Return to Moria: Release Date, Gameplay, & Trailers

The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria game gives you the chance to live out your dreams of becoming a Dwarf, delving into a mountain, and mining for great riches hidden away underneath the rocks. Although it’s a pleasant life, mining can be dangerous, especially as you delve into the forgotten fortress of Moria, which was overtaken by Goblins and Orcs.

You’ll be working together with a small group of Dwarves to retake this area once again. The game will not have an early access version, and will have a full release. This guide covers some important gameplay aspects, along with some insightful trailers for you to check out.

What Is The Return to Moria Release Date?

It has been confirmed by the Free Range Games development team that Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria will be released on October 24, 2023, for PC. Although it has been confirmed that Return to Moria is coming to consoles, specifically the PlayStation 5, the exact release date for this has not been shared, and we can expect an update in the future.

For PC players, you’ll need to go to the Epic Games Store to preorder the game. Unfortunately, it won’t be available to grab on Steam or other storefronts, but this might change in the future.

This is a co-op and multiplayer game, and you’ll be able to join your friends on your journey to clear Moria, making it habiting for Dwarves once again.

All Return to Moria Gameplay & Survival Mechanics

The realm of Return to Moria is a procedurally generated location. You can choose to party up with your friends or explore Moria by yourself in a single-player game. You’ll need to adventure into the dark of this area to harvest helpful resources, create powerful equipment to battle Goblins and monsters that assault you and build a robust location to create an outpost that can withstand these dangerous attacks.

The primary goal of Return to Moria is to rebuild the previous jewel of Khazad-dûm to its former glory, and that means taking on armies of Goblins, Orcs, and learning about the shadow dwelling underneath the mountain. With Moria being procedurally generated, restarting a new location means you’ll experience new threats and find things you did not experience on your first playthrough. Creating multiple worlds is a fun way to find new challenges to overcome with your friends and puts your creativity to the test.

Along with the helpful resources in the mountain, Return to Moria features magical objects and jewels you can find by digging into the mountain. However, this is a loud process, and the more noise you make outside of your camp, the more dangerous things become. You’ll have to carefully balance your time harvesting resources and shoring your defenses to survive the many evils awaiting you in the dark.

What Will Return to Moria Play On? All Platforms

So far, it has been confirmed that the first platform you can grab Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria on PC, but it should eventually make its way over to the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. However, release dates for these two consoles have not been confirmed by the development team, and we could see them come out sometime in the future, potentially in early 2024.

Will Return to Moria Have a Balrog?

A common question many Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria players have asked is if the game will feature a Balrog. Right now, we cannot confirm if a Balrog is in the game, or if it is not. When reading the description of the game, the developers do tease that there’s an ancient darkness awaiting at the bottom of the mountain. However, in the movie, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Gandalf killed the Balrog that was dwelling in the bottom of Moria. In theory, there shouldn’t be one there, but if there is one, it won’t be the same one that Gandalf fought in the books or the movies.

All Return to Moria Trailers

So far, only one trailer has been shared by the Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria development team. The video has been shared on their official website and the PlayStation YouTube channel.