that were nicely explored like the crystal lamps (as Gimli said of the lights, the "shining lamps of crystal hewn" in the song of Durin and "we should make lights such lamps as once shone in Khazad-dum" etc.), the general reverence of the Dwarves for Durin and the lore on his 'awakenings' and 'reincarnation' so to speak :).
Play lotro
liked the vid more when you were just talking and sharing your thoughts. liked it less when there was constant meme spam. just one man’s opinion.
totally agree with you
My friend and I are in the end game now. We enjoy teaming up on survival games like this and Valheim, and Return to Moria is proving to be no different. The learning curve is atrocious, but as a veteran gamer it's kind of refreshing to not be led along through the game mechanics. We're 4/5ths of the way through the story line and still discovering new mechanics that would have helped us Day 1. That has it's own fun. It has it's bugs for sure (random crashes, mapstones not working, and buggy building placement) but the storyline is fun and engaging which keeps us driven to persevere. It needs a lot of polishing, but this is a solid platform on which the developers could create a top tier game. Will that happen? Unlikely. But it's a lot fun for the time being.
I enjoy this game. I’m into it, it fits me. I tried to play Valheim and I did for a bit, it was ok but way too much and way too grindy for me. This game could use some polish maybe a little more love with certain aspects but it works. I play solo and with one or two people at a time. I feel coop is a good experience.
I played entire campaign earlier this year.
I do love the concept and setting. Dwarves are among my fave fantasy races and LotR is by far my fave fantasy setting. So its a match made in heaven if you ask me.
But yeah. When a friend asked me about the game I said that I enjoy it but building system is not very fun. I had one big base - one of the ancient foundries with lots of stuff in it. Simply because the location looked nice and was easy to transform into a nice looking base.
I tried to build house from scratch once and never made such a foolish mistake again. No matter what I did celing broke again, again and again. It was a chore.
Now game has Alpha Sandbox and reportedly there were improvements to building system. I would like to try it but prefferably with friends.
For me the biggest sthrenght of this game is its campaign.
Played this on release, as im a mad LOTR fans! (They need to remake ROTK) Got all the way to the end zone discovering the final boss and i just fizzled out. The LOTR love couldnt even make me finish the game.
Love ya content dude, looking forward to seeing what you create this year.
Sad to hear it fizzles out , but I’m hoping the mod scene do something with this , it would be crazy in a middle earth setting
@@sawmanUK Great point. Fingers crossed they go crazy with it!
The Final boss fight was an overall dissapointment really. In the First stage, you have get bombarded with minions which in their quantity are more dangerous then the boss itself, it simplyy spits fireballs. And then there comes the second Phase of the boss fight, no minions, but almost the same mechanic. Destroy the Pillars so you can Progress in the fight. And once you did, you hit the Dragon a few times and she´s slayed. The first stage is annoying cause once your armor is ripped, you die constantly, the second part is laughable easy.
All in all a big dissapointment in a gamers point of view tbh.
Been playing this game with my gf, we're thoroughly enjoying it, we're just starting to make some steam in the lower deeps, got a few of the recipe's, just trying to get ready for the watcher in the water
I truly do enjoy the lord of the rings, specifically the Dwarves and their lore. I am waiting for this to come out on Xbox so I can play it with my friends, but I have played it solo. The only thing I have struggled with is finding the monuments. I usually am moving on to the next levels without a helmet, or some type of armor because I just don’t find the monuments I’m supposed to rebuild. It can be frustrating, but the game is interesting and I bet it will be better with my buddies. Great review and I love how you went over everything in just under 13 minutes!
Looking forward to a video update after the huge patch released today.
I want to check this out, but the price point and the Epic store exclusive have stopped me so far. And I'm a massive LOTR nerd. And I love Valheim. I appreciate the honest review and as someone with similar interests! I really hope to eventually check this out and also that it has some updates to correct a few things but yeah - no rush here. Thanks for the review.
I'd say picking it up on Epic is a decent idea right now, purely because their holiday coupon is still going on, combined with the game being on sale, you can get it for like $15 or something along those lines. :)
I got the game at launch for its full price and I'm fairly satisfied with it (some of the points in the video I sort of disagree with, some strongly agree), but now it's even better as a few days ago a friend of mine picked it up after seeing the coupon + sale combo!
bought it on epic over xmas for $12. Get over your epic hate and just play games lol
I just got the game on sale today, and have played for a few hours and i’m really enjoying it so far! I’m not huge on crafting survival games usually but i love lord of the rings and thought i’d give this a go, and have been pleasantly surprised so far.
There’s so many oversights with this game it’s insane. One being the buffs not lasting nearly long enough to make a difference with the amount of running and distance you must travel between objectives
You can always carry come coal, stones, black diamonds and create a base with a teleport point in any place of the mine.
Playing it rn, about 15 hrs in - quite enjoying it so far! Love the atmosphere, crafting and exploring, attention to lore and detail, and combat is simple yet pretty fun. The biggest disappointment so far has been building though - I love building stuff in games, but here it feels just so clunky and unsatisfying tbh. I wanted to enjoy it and once spent about an hour trying to build 2nd floor with stairs on my base, and it still looked so ugly - so eventually I gave up and just avoided building anything complex after that, sticking to exploration and combat. It's a shame really, but still quite a nice game
Im currently going through the game, and I want to preface this, for MY SITUATION, it’s pretty great. I’ve only recently decided to get into survival games, and though I’ve played Minecraft, it’s not really what I’m looking for. I’ve a pretty average fan of LotR and wanted something to ease me into the survival genre, and I think Return to Moria is doing a good job at that, specifically cuz it’s NOT trying to reinvent the wheel and it has great lore and a story to dig my teeth into while surviving the mines. I’m gonna keep playing and look more into games like Valheim after I’m done.
I think saying it flew under the radar is being kind. Like if i hadnt randomly stumbled into it , i wouldve literally gone on with my life never having heard of this game lmao.
Love this review brother some parts have been laughing on the floor to way too hard. Probably gonna pick it up. 😂
I remember being so hyped for this game...
Then it shits the bed with the Epic Store launch, the odd feeling combat and other stuff...
But it has so many positives, the lore tidbits, the locations, the singing of shanties, the Khuzdul implementation...
It angers me that it had so much potential.
As a casual gamer, I enjoy this game. I don't get too hung up on the building stuff because I'm never in one place long enough to worry about it.
I enjoyed this quaint little game. Nothing to write home about, but it was fun enough for me to finish it.
I am actually really digging this game. There are not to many games in the Lord of the Rings universe and I feel like this fits perfectly. Anytime spent in Middle Earth is time well spent IMO. Sure it's not perfect but I think what the developers came out with is a great game. I really hope they continue to update it and release more cool stuff. Overall I am having a blast!
Been playing the game for hours, and just watched your video. I didn't know there was a fast travel mechanic either, and I still have yet to find the black diamond. I was feeling the same way when it came to building multiple bases and having to travel back n forth, it's getting annoying, so I can't wait to get that black diamond now because of how annoying it's becoming moving all over the place.
Oh so it's still this way. Because that was the reason I stopped playing it.
It's a good ~$15 game. I wouldn't spend more than that though.
Agreed!!!
Don't particularly care about the title in particular but A+ video. Pacing and editing always make me giggle. Please keep making content my dude.
Has anyone dealt with really, really bad performance once they actually got into the mines?? And if so, did you fix it???
Have to play it coop, alone it's quite the mess, even after improvements.
It got some probs here and there (for example why you need absurd amount of black diamonds for things like... building a ladder), but the main problem I had was the last part, where you suddenly got no statues anymore and no recipes.
By this the actual usable weapons at the end (because everything else hist like a wet noodle), were limited for no real reasons, too.
Overall it would be nice if the game gets expanded by actual rebuild and maybe trade - and some further build up beside random enemies warping into your base, but for example a real defense map, where you have to build up a fortress and alike against invading ord hordes.
That monster just spawn in your camp and start to gnaw at your stuff is more annoying than anthing else.
As one who has gone through the whole game I can say that I think it is a solid game. Despite some bugs and the combat being rough at times I thoroughly enjoyed the game. The story was good and the lore bits they put in I really loved. But the gameplay is lackluster compared to many other games. To me it is only worth picking up if you are a fan and can immerse yourself in the environment and the lore. Other than that, the gameplay alone does not warrant 40 bucks. For people complaining about the base building once you unlock fast travel you can build wherever you want. Towards late game I just built in one area I wanted to build in and used fast travel, which you can get pretty early.
I think they should allow you to unlock fast travel earlier on, because otherwise it just ruins the early game experience. I haven't got to the end of the game yet, but I'm still enjoying it, so I'm happy to hear that it wont be a waste of time :)
@@sawmanUK you can unlock fast travel pretty early you just have to get lucky. In the elven quarter if you get lucky enough to get a black diamond from one of the camps you can get it then. If not then you are guaranteed to unlock it in the mines. It does suck moving from the first camp to the elven quarter but after that it should be fine unless you find another place to build.
Fantastic game, probs more for the fans than hardcore gamers
I was really upset by farming in this game. It's sort of similar to Valheim where you put 1 and get 3 more, but at the same time it just seemed to be somehow bugged and didn't work properly. When I've planted 1st crop it grew in 5 minutes or so, after planting it second time I played for 2 real life hours and found it on stage 1/4 upon returning. Then I've decided to check for Elbereth's blessing and didn't find any (after 4 ingame days) even though it should grow by the time according to ingame description...
Thanks for giving a down to earth perspective on this game man
Worth-A-Sub 😉. Your humor is spot-on
I loved playing this game!
Thoughts on the new update?
it's 2024 man, loud doesn't automatically = funny anymore lol some of that shit peaked wayyyyy too high =p overall great video and agree with review completely though
I honestly really like it... my main gripe is just the combat isn't great
anyone know if it got better?
Graveyard keeper music is fire
Right🙌🏾
When this comes to steam, I'll consider it.
Thanks for the honesty. 2 hrs in and I do not like this game at all. I'm struggling to decide if I should spend any more time on it.
It's such a shame that the Lord of the Rings license is used to create these half-baked games that could be brilliant with more funding and a longer development cycle.
There’s always the Amazon Lotr MMO 🥹
Return to moria was very good. I played through the entire campaign with a friend and we got 100 hours of lots of fun.
The combat is janky. But the exploration, building, and crafting were AWESOME. My friend is insane about dwarves and moria and such. So when they got all the landmarks right and in mostly the right places he was super excited at the attention to detail. The singing while mining, and the dwarves talking in khuzdul were all amazing touches. It's a very good game and not "Half baked" in any way.
@@jairusstrunk94 what exploration what building ? Game is huge waste of time. You do the same exact thing over and over again. Run around get ores run around get ores all this game is. Game has potential just not with the current studio.Whole game right now feels like 2013 rp game.
@captainlongdik8724 youve just described the survival crafting genre. If you don't like the genre that's cool. You do you. But it's good for people who LIKE the survival crafting genre. You can say that same thing about every game in this genre.
Minecraft, valheim, terraria, blockstory, etc etc ad nosium. You get ores, craft gear, so you can explore, to get ores and craft gear.
If you don't like the basic point and game loop that's on you.
What exploration? Moria you dimwit. A faithful recreation of a massive Dwarven settlement. The doors of durin, the dimril gates, dwarrowdelf, the whole time we played we were super excited finding new rooms and signs of the fellowship and ranger camps. Find cool spots to build bases in. It was great.
This isn't a $70 triple A game. I'm not sure what you expected but it's priced at rhe same level as minecraft and valheim for a reason. Easily worth the $30
@@jairusstrunk94 Look primate im gonna try to explain it short and simple. What i described is mediocre game that pretends to be a survival game . Know the difference. Whole game is empty there is nothing to explore other than few locations. %90 of the map is copy paste same assests with little bit changes there and there. Those few easter eggs was so insignifiant i didnt even notice at first because of how bad the game design is. Other than that games story is nonexistent whole story felt cheap. As i said earlier game has potential not with the current studio. Game is right in its early access in terms of features,gameplay and exploration. Adding few well knowed locations doesnt make the exploration good if you had any idea what you are talking about. There is a reason game sits on poor reviews and sold poorly. This game is not worth $ 30 dollars by any means .
Happy new Year
Happy New Year to you to!
im playing it right now !!!!! this game is awesome !
Yes, compared to Valheim its been a pretty inflexible survival game. To me this has more of an early 2000's on the rails rpg with survival lite and tedium resource gathering heavy.
Don't read the book. I doubt you could comprehend most of it.
😂
Having a blast! Love the lotr lore for sure. I definitely agree with most points still. I just find myself wanting more insude the game. I actually enjoy the daunting casms but more stuff to f with would be a plus. Also im glad i dont have to drink but it not being a mechanic is odd for a survival game. I know they have the ale. But still. Even if it seems redundant it almost doesnt feel complete lol have just about every other survival mechanic.
Liked for the audio book
now thats a honest review
hahaha love your reviewing style :D
Glad you enjoyed!
I haven't watched to the end but I don't think you mentioned the fact that it costs 40 euros and thats pretty crazy for that game, I love Tolkien's universe, but for how much you have to pay for it, the game sucks. I bought it for 15 euros and for that price its decent. For 40 euros its embarassing, the algorithms are so transparent, everything is repetitive, the "towns" are all exactly the same, entrances to darkest deep are always the same, the same 3 spiders at the bottom, its all the same, every single forge you discover is the same, everything is the same, you can't name tag your portals so you have to remember them if you make like 3 in one area, if you destroy the middle wooden bit at the goblin spawner and move to another area, come back, the goblins are gone (alg. transparency) when i was playing the game when it came out on PC, you couldnt finish the game, because the game wouldnt recognize that you finished one particular quest, the wolves (before first patch) ... omg.. there was more wolves in flipping Moria than in entire middle earth it seemed.. they fixed it, and they are surprisingly skilled at finding you wherever you're hiding, quite literally walking towards you in such transparent manner... Buy it if you love Tolkien, otherwise they game would have been dead already. Its just the LOTR label put on it that makes the game playable
Gandalf killed the last Balrog, so no Balrogs in Moria 🤷♂
OP didn’t read the books haha. Loves LOTR tho (Pete’s films)
Goblins in Moria bro, goblins indoors, orcs are bigger outdoor goblins :P
And now that the Sandbox alpha is out, it's a bit more interesting.
Even if its that bad I would still buy it if they sell on Steam
Any news on this coming to Xbox?
If this launch on steam we can fix it with mods
I just bought Gollum for a fiver lol Both youngest daughter and I have zero day LotRO accounts, my daughter has my lifetime founders account which I was gifted by Codemasters for being an alpha lead tester and I have a second founders without lifetime for my own messing about with, abs love RTM esp the post game building and I have been told by the firm the third mountain IS coming as is Xbox release so hold on folks more is on way from the devs of RTM.
def wanna try this again cause I did on release and as soon as I got to the character screen I knew the game was some cheap cash grab the customization was just awful and they all had such baby faces and then I play it and the whole game feels on rails with only being able to mine or build what they say and the combat and progression seemed bad and like i’d never stumble upon and forgotten creatures or lore and it just makes me wanna play valheim. Like you can’t come out with a survival game now and have it not be as good as valheim and you can’t finally bring us a LOTR game after all these years and have it pale in comparison to a game like LOTR return of the game made years ago smh 🤦♂️
It has nothing to do with other launchers its that Epic Games buys these devs out for temporary exclusivity which a lot of people including me dislike a lot. So I personally wont buy any Epic Games title or play on their store as it is a anti consumer practice as I like my games to be in 1 launcher and I dont need 6 libraries and 6 launchers on my PC...
It had an update, I wonder if it made it better
Well there probably won’t be a Balrog remember in lord of the rings there is a spoiler down below if you haven’t watched it
Gandalf killed it
I laughed harder than I think I should have at the miner joke 😂
The building system and procedural generation of some parts of map kinda disappointing in game.
First of all - the integrity of structures what already generated in the game is pretty low! If you dare to set up camp in one very appealing house there is a HIGH chance that ONE SINGLE PUNCH can destroy one little specific block of the wall and that cna cause a massive fall of building! All that generated buildings in game just ignoring simple game laws of integrety and if something broke all building crumble. And apperently there are some parts of floor and celing that completley invulnerable! You can't demolish it in any cases so you will unable to build someting new there or just repare whats was destroyed.
Second part - wery poor building system itself. Basicaly you able to build simple boxes with windows and some fansy decorations and collums. You can't ajust angles realy, there only two sides so you locked in 90 and 180. And whats makes it even worse - even in comperesen with Valheim you can't build farther that thre wall pieces up or two pieces of floor on the sides. And i even didn't mentioned very poor list of decor.
And finaly locations... i know that making survival game realy includes procedural generation of map, but... it just feel kinda off when whe speeking about Moria! That place a solid enstablished in history of middle-earth and making it almost completley procedural generated is a very poor decision. All what we have is Durin's Gate, the Bridge , the Chamber of Mazarbul, Durin's Higway and Tomb of the Kings. There is nothing memorable in all places here, they all just look the same. Even if we talked about Durin's Bane, you can't realy tell if there are walked Balrog some time ago. All damage what he maked just look the same in every place in Moria.
I wish this game have better. I realy wish. Maybe in some future game will be changed in a good way, well see. But some aspects of in is already can't be uprooted.
Hate to break it to you but their is no Balrog. Remember Gandalf killed it in the movies and this game takes place many years after the events of Lord of the Rings.
I dont play any LOTR games, unless it was like a GTA - Numenor or maybe a Red Dead - The Shire….
Have you checked out Cyberpunk 2077 yet?
A GTA Lord of the Rings would be on another level. There's been rumour for years that GTA is doing a medieval title but i guess we'll find out in 10 years. I have played Cyberpunk just not that much and quite some time ago... new review for 2024 maybe?
@@sawmanUK i just started, its been fun… they dropped new dlc in December and redid a lot of the game…
This is the second game I have played where I dont skip dialogue (the other being red dead)
The only reason I haven't played this is cause it's on epic and looks like I still won't be playing it
tried it for 2 hours might've been a good game 15 years ago but 2023-2024 it's basically a art exhibitition since the only thing worth doing is looking around in this game. combat is super outdated to current standards, building is just awful, like mentioned there's no reason to invest time into building something you can appreciate like in others game due to you constantly moving places. This game should've gone for an rpg dragons dogma type route where you're just exploring, gearing up and more story focused etc. This game stands no chance as a survival building game since you're just so limited. wasted potential
honestly valhiem bores the shit out of me nut kinda love this one.
Didnt this game just come out? Lol
End of last year, I’m very late to reviewing it
Bro I literally can't stop laughing watching frodo jump into the cart 😂😂
I could have been so much more but they missed it out.
Where ASMR entire lotr books reading
10,069 likes needed :)
This game was extremely shallow in content. No npc's no tameable animals, you can complete the campaign in a day and the sandbox mode is even smaller than the campaign. You can't repair many structures and monsters can spaen in your bases.
Why is it not First Person. I really hoped for that.
It's a simple game, I really love the atmosphere of the mines. You can literally hear the goblins scheming in the dark and, with a bit of caution, avoid enemy patrols
You used "shocking" in a post 2023 video. disappointed. :P
I'm restoring Moria to is former glory.
One day i´ll come back and remind you to read fcking lotr
whu nerf things that werent even good it just enforces more meta exclusive choices. i feel like devs dont understand their own game
4:04 Audio balancing my dude 🙃
This game would've been better with AI companions
lmfao 🤣 I straight game raged in the very very beginning like what the fuck why am I not building correctly it’s misaligned what! Is misaligned and I almost broke the controller and I couldn’t figure out how to regain my health. I questioned myself as a gamer and tried again and got better at it. I think there’s no directions on how to do things so you kind of guessing unless you UA-cam it
You say you love LOTR but call Moria a mine and say you’d be disappointed if there isn’t another Balrog. Did you read the books?
You say you love Space, but have you ever been to the moon?
@@sawmanUKstrawmanUK lol
@@sawmanUKI never mentioned space. If you don’t have an answer that’s fine, just say you don’t. And just so you know, all the balrogs fled when Morgoth was defeated. The one in Moria was like the only one that didn’t just disappear.
Does any game start off good?
Neat.
Exactomundo 👍
Wait you got health from berries...i want a refund... i literally have to run all the way back to camp every time to get health back(whitch results in me dieing more then actually progressing!!🤦☠️)
The EDP joke 😂😂😂😂
if combat would had not been so childish (lack of blood, dismemberment, execution animations) and ranged combat so lame, it could had been really fun. now making comical attack spins and goofy animations in general, orcs and goblins fall down without a splat of blood, and disappear soon. meh
downvote for blasting my ears out with your unwelcome song at 4:30
This isnt reddit
@@sawmanUK congrats on making a video that damages ear drums. Would have been fine if you had moderated the volume.
@@Paul-zk9ou this comment damaged my brian 🧠
Spoiler:
The Final boss fight was an overall dissapointment really. In the First stage, you have get bombarded with minions which in their quantity are more dangerous then the boss itself, it simplyy spits fireballs. And then there comes the second Phase of the boss fight, no minions, but almost the same mechanic. Destroy the Pillars so you can Progress in the fight. And once you did, you hit the Dragon a few times and she´s slayed. The first stage is annoying cause once your armor is ripped, you die constantly, the second part is laughable easy.
All in all a big dissapointment in a gamers point of view tbh.
The volume and craziness of parts of this video make it very hard to watch. You almost blew out my eardrums with the "singing" part that went on for too long.
soz
it feels like it was done by non-gamer
Worth A Buy is awful.
That said, I think at the price when it hits half price it's worth it
Fucking he'll I'm crying 😂 lil hasbula going pew pew 😂 fucksake hahahahahaha 😂
9,571 more likes for him to do what he promised... great.
Such a shame we won’t hit the goal 🥹
Don't you worry, we'll do our best to reach it @@sawmanUK ✌
Solid review, but nothing "shocking". Sad, that one has to make clickbait titles to get clicks. Have my like. See ya
You might as well join my fortnite Lego survival world for the same thing for free 😢
Fortnite …Lego … I’m out 😹
@@sawmanUK coming from the guy with 10000 hours in minecraft
Building is lacking you dont get to make your own dwarf kingdom....bruh you are standing in one! Its fucking Moria lol😂