I was very hesitant about Return to Moria ("RtM") because I was so certain that it would be a lazy tie in game; relying on the player loving the setting so they overlook the weak gameplay (something you see so often in the Warhammer 40K tie-in games).

Still, I really enjoy survival crafter games and I love Lord of the Rings - particularly the undercooked Dwarven lore - so I dived in; I did not regret it. I am pleased to say that this is actually a really satisfying crafter game first that has a wonderful LOTR skin painted over it.

The mining is so enjoyable and they absolutely nailed the secret to making the repetitive grind fun; your character sings dwarven mining songs whilst they carve out new caverns in the wall faces. The sense of progression is also very well implemented and you'll be mining that ore to craft a better pickaxe to mine better ore!

Combat is not revolutionary but it is fun and doesn't feel tacked on. There are a variety of weapons (not many enemies but I don't mind that as it is lore accurate) and the game uses a very thematic armour system that also feels really good. In short, your character can become a solid warrior in his small metal box and you feel invincible! Until you then run into some poison or shadow wells that deal health damage and suddenly you feel like the little fleshy dwarf that you are underneath. It is a well implemented mechanic.

Such a small thing but the game comes with auto-crafting material containers as standard and it is such a fantastic quality of life feature that all survival crafters should have. I know it is not realistic to have materials magically teleport from your storage to the smelter etc but its a game, some of the silly busywork can be cut out! (For clairty: auto-pulling means that if you put your loot in a container within the zone of your base, then any crafting station you use in the base will be able to take materials from those containers. You don't have to learn the recipe, run around the base picking up all the necessary items before then using the station: simply interact with the crafter and it will tell you exactly what you can craft and then make it for you without ever needing to do the run around first.

The game does have some negatives but none are major at all so I shall just bullet point them:
- There are lots of different meals but they have no extra effects UNLESS you eat the "right" meal at the "right" time of day. This is very clunky to me though because you can't pick and choose the buff you might want. For example, if you want the health regen buff, you best hope that you are eating a meal at lunch time otherwise you just cannot get it (the eating times are breakfast, lunch and dinner). That said, the game does play more on drinking ales and they do serve specific purposes. It also gives you lots of ways to drink ale and that is a nice addition.
- The building mechanic can be a little clunky and there are much better building systems out there. It is serviceable and the visuals are awesome but the actual building system often feels like it is fighting against you.
- The horde mechanic gets old real quick. Please let me build barricades or something that stops these orc bastards just running through my kitchen.

Overall though, this game is a really good time. If you like survival crafters then it has enough new ideas to feel like it merits a place in the genre and if you like Lord of the Rings dwarves then it is just a fun time to run around Moria and see an interpretation of the great mansion.

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