Originally released on October 23, 2024, on PC through Epic, Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria is an Open-world Survival title set firmly in the Tolkien universe. In my original playthrough and review of Return to Moria, I was impressed at the beautifully realized setting and immersive world that Free Range Games has created. While there were a few rough edges regarding combat and bugs that still needed squashing, Return to Moria was a title that, with a little polish, would become more than a diamond in the rough.
Fast forward almost a year and Return to Moria has finally made its debate on Xbox Series S/X to round out its full console and PC release. With a host of consistent updates over this last year, Free Range Games has continued to refine its survival title. With some great improvements to crafting, cooking, Sandbox mode and a lot of bug squishing, Return to Moria is shaping up to be the stellar title I had hoped for.
After a week of diving into the Xbox Series S/X version of the survival title, there is a lot to appreciate about how Free Range Games has handled its multiplatform progressive launch. For starters, new Xbox players will easily be able to join up with friends no matter the platform as full cross-platform functionality is available. In testing connecting with a friend on either console or PC was a simple matter of knowing the world invite code. As long as the host is in the game friends can easily join their game and pick up where they had left off.
In our case, we tested both PC and Console editions in a single world hosted on Xbox. It worked seamlessly and allowed us all to work together easily. World progress is saved on the host’s system, while your dwarf inventory and current gear can move between worlds with said character. It makes it easy to move between worlds and even helps fellow players who are just starting by easily carrying over new gear for them. While it lacks some of the cloud backup support players might be accustomed to, it works well in this setting.
“Return to Moria runs quite well on Xbox. There were no noticeable performance issues on my Series S and even when hosting a world in cross-play…”
The one potential downside to no cloud backup is that cross-save isn’t an option with Return to Moria. This can be good or bad depending on your use case. In my case, as someone who already has the title on PC, having the Xbox edition means my daughter can now join my son and I without needing to have another live account as I already have Xbox Pass on my Xbox. While some might be let down by the lack of cross-save, I’ve not found it to be an issue in on this particular title.
Return to Moria runs quite well on Xbox. There were no noticeable performance issues on my Series S and even when hosting a world in cross-play, there were never any communication issues between systems meaning the players in my world had a smooth, seamless gaming experience. It simply works, looks solid and performs well.
It is always interesting to see how developers will map controls to a controller when a mouse and keyboard are also options, especially in titles that have a lot of inventory and menu options. Thankfully Free Range Games has handled this challenge exceptionally well, with menu navigation and inventory management being an overall smooth and easy-to-use experience. Quick menu access via the DPad helps further simply the process with things like simple platform construction ( a staple for the title) being mapped to the DPad. It’s a smart system and reflects Free Range Game’s understanding of what the priorities for players are.
“…Free Range Games is continuing to refine its survival title, making Return to Moria an excellent game, especially for fans of Toilken’s world.”
Combat feels better this time around as well. In my original review, I noted that the combat mechanics needed some refinement notably with animations and targeting system. Both seemed to work much better this time around and using the controller to target and attack felt great. The only noticeable issue was aiming with the crossbow which still felt a bit more jarring than I would like.
Constructing bases is also fairly easy on the controller with a snap feature making it much more user-friendly. Thanks to the aforementioned menu systems, selecting blocks or items to construct is easy, and snapping blocks together works pretty well. The only noticeable issue was when building larger walls that needed to be stacked on top of each other.
While there are options to adjust the height while in construction mod, the thumb sticks lack the precision of a mouse to always line them up. I was still able to build but it did take longer for some of the precision construction. This is a critique of more of the limitations of using a controller than the game itself.
Overall though, Return to Moria on Xbox is a great addition. It offers more players a chance to dive into Free Range Games’s survival title. With solid performance and a great controller layout, coupled with easy-to-access cross-play and 8-player support, Free Range Games is continuing to refine its survival title, making Return to Moria an excellent game, especially for fans of Tolkien’s world.
