The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria Review in Progress

ign.com:

The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria might lovingly depict one of the most recognizable fantasy worlds ever created, but to my surprise, that’s not actually the most recognizable thing about it. This is a survival game first and a Lord of the Rings game second, content to replicate all the familiar mechanics of the genre while leaning heavily on its Tolkien backdrop to compensate for a lack of original ideas. If you’ve played any survival game in the last 15 years, you’ll immediately know what you’re in for as you build bases, upgrade your pickaxes to mine better ores, craft armor and weapons to fight hordes of enemies, and run back home when it gets dark. The loop of exploring deeper and deeper into a dangerous mine filled with monsters as you collect resources and improve your character can be entertaining, but in the 20 hours I’ve played so far, there’s also no part of that tried and true blueprint that Return to Moria does better than any of the games that came before it.

Return to Moria’s story takes place during Middle-Earth’s Fourth Age, after the fall of Sauron and the conclusion of the War of the Ring – an interesting choice since this era has not been explored much at all in the canon. Everyone’s favorite dwarf and occasional projectile, Gimli (who is once again voiced by movie trilogy actor John Rhys-Davies), has called all the dwarf factions back to Moria in order to reclaim it from the goblins and orcs who have taken over. As one of those summoned dwarves, you and up to seven friends are sent into the menacing bowels of the lost kingdom to cook rat meat, decorate hastily assembled hovels, and juggle dozens of materials between haphazardly placed chests like the unrepentant hoarders you are. After an opening