Good idea, poor gameplay.

[Chewy102]

(Got it for free on Epic so this is the only way I can review the game)

Not saying Im skilled in any way, but this game has a lot of issues that make it not fun to play at all.

Early game wasn't bad. Limited inventory made collecting resources a pain, but that's normal and once you get a proper backpack it becomes good. The more I play though the worse the game gets. I want to detail things. But every time I try this becomes a freaking wall of text with complaints.

Combat simply feels horrible from wonky attack timings and outright broken auto aim. Bows are just outright worthless to use as well. Basic arrows are just so weak. But you can't get better ammo from the lack of resources. Needing to use bronze a rather limited resource and feathers something you'll be lucky to find at all.. Crossbows aren't better. Silver is far more common, but still a rather limited resource to waste on something so weak.

Aiming in general is just bad for both bows and the piackaxe for some reason. The aiming diamond is to the left of the character, but some times it's in the middle. No consistency at all. This also effects bows as well on to of their weak damage.

Resources feel worthless to collect, required to have, and a waste to use all at once.

Base building feels both needed and hell to manage the further you. Not all that bad really, if travel wasn't so damned slow with everything being so far apart, and the lack of fast travel all thanks to black diamonds.

Black diamonds. My god are those horrible to gather. Starting off it wasn't bad, but it just takes so damned many of them to unlock progression! You want to use them for fast travel, and even have an option to use them for cosmetics. But don't you freaking dare use them or risk nearly getting soft locked waiting for random drops from gobos/orks from how many are required for progression.


The game could have been good. It's honestly held me for several straight days wanting to play it even with these issues and more I haven't bothered to list! But it's just getting worse and worse the more I play to the point of frustration to say the least.

[Bandy]

Just opinions? You know there is a place to leave steam reviews, just saying...

[Agarillobob]

Origineel geplaatst door Bandy:

Just opinions? You know there is a place to leave steam reviews, just saying...

if you read the post you would know that there is not that place for OP, While I heavily disagree with this being the only place for it, just looking at steam in a vacuum this is the best place for it

[Chewy102]

Origineel geplaatst door Bandy:

Just opinions? You know there is a place to leave steam reviews, just saying...

I don't own the game on Steam though. Kind of the first thing I said in fact.

[OddballOne]

ugh this is a great game, seems like you wanted to pick at everything. lol

[Agarillobob]

Origineel geplaatst door Odd:

ugh this is a great game, seems like you wanted to pick at everything. lol

its pretty mediocre and has 0 endgame tho on top of very weird and outdated design decisions. There is a reason this is a 25moneys launch title and was already given a way for the small price of your soul over on epic ♥♥♥♥ store

[Hexor Tyr]

Origineel geplaatst door Odd:

ugh this is a great game, seems like you wanted to pick at everything. lol

It really isn't though. Minecraft and Valheim have been out for some time and Return to Moria does everything that those two games don't.

[william_es]

Most of your critique all boils down to "skill issue".

Were you actually learning to play the game, or spending 99% of your time making a list of everything wrong with it. I think I know what the answer is.

Black diamonds are INCREDIBLY easy to get, when you start deliberately triggering hordes and farm them for drops. Which requires you to be good at fighting. Which, from your critique, you seemed NOT to be. More learning, less whining.

If you don't own the game on steam, then... keep your opinions to yourself. Or go share them on reddit, or any of 20 other places. Heck, go start your own website: "everything wrong with lord of the rings return to moria". This is a place for users of steam, who own the games on steam, to talk about playing the game. Please post your views on epic's forums.

[theaaronone]

I got it free on Epic as well, first game I actually bothered to install from them. I've enjoyed it quite a bit, warts and all. It was free to me, so I got my money's worth.

The combat gets more manageable if you use the right weapon with the right mobs. Some work better than others depending on what you're fighting.

I'm definitely guilty of not changing/upgrading my weapons until I've heard "I need a better weapon for this" a thousand times in a row because I'm brute-forcing my way through, not wanting to use one of the other more appropriate options... it's just how this game rolls.

Ranged weapons get better ammo, they both have a few tiers each - bows are faster, crossbows are stronger, though I agree the aiming is a bit off. In my experience it's because a hitbox just won't register the hit, I don't know if it's just not loaded or what, but I've sent a fair few bolts through an enemy to zero effect - if I run away and come back that usually fixes it. It's not ideal, but it works. There are a few loading issues I've run into throughout the game.

The resources are key and central to the main gameplay loop. The game wants you to collect and horde as much as possible, and they feed into your buildings, crafting stations, and gear. You're meant to be playing a Tolkien Dwarf after all, it's very much their thing. Feathers do take a fair bit of farming, I'll grant you that. I wish there were a farming option for them, like a bird house or something you can build that just generates feathers and eggs.

That said, you will get to a point around mid-game where you're rolling in black diamonds... more than you'll know what to do with. You can put a mapstone down at every nest and you'll be hopping around the map collecting feathers in no time. Once you beat the first Orc Town, you'll get a bunch, and those Orc encampments will pretty much always be a big influx for them going forward, plus they'll just drop more and more often as you go.

The base building IS finnicky. Getting things to snap together nicely can be difficult, and it's hard to justify building a lot of the more decorative pieces when they have no interaction, benefit, or purpose - ultimately just being clutter for the sake of clutter. It's down to personal taste.

My advice is to clear an area of everything you can, rocks, farm patches, furniture, orc structures, etc., then set a hearth down. The hearth will clear a lot of rubble that you can't, then build and load up a book/scroll case as much as you can, study it to minimize your building costs - then keep all your focus on making your floors perfect... don't even look at walls, lights, or decorations yet. Once you've got floors down, you can fill everything else in much more easily.

[Princess_Daystar]

Origineel geplaatst door Chewy102:

(Got it for free on Epic so this is the only way I can review the game)

Not saying Im skilled in any way, but this game has a lot of issues that make it not fun to play at all.

Early game wasn't bad. Limited inventory made collecting resources a pain, but that's normal and once you get a proper backpack it becomes good. The more I play though the worse the game gets. I want to detail things. But every time I try this becomes a freaking wall of text with complaints.

Combat simply feels horrible from wonky attack timings and outright broken auto aim. Bows are just outright worthless to use as well. Basic arrows are just so weak. But you can't get better ammo from the lack of resources. Needing to use bronze a rather limited resource and feathers something you'll be lucky to find at all.. Crossbows aren't better. Silver is far more common, but still a rather limited resource to waste on something so weak.

Aiming in general is just bad for both bows and the piackaxe for some reason. The aiming diamond is to the left of the character, but some times it's in the middle. No consistency at all. This also effects bows as well on to of their weak damage.

Resources feel worthless to collect, required to have, and a waste to use all at once.

Base building feels both needed and hell to manage the further you. Not all that bad really, if travel wasn't so damned slow with everything being so far apart, and the lack of fast travel all thanks to black diamonds.

Black diamonds. My god are those horrible to gather. Starting off it wasn't bad, but it just takes so damned many of them to unlock progression! You want to use them for fast travel, and even have an option to use them for cosmetics. But don't you freaking dare use them or risk nearly getting soft locked waiting for random drops from gobos/orks from how many are required for progression.


The game could have been good. It's honestly held me for several straight days wanting to play it even with these issues and more I haven't bothered to list! But it's just getting worse and worse the more I play to the point of frustration to say the least.

Of those./..

Black diamonds become super common around the crystal descent and further areas. Dont clear out the orc camp in the area so hordes spawn. I will say if you are playing the campaign mode alot of the stuff is limited to an annoying degree.

I agree with the following though:

Ranged weapons - these could use work, id love to see more progression here too. Crossbows are far better though.

Aiming can be annoying - the "Precise" Mining mode isnt useful since the diamond isnt displayed at all times, and the odd choice to need to aim to the right a bit because the crosshair for ranged weapons is offset slightly is annoying.

Base building - The "Stability" mechanic is dumb and needs gotten rid of. its caused my base to collapse more than once because parts of it that are higher up loaded first and since the lower parts didnt load in time they collapse and i have to rebuild. The unlock mechanic for stuff feels weird too. Instead of unlocking new building material types with the Star Metal hammer and the adamant hammer you unlock...more stuff in granite? why? Theres a ton of blocks that we cant access to build with - unlock those.

Lack of end game stuff - kinda agree? Once you beat the final boss it becomes a rebuilding game, but because of the base building issues thats annoying.

My other issues that you didnt list:
Not being able to plant all the plants (Grabbaple trees for example, blazeshrooms, sunken moss)
Trees not respawning(Elven trees dont respawn for me even if i sleep in the area, and the mushroom wood doesnt respawn either)
No ability to build something like a beehive or a birds nest to allow for the collecting of those materials.

Not being able to repair map objects - would be nice if we could rebuild certain places to perfection using a similar system to the Eastern Stairs, The Bridge, and the Seal. (Durins forge, the bridge outside of it, a number of other locations etc.) after beating the end boss i should say.

[scsimodem]

Origineel geplaatst door Princess_Daystar:

Not being able to repair map objects - would be nice if we could rebuild certain places to perfection using a similar system to the Eastern Stairs, The Bridge, and the Seal. (Durins forge, the bridge outside of it, a number of other locations etc.) after beating the end boss i should say.

Currently my most wanted feature. I see all these buildings across from the first camp in the Western Halls, and I want to rebuild them as they 'were,' but no.

[therealjohnconnor]

I like the game, but placing platforms is maddening - despite supposed dedicated commands, you have almost no control over what height they end up at. I end up placing 3-4 and just picking the best sometimes. Especially annoying when trying to do Deepest Deeps and the Crystal Descent in a tolerably timely manner.

[william_es]

Origineel geplaatst door Princess_Daystar:

Not being able to repair map objects - would be nice if we could rebuild certain places to perfection using a similar system to the Eastern Stairs, The Bridge, and the Seal. (Durins forge, the bridge outside of it, a number of other locations etc.) after beating the end boss i should say.

Did people not realize that a lot of the buildings in the game _can_ be repaired. You just use a repair hammer, and the percentage of health increases, all the environmental damage is removed. The appearance of a block is directly tied to the amount of damage it's taken. Repair it to 100% and it will look brand new again.

Plus, this is not a voxel game. If you tried to repair every building, it would turn into a laggy nightmare. All the player made changes would have to be shown, everytime you came into render range. It's works okay in voxel games like minecraft or 7 days to die, but would be horrible in this kind of game. In a voxel games, the entire world is made out of discrete blocks and the status of each block is recorded separately. Basically the map is a save file of changes, change one block and it stays that way forever.

[[90Nitra]StylesDavis]

im playin this with friends in coop and we played with the difficulty settings to make it just right a challenge. i personally disagree with all your points expect that fighting is clunky, yes it is. I would personally love more details and interaction in the world itself, as it feels empty too many times. No secret doors, no reveals. But still im hooked and will finish it quite soon with no complaints. Best

[scsimodem]

Origineel geplaatst door therealjohnconnor:

I like the game, but placing platforms is maddening - despite supposed dedicated commands, you have almost no control over what height they end up at. I end up placing 3-4 and just picking the best sometimes. Especially annoying when trying to do Deepest Deeps and the Crystal Descent in a tolerably timely manner.

Shift (I think) plus the scroll wheel moves an object's position up and down... It shows up on the right whenever you are placing a built object.

[therealjohnconnor]

LOL, scsimodem - have you ever actually tried it? 'Precision' placement means the platform oscillates about 10 yds above and below where it's intended to go every second. Honestly feels like the devs implemented this command for a laugh.