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Goblins, orcs, and uruks spawn all over the map whenever you’re not looking, raise an army against you whenever your mining and exploration create too much noise, and assault your bases with intent to destroy them on a regular basis. It really feels like the designers did everything they could think of to prevent you from creating your own settlements, which is certainly a strange set of priorities for an adventure that’s literally all about rebuilding Moria.Įven worse is combat, which is a very dull pattern of blocking, stabbing, or shooting arrows with only a few weapon types that feel far too similar, which is a major ball to drop since Return to Moria has you doing a whole heck of a lot of it. In one case I spent half an hour trying to build a second story for my base that kept collapsing due to some unspecific rules regarding load-bearing structures, and in another I immediately realized the area I’d chosen was diagonally oriented on Return to Moria’s grid-based map, meaning every single structure I placed was chaotically incompatible with the layout of the room. And even when I did decide to go rogue and settle down in a place of my choosing, most of the time the building options were so frustratingly finicky it made me regret the undertaking. While you can set up a base from scratch almost anywhere, each new zone has at least one or two preset campsites that are extremely beneficial to use as starting points, making it very difficult to justify dumping a bunch of resources into making camp anywhere else. Unfortunately, the actual building, combat, and especially exploration that come along with that generally enjoyable grind all miss the mark, and all for the same reason: a shocking absence of freedom. This loop will be very familiar to anyone who’s stayed up too late running around in Minecraft or slaying giant spiders in Grounded, so we’re not exploring new territory here, but it’s extremely important that Return to Moria at least retreads that ground well. It’s easy to get lost in the continuous grind as you aim for the latest shiny thing that’s going to enable you to brave the next leg of the journey.

#MIDDLE EARTH IN MINECRAFT MAP DOWNLOAD UPGRADE#

You’ll need to acquire rarer raw materials, upgrade your gear, and improve the accommodations at your base to make the going easier, like a very necessary keg filled with beer to maintain morale. While at first you can get by with a dusty pickaxe and sword, you’ll quickly find yourself outmatched by enemies further down in the darkness, and therein lies the fun. That loop of exploring deeper and deeper into a dangerous mine filled with monsters as you collect resources and improve your character can be entertaining. The main thing Return to Moria gets right is the almost rhythmic pattern of gathering more and better resources to feed your growing base-building needs.

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