The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria

The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria is survival-crafting game featuring procedurally generated environments in the form of the mines of Moria, many of which are totally dark. Players have to excavate resources such as iron, gold, quartz, gemstones and Mithril of three mountains and craft tools, weapons, armor, structures and resources. To survive, players must hunt and harvest food, manage their sleep, temperature, will and noise levels and battle orcs, cave trolls and other creatures that reside in dark areas. Players can also build bases, uncover various ancient items including swords that glow blue when orcs are nearby, maps, crafting plans and magic amulets, and recover old mines and rebuild forges and halls. They also encounter various pathways which are blocked off with runes. The game also deals with the history of the dwarves, the different dwarf clans and the effect of Sauron's death on the orcs and has been described as post-apocalyptic.

The dwarves can be widely customized using a custom character creator. Next to the single-player mode one player can also host "their own Moria" to allow up to eight players to join an online cooperative multiplayer.[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]

The opening cinematic features the character Gimli leading the company of dwarves before losing contact with them at the Doors of Durin.[10][11]

The concept of Gimli leading a company of dwarves on a quest to retake Moria and forge new gates for the city Minas Tirith was already alluded to by Tolkien in the appendixes of the The Lord of the Rings novels.

The game is licensed by Middle-earth Enterprises.[2][3][12] The developer, California-based[13] Free Range Games, was inspired by games like 7 Days to Die, Stranded Deep, Subnautica, Valheim and The Forest.[4]

The team did extended research, held team book clubs and consulted with the Tolkien experts Corey Olsen, T. S: Luikart and David Salo, who also developed new Khuzdul phrases. They first assembled a small team of expressive concept artists, under art director Bradley Fulton to create 2D concept art.[8][9] Game director Jon-Paul Dumont said, that they wanted the game to "recreate the grounded, real-world setting of Middle-earth" and that they "combined these two ideas: expressive character designs with realistic materials, lighting, and animation to create a world that feels real, inhabited by characters full of life."[9] It also features a soundtrack of songs written and inspired by Tolkien.[6]

Gimli is voiced by John Rhys-Davies, who already portrayed him in the 2000s films.[10][14][11]

The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria was first revealed along with a short cinematic trailer[12] on June 10, 2022, at the 2022 Epic Games Summer Showcase. The game was originally planned to be released in spring 2023[3][4] and was eventually released on October 24, 2023 for Microsoft Windows. Versions for PlayStation 5. and Xbox Series X/S are scheduled for and for December 5, 2023 and early 2024 respectively.[15] The Windows version is exclusively sold on the Epic Games Store.

• Middle-earth in video games
• List of Middle-earth video games