opinion: Soon there will be a new game in Middle-earth, dedicated without exception to the people of the little bearded worms.
I’m open with you guys: Summer Game Fest didn’t really pick me up. I like a lot of games, but I also have my own personal favourite genres or settings. And for me, there was just nothing at this event that really blew my mind.
Too much horror, too much sci-fi and anime. Where were the new strategy games? Where were the Middle Ages and classic fantasy? None of it to be seen. But luckily there are more events than Summer Game Fest this weekend.
Epic Games put on its very own show. Basically, there wasn’t much for me to discover here either – until I did come across a shiny vein of precious metal in the grey rock!
A new Lord of the Rings game has indeed been announced, and it seems to have been made for me. The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria gives me exactly what I’ve been wanting for years!
Khazâd aimênu! Give me dwarfs!
In reality, I am quite a tall person and also quite slim. I don’t usually wear a beard either and if I do, it’s certainly not long enough to reach my chest. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, I love to put myself in the place of dwarves in role-playing games. Ever since I saw Gimli on the big screen and especially devoured The Dwarves by Markus Heitz, the little people have been one of my absolute favourites!
That’s why I jump at any form of video game where dwarves are an option. For a long time now I have longed to explore caves, mine for metal and forge my own weapons as a bearded small warrior. So that’s exactly what I’ll be doing in early 2023 in the new survival game based around the abandoned Moria.
Return to Moria may not be a survival game with the very biggest production effort, but what I’ve seen so far really gives me hope. I’m on fire at the thought of creating my own dwarf and his magnificent beard in the editor. And a survival and crafting game with dwarves also just makes an awful lot of sense.
What other people are so well known for working their way through rock with pickaxes, being skilled craftsmen and at the same time able to defend themselves against all kinds of dark-blooded vermin? Dwarves are the perfect protagonists for this kind of game!
My love of dwarves has also led me to eagerly await the Return to Nangrim adventure game, which follows a very similar premise to Return to Moria. Even the names are almost suspiciously close. I explained what makes Nangrim special in a separate article:
Return to Nangrim: This game gives me something I’ve always missed about Elder Scrolls
This is how I want Lord of the Rings
Other than Return to Nangrim, though, the announcement of Return to Moria made me very happy for another reason: It’s set in Middle-earth, of course! And hardly anything occupies my mind as much every day as thinking desperately and a little sadly about how little the potential of Tolkien’s work is exploited in the field of video games.
Just the other day I lamented my misfortune to you again in a column. The main point was that Lord of the Rings games should be able to think simplistically, and that’s exactly what Return to Moria does. It takes an established gameplay principle and transplants the whole concept to Middle-earth. And then to such a familiar setting as Moria. The massive mine system under the Misty Mountains that I personally have always wanted to explore for myself. In the book, after all, Gimli sings of the lost treasures lost here in the vast tunnels – I want to find them all.
Even more exciting: Return to Moria is actually set after the War of the Ring. A time that, to my knowledge, has remained completely untouched in games until now. After all, the description talks about Lord Gimli, and the companion actually only gets that title after the destruction of the One Ring.
But this probably also means that we can forget about a conflict with the legendary Balrog. As is well known, he was smashed by Gandalf on the rock face of the mountain. But I don’t need that at all. I want to restore Moria to its former grandeur and make the shadow-infested place thrive again as gloriously as it once did in Balin’s time.
This gives me a freedom of development in Middle-earth that I have never had before. I have a say in how the world shapes itself after the War of the Ring. Or at least how Moria develops.
And I’m looking forward to that immensely.
